Introduce quality testing for new hubbers before they can join.

1. 85

   innerspinposted 11 years ago

   Is it really viable to let anyone and everyone join HubPages? As hubs are now quality checked, why not make the first hub a test to see if they can join. It is obvious from hub hopping that people with little writing ability are publishing hubs. Surely they could be denied access to further publication, removing the need to QA them again. This may discourage spammers and the like, which would reduce pressure on the assessors and moderators in the longer term.

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      Stove And Homeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree. I am tired of seeing people publish hubs for an English-speaking audience who can't even write legible English. Then those Hubbers somehow just don't get it, and are surprised that they don't generate traffic or make money.
      
      How about learning English?! It's like me trying to write articles in French when I just took a few semesters of it and can barely remember the language.

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         Deltachordposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I agree.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 11 years ago

   This has been suggested many, many, many times!    HubPages has always said that it would be too labour-intensive, and that writers would be unhappy if they had to wait for their Hubs to be published.
   
   Infobarrel, Wizzley and Zujava all have a probationary period of some kind, but they are much smaller sites.

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      innerspinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry if it's been suggested before. My point is that the hubs are now quality assessed anyway, so how does it make for much more work?  Some of the hubs on the hopper are cringeworthy. I can't see that it would take much extra work to announce that your first hub would be assessed before publishing, then you may or may not be accepted as a hubber. Maybe I'm not seeing the bigger picture, but the emphasis I hear is that quality counts. Are new hubbers getting this message, or are they thinking anyone can publish anything on site?

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         Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not saying it makes sense, I'm just saying that I've been here a few years and I've heard the same message from HubPages every single time it's been brought up.

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      SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The funny thing is, most HP writers (except for the speshul chosen few) are already waiting for their hubs to be published and many of them are already angry about it.

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3. 94

   jansharesposted 11 years ago

   I had a similar suggestion about an orientation period several weeks ago in the "Retire Hubberscore" thread, complete with measures and criteria. I never saw a response. I think it makes so much sense.

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   Simone Smithposted 11 years ago

   We like the idea of HubPages being an open publishing platform- it means a lot to us that anyone can join and have a shot at winning a wide readership.
   
   We've decided to improve the quality on HubPages not by turning people away, but by only Featuring Hubs that are of high quality (as determined though our Quality Assessment Process: http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/Featured-Hubs).
   
   Personally, this seems more fair to me, as there really is a learning curve when it comes to writing online, and it would be a shame to turn talented people away from the get-go just because they don't 'get it' right away.

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      innerspinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for replying, Simone. I'd read a couple of things recently that seemed to say assessors were snowed under with work, so thought that it would be a way of ultimately reducing the work.

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   WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

   Surely, though, it would be obvious from those first attempts that someone simply does not have a sufficient command of English to produce acceptable content, is using a spinner or is only here to promote one thing!
   
   At the moment, instead of targeting the above individuals, you are punishing and demotivating people who may be producing excellent, well-researched and knowledge-filled hubs, but who choose to write on minority topics, lack the SEO and marketing knowledge to succeed in the search engines, lack the time or are not willing to keep pushing themselves on social networks, or any combination of these. There is nothing wrong with the quality of their hubs; the authors simply have not found how to suceed in driving traffic to them.

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      cartondamageposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for supporting newcomers.  It is difficult enough to discover a forum willing to accept unknowns, without adding censorship based on bias. So many fellow Hubbers are experienced, with strong backgrounds in social media and marketing techniques.  It may surprise you to know that even in this great and wonderful year of 2013 there are still those of us who remain uninformed about the technological advances made over the past few years; those of us who still want to believe that if we do our best, put ourselves 'out there' and trust in The Hub good things will happen.  I, for one, claim those good things and look forward to meeting the challenge of Hubbing one small step at a time.

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6. 81

   Stina Caxeposted 11 years ago

   I like that anybody can publish their writing here.  I do think that for people who aren't very good with their quality, this gives them the opportunity to get valuable feedback and learn from some really amazing writers.  I know that personally I have learned a lot since I started out here and I credit that to all the people here who have helped me and inspired me.

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      JimTxMillerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well said, Stina! If this is truly to be a learning experience, then it should remain open to all.

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      Millionaire Tipsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I really like the idea that anyone can publish here as well.  It is less intimidating and you don't feel like you have to measure up to some high standard that you are not aware of.
      
      However, I think that we do need to provide more and better feedback to help Hubbers reach that bar, or at least know where it is!  I also think that the Featured concept (and especially the non-featured concept) should be clearly communicated with all Hubbers, especially the new ones.  They need to know that they are wasting their time if they don't make an attempt or manage to get that bar.

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   meloncauliposted 11 years ago

   Loving the new "Need Some Goals" when editing. Hopefully this will help and encourage writers generally.

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8. 0

   Ghost32posted 11 years ago

   I'm 1,000% in favor of NO pre-test requirement to join HubPages, just keeping it as is.  And I'm hardcore about that.  If HP had been utilizing such an "entrance bar" when I joined 5 years ago, I'd have flipped the site the mental finger and gone somewhere else so fast I'd have left skidmarks on the screen.
   
   Nor would I join ANY other "entrance-test" site today (if HP were for whatever reason out of the picture), nor in the future, not EVER. 
   
   Yay, TEAM!  You've definitely got this one right.

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   ThompsonPenposted 11 years ago

   I agree to a point, but I do disagree a bit. I feel like since joining Hubpages, and BECAUSE of joining hubpages, my writing has really improved. When I first started out on here, I just wanted to get my short stories out there. Ive always been against writing articles because I always felt like there was a format that one had to follow, and I wasn't willing to follow it. However, since joining, as I've said before, I've come to really enjoy writing articles, and find I write more factual or opinion pieces than I do fiiction, and I enjoy it. Hubpages has helped me to expand my skills, and I don't think i would have gotten on here had I been "quality checked" upon my sign up.

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    LisaMarie724posted 11 years ago

    I think both sides have valid points but I lean towards not having to undergo a 'quality test'.  I think all of us here on hubpages have improved since we published our very first hub.  You learn as you go and Hubpages gives everyone the chance to learn the craft and we are like a family here eager to help out the newer hubbers so that they will get better.

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    maryeasonposted 11 years ago

    Good points for both arguments. I was "hub hopping" and saw some terrible hubs. If they didn't look good right at the beginning, I didn't bother reading more.

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       Deltachordposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Exactly.

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       JimTxMillerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       And that's fine. I do the same thing. But I'm not going to say someone should not be allowed in based on one lousy hub.

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