Is this necessary?

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  1. profile image0
    summerberrieposted 11 years ago

    I've been flagging these low quality but high traffic hubs all night. In order to make decent hubbers jobs easier can you clean these out in one swoop or at least do away with the sexy photo topic page and stop featuring these hubs:
    <snipped>
    Thank you in advance.

    1. SmartAndFun profile image93
      SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yikes! Look at that title!  :0

    2. SomewayOuttaHere profile image61
      SomewayOuttaHereposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      ha ha ha!.........errr....sorry, guess this writer doesn't get a ban!   i wonder how it passed quality control!  lol  this is terrible!

      1. SomewayOuttaHere profile image61
        SomewayOuttaHereposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        i take my laugh back..this hub caught me off guard....i'm not laughing now....i'm questioning what is going on here....HP, do you need some help getting rid of this kind of stuff...it's absolute shyte and does not reflect well of HP's reputation as a quality writing site....send me an email and i'll help a few hours each evening.  I'm sure there are many more people around that would pitch in....again.  thanks!

        1. Simone Smith profile image86
          Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          We do. We'd love more Hubbers to Hop Hubs. That would help a lot (reporting/flagging is not as helpful if these Hubs don't directly violate our TOS).

          Thanks so much for offering your support!!! That means a lot to me (and us). smile

    3. aa lite profile image85
      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      OMG!

    4. Steve West profile image67
      Steve Westposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This type of junk is why I stopped with HP. Pornography, ads, promotions, and solicitations for products have been becoming more and more. This is not what was I was expecting. I saw the post by Summerberrie and had to post my opinion too. Not good.

    5. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
      Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Summerberrie - you have me very curious as to what was snipped there.  Based on the junk that was still on the site when I found this thread this morning, I can't imagine . . .

      (You know how to find me on FB to send a message).

      1. profile image0
        summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        It is there waiting on you and Horatio.....

        1. Horatio Plot profile image74
          Horatio Plotposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Hey! I saw it before it was snipped! Fair made me spit my coffee over the breakfast table. Way to go Terrie!

          P.S. I'm way too young for this stuff.

          1. profile image0
            summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            HP should and can do better....even with MTurk.

          2. profile image0
            summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Well, spit away. That is what I'm doing just spitting in the wind. My question has not been answered yet. It is a repeat question asked by a hubber three years ago...

  2. SomewayOuttaHere profile image61
    SomewayOuttaHereposted 11 years ago

    wonder if this was an idled hub that was 'tweaked'?...title change...wow!...and to think some folks' writing doesn't pass quality control because of the odd word that may have been used and taken out of context or whatever the situation was. This title has not been taken out of context and means exactly what it states.  Come on, how can the word 'fuckable' slip through?  this hub has been around for awhile....i know, i know... everyone is busy letting other crap slip through.  I'm insulted actually, that words I write are on the same site as this kind of shyte!

  3. SomewayOuttaHere profile image61
    SomewayOuttaHereposted 11 years ago

    HP....i have a question?...are these types of hubs left on your database purposely; are you aware of them and leave them visible because they make money for HP ?  i'd appreciate an answer.  I feel rather insulted that this stuff is around and I'm  looking for clarification.  thanks.

    1. Simone Smith profile image86
      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Our focus is on making the quality of our site as a whole as high as possible. This is just taking a while as:
      1. It takes a while for us to get ratings on everything
      2. It costs us money to get ratings on everything

      In short: We're getting to it!

  4. mistyhorizon2003 profile image88
    mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years ago

    If you think the title is bad read the summary!!

    1. galleryofgrace profile image71
      galleryofgraceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I refuse to write on HP any longer until the low class slutty garbage is gone for good.

  5. Horatio Plot profile image74
    Horatio Plotposted 11 years ago

    They won't remove it, makes too much money. It even has its own category, "Sexy Pictures and Videos".
    Makes everything an uphill battle with Google though.
    How does all this fit in with the world of stellar hubs Robin and Simone promote on the AP?
    Humm.
    Summerberrie's right about its removal. It would be easy to just press the button and delete the lot. After all if you can create a new category for Mr. Maplesden 8 hrs after he suggested it, surely you can remove one.

    1. Simone Smith profile image86
      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Oh, we've removed a lot of high traffic but low quality Hubs- we're really committed to quality, believe me. Like I mentioned above, there is just a LOT of content to have reviewed, and we want to be fair about the way we do it.

      Believe me, we're more concerned about these low quality Hubs than you are. We're ON this one! Excelsior!

    2. profile image0
      summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It is a little offensive that PM gets a quick reply and I don't. It is not like they haven't had a long time to think about it....another hubber posted the same question three years ago.

      This featured hub is the first one featured under this HP heading:

      http://peanuthead21.hubpages.com/hub/Ti … om-Picture

      For those looking for sexy pictures and videos the internet is a dream come true. There are literally millions of websites that offer pictures and videos on any subject imaginable. Whether one is looking for graphic images and video or pictures and video that are more subtle there is never a shortage of websites to turn to. Some of the sites charge a fee, but many do not. Some of the more popular themes for these sites include many sites about Indian girls as well as millions of sites with sexy pictures of well-known celebrities. If you have a specific person that you would like to see pictures of it is simple to conduct a search with the person’s name. Many sites that have sexy content are perfectly legitimate, but some may be scams so be careful. As with all internet activity, make certain that your computer virus protection is updated.

      Now, Simone, I pose this question, - If you are sincere in your response to my question: Is this necessary ? Can you not see that this Topic is eliminated from HP (sexy photos) that seems to get a free pass on QAP?

      1. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
        Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I just reported Mr. Peanut head, too.   I've spent hours at a time reporting these hubs - some of the same ones seen here.  Just a few minutes ago, I found a hub promoting sexy schoolgirl pics - it has young teens in lingerie.  Nice.

        1. profile image0
          summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Why report it Marcy. They are welcomed and encouraged. DId you not see the Topic heading and summary? HP has the hub http://peanuthead21.hubpages.com/hub/Ti … om-Picture  featured under the ridiculous topic of sexy photos. It is the very first one: here take a look:
          http://hubpages.com/topics/entertainmen … videos/773

          1. Neinahpets profile image81
            Neinahpetsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Some could even go so far as to protest the photo on that hub as "Child Pornography" because the child is clearly taking a bath naked... some whack jobs get off on just seeing that much of a child naked.... the woman that looks like a drug addict aside, it protects the child to remove it.  I've reported it.

            1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
              MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              Crap.  If having a picture of a child in a bathtub is reportable then my hub about autistic children taking baths is screwed.

              Actually I haven't even looked at that one in over a year.  It probably is a crap hub anyway.

              1. kathleenkat profile image83
                kathleenkatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                What about cats taking baths? I have a hub about that. The cat is naked.

                1. Neinahpets profile image81
                  Neinahpetsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Haha, thanks for that laugh.  Love cats, and if you have a hub about bathing cats I'm going to stop by and read... bathing my cat Tofu is like going to war against a chainsaw with fork attachments using only a nerf bat.

                  1. kathleenkat profile image83
                    kathleenkatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    Yes, I do actually have a Hub on that. Won Hub of the Day a while back, as a matter of fact. Bathing cats is dangerous, so I thought I'd share my unique wisdom on the subject matter...

              2. Neinahpets profile image81
                Neinahpetsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                Well it's splitting hairs... but in a photo that is clearly suggestive, it could be.  In fact, there have been people reported and banned from other places for things like that for those reasons, which is why I say that.  I think there is a line and I don't find it as child pornography... but if someone wanted to push the issue, they probably could because it's such a touchy issue and I doubt HP would want to be caught in that, you know?  I think it's silly how crazy people get about photos of children like that nowadays.. even parents catch crap from taking naked photos of their baby.

                1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
                  MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  We have a weirdo that shows up on the forums every once in a while asking for pictures of children bathing clothed.  He's never here for long as HP staff is very good about removing his threads... almost before he's done hitting the submit button.

                  I'm not sure that we should cater to the desires of the most perverted of humans... however I also wouldn't want some stranger doing things while looking at pictures of my kids.

                  Personally I think castration and branding are more appropriate than censoring pictures of my kids so that some creep doesn't get his jollies off looking at them.  On the other hand I've also never tried to take sexy pictures of myself in a bathroom while my kid was bathing. The combination would seem a bit creepy to me.

                  Edit... In fact I've never tried to take sexy pictures of myself.  I've never taken pictures of myself in a bathroom... and if my child is young enough to need me in the bathroom with them while bathing I've got more important things to concentrate on.

                  1. Neinahpets profile image81
                    Neinahpetsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    You put my feelings into words exactly, there isn't much left for me to say to that one.

    3. quotations profile image88
      quotationsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I was not aware of the "sexy pics" section so I checked it out - for science.

      It seems to be a dedicated to our friends from India and Sri Lanka. Nothing but poor English, and somewhat homely "aunties" as they call them. I think that this entire section, with its broken English, and copyright infringing pics is probably hurting Hubpage's overall ranking. Hubpages probably tolerates it however because the section gets traffic and makes them money. I think they need to assess whether they would get more traffic and make more money if they dumped this section and improved the overall quality of the site.

      1. profile image0
        summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Well said.

      2. MelissaBarrett profile image59
        MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I'm not sure about that.  There are some good hubs in there that really shouldn't be censored because the word sexy is in there.

        Individual flags maybe but censoring an entire subject matter might be a bit... excessive.

        1. profile image0
          summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Do you think this is really an  appropriate HUB TOPIC section on HP for a site trying for QAP:
          For those looking for sexy pictures and videos the internet is a dream come true. There are literally millions of websites that offer pictures and videos on any subject imaginable. Whether one is looking for graphic images and video or pictures and video that are more subtle there is never a shortage of websites to turn to. Some of the sites charge a fee, but many do not. Some of the more popular themes for these sites include many sites about Indian girls as well as millions of sites with sexy pictures of well-known celebrities. If you have a specific person that you would like to see pictures of it is simple to conduct a search with the person’s name. Many sites that have sexy content are perfectly legitimate, but some may be scams so be careful. As with all internet activity, make certain that your computer virus protection is updated.

          1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
            MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            http://aevans.hubpages.com/hub/History- … in-Up-Girl

            This is a tasteful hub in the category.  And it is the correct category.

            http://tripletmom.hubpages.com/hub/10-Hot-Cartoon-Wives

            Also in the correct category.  It won't be winning a Pulitzer but it's kinda cute.

            Just because a category CAN contain offensive (which is subjective) material doesn't mean that is all it will contain.

            If we are removing things that personally offend us then politics and religion should also be removed.

            1. profile image0
              summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              It is not personally offensive material. But it is offensive that HP pretends to care about quality and have a HUB TOPIC which is a magnet for low quality hubs (most in that category are). If their moderators can not find the time to moderate that HUB TOPIC section because of backlog then don't have the topic. If they could manage it better then by all means keep it.

              1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
                MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                I'm confused... if you weren't personally offended by the contents then this was more of an observation that because over a million hubs weren't reviewed by QAP yet that the whole system is a failure?

                1. profile image0
                  summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  MelissaBarrett, I know you like the system established with MTurk...you have praised it in the past. This is not about the system in place. It is about the hubs allowed to slide through he system and become featured-have you seen the hubs that have been linked to--only a few of many allowed to slide.
                  Either you do not agree that these hubs are of such low quality that they hurt hubpages standing with G or not. If do not agree these hubs need to be dealt with then I assure you you will not be disappointed. This hub is a featured hub on hubpages: http://peanuthead21.hubpages.com/hub/Ti … om-Picture
                  for a site that is claiming to take control of quality is this the best they can do?

                  1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
                    MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    Of course I like the system with MTurk.  I make a significant amount of money with it.  I also know how it works.  Which I don't think you have a firm grasp on.

                    Yes there are mistakes.  Not as many as you would think though. 

                    When you consider that at least 2k hubs go through MTurk each day then yes some will get by.

                    You are expecting perfection... which is unreasonable.

                    But in this conversation MTurk is largely irrelevant anyway because it's mostly newly published or edited hubs. The other million or so hubs haven't gone through. 

                    You could of course offer up some suggestions that are reasonable on how to get through those million hubs.  Or how a small staff can handle however many flags they get each day without a backlog.

          2. quotations profile image88
            quotationsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I am not prude arguing that sexy pictures should be banned. But these sort of hubs are not compatible with the aspirations of the rest of the site and its supposed emphasis on quality writing.

            I am sure that there are a few hubs in that section that are okay, but all of the featured hubs I looked at in that section were very poor quality - not much text, atrocious spelling and grammar. And to be honest, it was a bit if a let down. Not many of those pictures seemed sexy to me. I guess this is an example of different cultural norms of sexiness.

            I think that they could get away with keeping this section if they put it all in a subdomain of its own and restricted viewership to people answering an age verification question (because no one ever lies on the internet). But this strategy is probably no longer available to them because they switched all of our accounts to subdomains.

            1. profile image0
              summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              +1

    4. Thelma Alberts profile image91
      Thelma Albertsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I did not even know that we have "Sexy Pictures and Videos" hubs here.  I would have to see what´s going on here.

  6. Horatio Plot profile image74
    Horatio Plotposted 11 years ago

    And while I'm on it , I'm having a small problem with this thing about properly attributed pictures. On the AP we were told to, "only use images that are original or legally used and properly attributed", in fact it's a site rule for all Hubs, isn't it? But all these Sexy Picture Hubs use them all the time. And it's not just these Hubs, it's site wide, I come across illegal pictures constantly. Hard to police it I know, but why not simply stop a hub from being published unless the Name of source and Source URL boxes are filled in. This would stop a lot of it, surely?

    1. aa lite profile image85
      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with that, however a hell of  a lot of people's hubs would get unpublished, and not just the fxxxxx auntie ones.  Not all unattributed pictures are illegal, I have a lot of hubs on which I used my own pictures or public domain pictures where I haven't filled in the name of source box. 

      The thing to do would be to give people a grace period, say two weeks, where they would have to fill the source box, (I don't fill in the URL box on my own pictures).

      Perhaps one solution for HP would be to move that subdomain to its very own site, on a "Sexy Pages" domain.  They could still earn from them

      Incidentally, I know Alexa is really inaccurate, so when it tells you what the most visited subdomains are, you need to take that with a grain of salt, but I haven't noticed that subdomain being on the list of the top 10 or even 100 most visited pages.  I wonder if it really gets that much traffic?  I imagine aunties are quite a competitive keyword.

    2. Simone Smith profile image86
      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      aa lite's point is an important one, as is the fact that we need to make our tools easier for people to include Creative Commons attributions (and the like).

      Another point: people don't like change, and we've been hitting the community with a lot of it. We know it's hard, and adding another set of hard and fast rules about images may just be the straw that broke the camel's back.

      Though don't think I'm giving up on this battle. Proper respect of others copyright is a big concern of mine, and I'm not going to let the issue slide.

      1. profile image0
        summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Really?

      2. Millionaire Tips profile image91
        Millionaire Tipsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Change can be difficult, but there are gentler ways to go about this.  Instead of retroactively making people go through their previously published hubs as a first step, just gently remind people to attribute an image in the hub tool.  Even if you require Hubbers to note where the image came from, I think they would be fine with it.

        Over time, lots of time, (most Hubbers are part timers, so a week or even a month is way too fast), you can work on older hubs.

  7. WriteAngled profile image74
    WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

    There is a whole section devoted to sleaze on Hubpages.
    http://hubpages.com/topics/entertainmen … videos/773

    Hubpages seems to love sleaze on the Net, according to the introduction it supplies to this section: “For those looking for sexy pictures and videos the internet is a dream come true. There are literally millions of websites that offer pictures and videos on any subject imaginable. Whether one is looking for graphic images and video or pictures and video that are more subtle there is never a shortage of websites to turn to.”

    Here you will find a plethora of Indian auntie hubs stuffed full of pixelated and watermarked images, but with little or no text.

    That, however, is the least of it. Some of these hubs verge onto extremely shaky territory:

    Calling all paedophiles! Come and find pictures of naughty schoolgirls on Hubpages, the family site for everyone, including you!
    http://priyajay.hubpages.com/hub/Naughty-school-girls

    Or maybe lesbians kissing is more your scene, complete with “A very hot daughter kissing her mom” as in this hub
    http://cheryl-bb.hubpages.com/hub/lesbiens-kissing

    HP Staff
    Why are you constantly persecuting respectable hubbers for infringements, yet leaving this dreck, which breaks the rules far more flagrantly?
    You bang on about quality, but obviously quality is only a secondary criterion. You are happy to include dubious material here as long as you think it will drive traffic to you.

    1. aa lite profile image85
      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      hmmm........is it just me or do these hubs not have ads on them?  If they don't have ads they are not earning, so what's the point of them?

    2. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
      Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Holy cow - WHY is this junk allowed on the site???   I've reported a ton of these, too. My fingers are tired from it.  Why do we claim to have standards, and let this stuff stay?

      1. Simone Smith profile image86
        Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        While I so appreciate your support, reporting something doesn't help if it does not violate our TOS. We don't have grounds to unpublish it. Hopping, however, DOES help. So please rate and Hop Hubs!

        1. profile image0
          summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          So what you are saying is TOS allows low quality hubs as long as it has lots of traffic. Most these hubs have watermarked pictures and no text and certainly no photo attribution.

        2. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
          Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Simone, I do rate and hop hubs - but as was just mentioned, these hubs have been here for years, and they don't go through the Hopper.  I know many of the hubs I've reported have been deleted.

          As I mentioned above, I just now reported a hub with teenage girls wearing lingerie.  And the title promoted it in a way to attract pedophiles.   

          I agree with the question posted by others - why do we have that category here?

    3. Hollie Thomas profile image61
      Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Wow. I hadn't even seen the 'sexy' portfolio before. Interesting how the majority of those women illustrated appear to be, or are at least, of Asian origin. Countries where there are so many impoverished people. And I thought HP's usage of MTurk workers was exploitative. I find this quite sickening, and feel like calling a boycott of HP.

      1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
        MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Why would you think MTurk is exploitative Holly?

        1. Hollie Thomas profile image61
          Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Because Melissa, I was actually thinking of you and people like you, who are well educated and capable and should be earning so much more than A* F&%£$* T%£(! are willing to pay.

          1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
            MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Holly I make about 8-10 dollars an hour doing HP hits and much more per hour doing transcription.

            I don't have to pay gas or wear and tear on the car and it's something I can do between homeschooling and doing therapy.

            1. profile image0
              Motown2Chitownposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              Mel, what kind of transcription?

              1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
                MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                They have three main companies at mturk who offer jobs.  Mainly recordings of lectures or transcribing podcasts or videos.

              2. MelissaBarrett profile image59
                MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                Demmit Mo... I thought I had you on facebook and was going to message you there.  I don't.

                1. profile image0
                  Motown2Chitownposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Do now.  big_smile

            2. Hollie Thomas profile image61
              Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              Melissa, there's no way ever, ever, that I would make judgements about YOU or other MTurk workers. I KNOW that there are people who work for Mturk that are very capable. There have been comments here from some people who have talked about lack of skills and education amongst some Mturkers. Search back through the posts, you will not find that I have agreed with them.

              My argument is, that if HP want editors they should pay the going rate. Eight to ten dollars an hour for someone with a degree in literature is not the going rate. That p&$££"&&" me off. I think it's exploitative.

              Forgive me, my ethics are bigger than my brain smile

              I've also been to Sri Lanka. I know how poor so many of those people are. I don't like to see images of women in "transparent saris" for profit. When I said that I thought using MTurk workers was exploitative, I stand by that. But the "sexy" pictures, well, they're  in a different league. sad

              1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
                MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                A BA in English in my area is basically a "Do you want fries with that?" Degree.

                Now with that said I don't really feel all that exploited.  Once again we're dealing with my economy as well.  I've got a four bedroom flat for 425 a month.

                But no I wasn't saying you had questioned my intelligence and yes editing/review in other areas of the world would pay much more but I don't live there.  I also can't really work outside the home right now because of the kiddies. 

                With that in mind settling for 8-10 an hour is just fine with me. 

                I guess it's a matter of choice for me.  For those in Sri Lanka it might be different.

                1. Hollie Thomas profile image61
                  Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Melissa, I just think that you should be paid more, whether you're working at home or not! Your skills and education remain the same, baby or not (how is baby btw)

                  I still love ya! lol

                  1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
                    MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    The baby is wonderful. smile  He's going to be another special needs baby but we knew that was a possibility.  He's a joy though.  Best baby I've had so far.

                    I still love you too Hollie!

  8. WriteAngled profile image74
    WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

    Oh and another minor comment.

    On the rare occasions where these sleazy hubs do contain some text, it is usually semi-literate. Why is this not being caught by your "QAP", Hubpages?

    1. Simone Smith profile image86
      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Because it's in the backlog. smile

      1. profile image0
        summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Really?

      2. aa lite profile image85
        aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Perhaps that category should be moved to the front of the queue (my hubs won't mind, honest!).  Certain topics attract bad stuff a lot more than others, and that kind of stuff probably hurts HubPages with Google a lot more than a badly written hub about cute puppies.

        Can you not do triage with the QAP of existing stuff?

        1. profile image0
          summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Good point aa lite!

  9. WriteAngled profile image74
    WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

    This rubbish is drawing people into the site. Presumably Hubpages hopes that once they have gratified their baser needs with the help of the sleaze section, they will move to other areas of the site and click on ads.

    1. Simone Smith profile image86
      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Nope. We don't want it either, but we want to be fair about removing it.

      1. profile image0
        summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Really?

  10. CMHypno profile image84
    CMHypnoposted 11 years ago

    And they wonder why writers are leaving in droves?  They are officiously idling hundreds of perfectly good hubs because of low traffic while they do nothing to remove this type of offensive garbage.  Unfortunately there are hundreds of these types of hubs if you look and if they had been dealt with at the time, HP might not have been slapped so badly by the big G.

    Advice to staff - go and deal with the real garbage and leave the rest of us alone unless we really do break the rules!

    1. Simone Smith profile image86
      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Please keep in mind that we're applying the QAP to *new* Hubs but have yet to work through the backlog. Is it hard for spammers and low quality writers to get by now? Yes! That' a good thing. We need to make it clear that low quality stuff won't cut it on HubPages anymore.

      That said, we *do* want to get rid of the old bad stuff, too. Like I've said below, it just takes a lot of time and money to do so, and we're going as fast as we can.

  11. WriteAngled profile image74
    WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

    The introduction to that "sexy pictures and videos" section reads like an invitation to every fetishist, paedophile and other type of pervert to come and partake of the feast of sleaze offered by Hubpages.

    Why does this section exist at all? What is not "fair" about deleting that whole cesspit. How hypocritical to have this scum floating on top of the HP hub collections, while at the same time people are having hubs censored for minor matters!

    1. SomewayOuttaHere profile image61
      SomewayOuttaHereposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      i hope this question gets an answer..

      if i were to 'hop' again, i'd never find these types of hubs   from what i understand somewhere above....hopping works better??????????????...these hubs are in backlog?????....i'd like to hop the back log ..................and i'd take the time and energy to hop through that entire section....if it remains a section

      1. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
        Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        +1 on that.  Sign me up.

        1. profile image0
          summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Same here...

    2. WriteAngled profile image74
      WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

      My question too!

      So why is there a "low quality" option on the flagging button? You seem to be saying that the hours I have spent flagging low-quality garbage has been a waste of time, because you just ignore those flags.

      This makes me feel there is no point in ever flagging a hub again.

      As for using the Hopper, why should I do this for free when you are taking money from authors on this site to pay non-hubbers on MTurk to do the job? I have already decided I will never hop another hub while this situation continues.

      1. profile image0
        EmpressFelicityposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Ah, you've come to the same conclusion I came to months back.

        Why is a site like HP adopting two totally contradictory policies? On the one hand, we're told that there is a quality programme which discourages hubs that (a) are too short, (b) are poorly written, and (c) have pixelated/watermarked and/or plagiarised images.

        But on the other hand... there is an entire topics section where material that meets all of these criteria is left in situ!

        I sometimes wonder whether HP's staff is secretly laughing at us for being so gullible and willing to jump through endless pointless hoops when it makes sod all difference. We're just lab rats to them, I think.

        1. profile image0
          summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          +1

    3. SmartAndFun profile image93
      SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

      Maybe instead of flagging and reporting we should just post links to shamefully terrible hubs on the forums. That seems to get them unpublished very quickly.

      1. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
        Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Wish I'd thought of that.  Not sure I can find them again.

        1. SmartAndFun profile image93
          SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Maybe HP could create a new forum section called "Please Delete."

          1. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
            Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            We need a way to store the hubs we have visited and reported, so we can go back and check later.  I can cruise through a ton of hubs and report them, and never be able to backtrack and find whether action was taken. 

            If you enter suggestive search terms, or variations on spelling for taboo words, you can find a lot to report.

      2. viryabo profile image93
        viryaboposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        ++1

    4. WriteAngled profile image74
      WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

      Add the teenagers in lingerie to the "naughty schoolgirls" hub I mentioned earlier, Marcy.

      Perhaps HP can place them and the many similar hubs that presumably exist into a new section called "Paedophilia Paradise"?

      1. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
        Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        There's at least one writer capitalizing on the section HP devotes to 'Sexy' stuff - she has way more than 3k followers, and an entire library of hubs using Hot or Sexy (or both) in the titles.  So nice that we work to draw in that type of intellect and reader here.

        1. SmartAndFun profile image93
          SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Yes, I guess the subject certainly draws traffic. I published a heartwarming story about a neglected miniature horse that people rallied around and saved, and someone even made a prosthetic leg for it because it couldn't walk, but sadly, no one wants to read about that. It got very little traffic and was idled. There is no one searching for the terms in that story, but there are millions of horny people searching for the words "sexy" an "hot," hoping to find teens in schoolgirl skirts and lingerie. I'm sure it's quite profitable or there wouldn't be so many porn sites on the web.

          1. profile image0
            summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            But this one is "free" and "safe".

    5. profile image0
      summerberrieposted 11 years ago

      This is what HP says is a featured hub:
      Featured Hubs

      Featured Hubs are Hubs that our Quality Assessment Process has determined to have high quality and potential for reader engagement. These Hubs are showcased on Hubs and Topic Pages, and also made available to search engines.

      The Quality Assessment Process is dynamic and ongoing, which means that if a Hub that is not originally Featured, it still may end up showcased on Topic Pages and Hubs after subsequent edits and reviews by the Process. This also means that Hubs which may be initially Featured may return to a normal state if lower quality ratings come in or if the Hub experiences low levels of reader engagement over time.

      Yet this hub is one of many low quality hubs featured or showcased on Hubs and Topic Pages:
      http://peanuthead21.hubpages.com/hub/Ti … om-Picture

      "Featured hubs have been determined by your QAP to be of high quality...these hubs are showcased on HUbs and Topic Pages also made available to search engines>

      Again: Is this Necessary?

      1. CMHypno profile image84
        CMHypnoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        How many times do we have to flag this hub before it gets removed?  It is tasteless, crass and pointless.  If this is what HP is really looking for in their writers then no wonder so many well written, researched hubs are being idled. Is this seriously what they are expecting us to stoop to just to make a few dollars?

    6. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
      Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

      Aside from the title, this one isn't particularly offensive - but I don't think the photos are being used legally.

      Also - do we really need this title on the site? 

      http://privateye2500.hubpages.com/hub/P … Understand

      1. profile image0
        summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Pathetic.

      2. SmartAndFun profile image93
        SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        That hub is nothing but pages that have been scanned from of book called Porn for Women by Susan Anderson.

        http://www.amazon.com/Women-Cambridge-W … +for+women

        1. profile image0
          summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Interesting!

        2. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
          Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Yes - which means the photos are being used illegally.  I've seen them before (and they're funny).  So the hub attracts readers with its title (and I have concerns about the title) and is filled with improperly used images.

          What part of this will raise HP's stock with Google?

    7. Len Cannon profile image88
      Len Cannonposted 11 years ago

      What I think is odd is that none of them have ads attached to them. Obviously, at some point, they got pinged for being inappropriate and had the ads removed. Why wouldn't they just be "disappeared" at that time? 

      But, hey, I mean, at least no one's earning here.

      1. profile image0
        EmpressFelicityposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        No ads? That bathroom photo one does - there was a Google ad right under the main pic.

        1. Len Cannon profile image88
          Len Cannonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Yeah, you're right. Most of the ones I sampled from links here didn't have ads, but a quick trip to the sexy pics topic shows that even some of the stuff with just pictures and on words had some ads. How do some of them get ads disabled and some keep on trucking? Seems not having any text is a pretty simple trigger if it is automated...

          1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
            MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            If I remember correctly- and I may not- photo gallery hubs aren't held to a minimum word count.  Neither are poetry and recipe hubs. Again I might be wrong.

            Sexy photos is just one type of photo gallery hub.

      2. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
        Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Ah, but yes they are - the site gets 'points' for the amount of traffic it gets each month.  The 'millions of readers' are referred to in every marketing tool.  So, even if there are no ads on these hubs, they add to the overall traffic volume.

      3. profile image0
        summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Paid by clicks?

    8. Mark Ewbie profile image81
      Mark Ewbieposted 11 years ago

      Just as an experiment I made a little hot aunty page.  Advertising disabled!

      So that was a waste of time.

      I guess you can't write about Aunts.


      http://s3.hubimg.com/u/7659490_f248.jpg

      1. Hollie Thomas profile image61
        Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        That's a sexy left left leg she's showing Mark!

      2. galleryofgrace profile image71
        galleryofgraceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        CONGRATS HP! YOU ARE NOW PROVIDING THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN WHO COME HERE FOR INFORMATION "fREE PORN"!
        WAY TO GO!

    9. kathleenkat profile image83
      kathleenkatposted 11 years ago

      Unfortunately on user-based content sites, such as this one, there are *always* spammers and trolls that slip through the cracks.

      In order to stop this, HubPages would have to adopt a more rigorous publishing review period, with real people and/or get more people (or robots) to search and delete spam. Not going to happen, as I don't see this as a huge corporation.

      Blogger is good at this--too good at this, if you ask me, as one of my legitimate non-spam blogs (I swear, I'm not a robot) was deleted by a spam-filter bot. They are a corporation (Google) and have the funding to do this, and pay real people to talk to the disgruntled users that had their blogs deleted mistakingly.

      These links posted are disgusting (why were they snipped? It's not like this was promoting a Hub or anything) but unavoidable in *free* user-generated content sites. If you want quality-assured legitimate writing, go to a legitimate news website. If you want to write for a quality-assured site, you will need to apply for the job through said legitimate news entity.

      1. aa lite profile image85
        aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        But in this case, the spammers have made it easy, by putting all the smut in its very own category, true not all the hubs posted there are like that, but you have about 1000 hubs in that category. 

        HP *is* doing quality assessment on hubs to stop the spammers and porn purveyors.  The problem is that this was recently introduced and there is a huge backlog.  The problem is not moral distaste at that sort of stuff but the fact that it might hurt HP with Google which affects earnings.  Both of the site and everybody else.

        I think Squidoo had a similar problem in 2007 when it got massively Google slapped because of all the spam and porn that it had accumulated.  I believe they ruthlessly pruned, banned a whole range of topics and have been experiencing Google love ever since.

        The problem is with having a category for that kind of thing in the first place.  I think pre-Panda the site was happy to publish whatever because it all made lots of money.  After Panda quality is suddenly very important, the QAP was introduced, and, at least according to Simone this kind of stuff is no longer allowed on the site.

        I just think if they really want to get rid of aunties, they should prioritise that particular category.  I guess they don't want to unpublished everything in it because some hubs are not actually offensive (they are not exactly spiritually uplifting, but they are not about teenage girls in lingerie) and they probably earn well.  It's not that hard to find the disgusting hubs, they don't have ads, so they must already have been flagged by an algorithm, presumably because they could endanger HP's Adsense account. So HP should prioritise removal of  hubs in the "sexy pictures" category, and once that is done, they can go back to making life difficult for people who they think are  selling irrelevant Amazon products on their hubs.

      2. Horatio Plot profile image74
        Horatio Plotposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        ? Spammers and trolls who slip through the cracks? Have you looked at the category Kathleen? There are 100s of the things, just sitting there, looking up at us and panting like a class of sweaty schoolboys. They've been there for years some of them.
        This is about the application of double standards, about telling us one thing and doing another. No organisation, regardless of size, can achieve any form of long term success while operating such a policy.
        Read through the learning center and then read through the summary of the hub category, "Sexy Pictures and Videos".

        1. innerspin profile image86
          innerspinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I hadn't been aware of this category until reading this thread. Had a quick look. I didn't initially see anything too terrible by UK standards, but was struck by the number of Indian hubs, with comments in  foreign language that looked highly suspect. Don't know if they add to the chance of a hub being removed. Time will tell.

        2. kathleenkat profile image83
          kathleenkatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          No I haven't; not a productive use of my time.

          Cool, hundreds of pages on a free-for-all user-generated content site? Seriously? Out of the several hundred thousand pages there are, yeah, a couple hundred appear to have 'slipped through the cracks.'

          Source?


          Sorry, I don't think I will: Again, not a productive use of my time.


          Eesh, for the amount of time people spend complaining about HubPages, you'd think they're getting paid. This is a free, user-generated content site. You can publish your writing instantly. It is very easy for crap to slip through the cracks, mmkay? If you have such an issue with HubPages, go to another site and publish your work (that's kind of what I do, unless I write something about cats, which seems to have unusually good success on HubPages vs. other sites).

    10. SmartAndFun profile image93
      SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

      I think it would also help if our flagging was actually doing something, but earlier in the thread Simone basically said that flagging doesn't work. Perhaps that is where the backlog lies and there are not enough people to check on all the flags we send them?

      Simone suggested hopping instead, but if I understand it correctly, these hubs won't show up in the hopper because they were published too long ago.

      I think one person could clear lots of this junk up fairly quickly if they were given the authority. They could do a search for the words "aunty," "sexy" or maybe even the "F" word and start hitting the delete button. I think idling takes care of a lot of the general junk, but these soft porn hubs get plenty of traffic so they will never be idled.

    11. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
      Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years ago

      @MelissaBarrett - really appreciate you working on our hits.  You do a great job.

      Earlier in the thread, the sexy category came up.  The vast majority wouldn't get featured today based on quality and lots of stuff in that category gets ads disabled right away (filters).  We are still focused on getting new stuff rated at scale.  The system has been evolving and getting better.  We feel pretty good about how it's working, we just need more raters.  I think we need about 20 more high quality raters and we will be able to make a dent in the backlog.  I'm hoping we are there in the next few weeks.

      As soon as we get the prioritized new content rated, we will queue up the backlog.

      1. Hollie Thomas profile image61
        Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Paul, find more people like Melissa and pay them the going rate. Why are you even bothering with MTurk? You have an abundance of people here, who will shift through those articles, not just based on images, grammar, spelling and punctuation, but who are educated enough to consider ethics.

        Your skill base is right here! And no, not me.

        Do you honestly believe that 8 to 10 dollars an hour + bonus is an appropriate wage to offer someone with a degree in literature and a wealth of life experience?

        You already have people here who have invested so much in this site. Why on earth would would you to throw this contract out to a third party, who have invested nothing, but hope to gain profit?

        Do the right thing, cut out out the corp who has invested nothing, and look to the well educated people that you can trust who have invested a lot. It makes sense.

    12. rebekahELLE profile image85
      rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

      This image was worth opening the thread.  lol

      http://s3.hubimg.com/u/7659490_f248.jpg

      1. profile image0
        Motown2Chitownposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Agreed.  Shake that money maker, Aunty Ewbie!

        1. Mark Ewbie profile image81
          Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Lol thanks Aunty Mo.  I think she's rather lovely.

    13. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
      Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years ago

      @holliethomas We do believe in total rewards and the market.  Dollars are part of work.  Flexibility, enjoying the work, dependability are also important.  We encourage Hubbers to do the Hits via MTurk if the opportunity is a fit for them. 

      I've found the best way is to do it is in short concentrated periods where I turn off everything and pound them out (I increase the font size - seems to help me read quicker).  I can do in the area of $12 to $15 per hour (over a short period) and more like $8 to $10 for an extended period.

      The toughest part is actually finding people that can do this well.  We've done a few tests.  In the last one, we gave it to 70 people we recruited from CL.  5 out of 70 had a 90% accuracy or better. 

      Our theory is to develop a relatively small, but highly accurate group of raters.  That appears to be more efficient than masses of people with lower accuracy where each Hub requires more ratings. 

      The most frustrating aspect from my point of view is we get spammed so much we put a disproportionate amount of resources into dealing with problems than we do into the people that make HubPages great.  One of the things I'm working on is figuring out how to switch this.....I think it's a really healthy discussion for the HubPages community to weigh in on our content policies and how we collectively can improve.

      1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
        MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I think a guide would be an excellent idea.

        Address specific issues such as what to do with the photo gallery hubs or the video hubs with no text.  Address specific issues with organization grammar and substance.  Basic definitions on spun articles and how to identify them would help for people NOT from HP.  They have no idea how to spot them.

        That would help a bit more than the example hubs.  There are turkers who would be willing to put in the time to read it to do the hits.  You should see some of the style guides that the transcription hits have and those are some of the most popular mturk hits.

      2. Hollie Thomas profile image61
        Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I totally get what you're saying:

        @holliethomas We do believe in total rewards and the market.  Dollars are part of work.  Flexibility, enjoying the work, dependability are also important.  We encourage Hubbers to do the Hits via MTurk if the opportunity is a fit for them. 

        I've found the best way is to do it is in short concentrated periods where I turn off everything and pound them out (I increase the font size - seems to help me read quicker).  I can do in the area of $12 to $15 per hour (over a short period) and more like $8 to $10 for an extended period.

        The toughest part is actually finding people that can do this well.  We've done a few tests.  In the last one, we gave it to 70 people we recruited from CL.  5 out of 70 had a 90% accuracy or better. 

        But why are you giving MTurk part of the profits, when they are not part of the solution?

        Every problem, every spammer, every spinner and every scraper CAN be detected right here, by the very knowledgeable and experienced hubbers (again, not me)  I just don't get it, you have hubbers here with PhDs, but they don't have to have PhDs to solve problems. Why are you throwing money at people who do not care about this site?

        I don't get why you are looking towards people who do not have a vested interest. This is not sarcasm, I don't get it!

      3. aa lite profile image85
        aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Paul,  if you have a serious backlog and limited resources (the number of trusted raters), wouldn't it be more efficient to concentrate on ridding the site of the seriously harmful junk, rather than assess every hub that is published or edited? 

        A "trusted writer" program has been mentioned several times. Lets say you've published 10 hubs that have all passed the QAP process, you become a 'trusted writer' and your hubs can be published without assessment.  Ok maybe occasionally there is a random 'spot check' just to keep you on your toes.  Wouldn't this system help with the backlog?  I can't imagine spammers bothering to produce 10 good hubs just so they could publish their spam.

        Then you could concentrate on getting rid of the spam and spin and sexy aunties that have lived here for years.  Again you could prioritise some accounts for this, hubs in the sexy video categories, subdomains that have only one hub (I think spammers often come here just to publish once), accounts without an avatar.  I am not saying that any of these "signals" definitely define a spammer, but they make it more likely the content is bad.

        The advantage of this is that you can tell if a hub is computer spun gibberish or contains adult material in seconds, whereas QA of normal hubs takes longer, so you could fairly quickly get rid off the truly bad stuff.  Once that is done you could concentrate on the more difficult but less urgent task of separating the mediocre from the very good.

        1. SmartAndFun profile image93
          SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          +1
          Yes, exactly. Why waste time and money rating hubs from writers who have turned out acceptable work time and time again, who have never had a problem with bad grammar, inappropriate topics, flagged articles, etc.?

        2. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
          Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          @aa lite - So, we tried a single point rating system and there were considerably more errors than the three point system.  It may be possible to have a combination of the two though.   We really want to have minimal erros in deciding not to feature something good. 

          The other part of your question is around prioritizing work.  We do that, but it's still a rating issue. 

          @Smart and Fun - as we collect more ratings, we can feed that into HubScore and possibly reduce trusted Hubbers need for ratings more.  We still need more ratings to do this. 

          @Hollie Thomas - My intention isn't to confuse language.  At the end of the day, I view the QAP system as trying to identify content that people like.  Google is building algorithms to do it.  We are working on a human system to do it in hopes we are a head of Google's curve.  I think people are better at this than machines.   I view each author as the editor, art department, writer etc. of their work.  Your point on inclusion is a good one.  Perhaps the most challenging aspect of all of this is the change process.  The world of writing online is completely different than it was two or three years ago.  As individuals and a community we have to adapt to thrive.  As the leader of HubPages, I'm sure I've made mistakes.  Sometimes moving too quickly, other times not quick enough.  But I will say, since Sept 2005, not a single day has gone by without thinking about how we can make the site better.

          1. Hollie Thomas profile image61
            Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Paul, I'm a pain in the a%$£, my comments are not directed at you personally, and I can well imagine the  need, in some respects, to outsmart Google. But I don't believe that you can, honestly, I don't. I also don't think that you have stopped thinking about hubbers who no longer receive traffic. But I honestly think that you should face them properly. They might be moaning, but they are still here>They don't want to leave, they've loved HP and still do. I think you need to man up to them. Answer their questions and be up front. They've lost income too:(

            We'll agree to disagree on raters and editors. Essentially, it appears that you're trying to envisage what the average searcher wants? Am I right? I've been writing a lot of articles on another site, it appears that the average searcher does not want to read about saturated, or searched for topics. Maybe that's our job, to introduce something new. Ask the community here to do that, and you might be so surprised. smile

          2. profile image0
            Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Paul Edmondson, you've lost a lot of good writers - myself, included.

            <link snipped>

            I went to Wizzley.
            <link snipped>

            My very first article won an editor's choice award. I won two more within the next 14 articles. If you look through my portfolio, you'll find that used to happen in print as well. In the rest of the world, we get paid and win prizes for letters to the editors. For every two letters to the editor, I used to write, one used to win a prize - and they were nice prizes. I once won 72 bottles of estate wine - which I sold at a hefty profit.

            You'll also note that I was on the top of Google before I joined HP.

            I put two years of work into the site. But you have people that can't write well being applauded - for what I don't know. You have people unpublishing my hubs because they don't have the brains to determine that the product is suited to the hub. There were some hubs that were unplished repeatedly until someone finally put a big fat note on it not to unpublish it because it was legit.

            You have a forum that is full of bible punchers, political animals who call one names because they don't have the capacity to use language creatively (on a writing site). You've 'trained' people to write good articles who can't structure a sentence correctly - repeatedly. And, yes, Mr. Edmondson, please do check my portfolio. I have been employed in an editorial capacity and I absolutely and utterly do know when someone can write and when they can't. After all, I've been published for more than 50 years. And you just might be able to see some dates in my portfolio.

            So, yes, you lost me.

            I moved to a site where I probably get 10% of the traffic that I do here.

            But here's the thing. I would rather deal with honest, civilized people, who base their assessments on merit rather than put my guts into a site where I am belittled by your trolls, and where my work is passed over because, as Simone freely admitted, some assessments are made on popularity, not on merit.

            If you want your site to succeed (and I've seen many fail since I've been on the web - 1995), I would suggest a) you pay for the extra staff to actually find the good writers, b) pay someone to remove all the trash on this site. It might cost you a year's wages, but you might manage to save this site in the longer term. c) Immediately put a stop to all religious and political discussion. You're not doing yourself any favors in the longer term d) Stop appointing people to positions of favor and giving them the kind of power that makes them pick on people who don't hold their mindset.

            Over the past year, I have removed approximately 250 hubs. I made $106 in my first 8 days of one hub in January. It would probably have reached $300. On day 9, I found it had been unpublished. I had no doubt that I could get it reinstated.

            There's a vast difference between us, Mr. Edmondson. I live by principle. I will not put money ahead of what is right. And right then, despite the fact that I lost money that I could ill afford to lose, I would not let the moderators and 'raters' mess me around one more time.

            So, at the end of this month, I will be paid out that $106. And then I will be gone.

            Goodbye, Mr. Edmondson. learnt a lot at HP but not enough to compromise my integrity and well being for a few bucks.

            I wish you wisdom and integrity.

            1. Ivan Ivanov profile image59
              Ivan Ivanovposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              Let me tell you something ...

              This is not the 'real world' here ... This is the internet.

              One simple world - INTERNET.

              If you want high traffic and a lot of costumers, you need relevant content.

              You won't get by just preaching Christianity or posting interviews with unknown comedians, like 'Mark Ewbie'

              In t-h-e INTERNET you don't need top notch sophisticated articles, you need easy to read, SEO-targeted full of information ones. And that's why HubPages focuses on that.

              You article must be organized with relevant pictures. It must appeal to the reader and grab his attention. You just won't make it with articles full of 'mumbo-jumbo'

              And you know, no one is interested that you are leaving hubpages, so stop promoting Weezly. They may be post-panda, but I haven't seen a single article from the site in the google top 10, while most of  my hubs (and other hubbers hubs) are already there. Hubpages is competing with sites as big as about.com ...

              You may have worked as an editorial, you may be proficient in English, that doesn't make you a fit for the web article marketing work ...

              It's all about creative, engaging and attention grabbing content ...

              And yes, some 'crappy' hubs may get posted, that's just because Hubpages is HUGE and the staff is just not able to catch up with the flow of incoming articles.

              As far as I know Hubpages is the place to be and believe me, I've made my research ...

              1. Reality Bytes profile image74
                Reality Bytesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                You made your research.

                Good for you!



                http://animationsa2z.com/attachments/Image/cheerleaders/cheerleaders6.gif


                http://animationsa2z.com/attachments/Image/cheerleaders/cheerleaders26.gif

    14. SimeyC profile image89
      SimeyCposted 11 years ago

      Paul,

      I think getting a small group of qualified writers is a great idea, however I think a lot of people see Mturk as a place where you will not get this. I know you've just introduced a stricter test and hopefully this will help. However, surely you have the opportunity to train willing people on Hubpages. There are some superb writers that given the incentive would jump at the opportunity to be part of the rating process.

      You already have an AP scheme for writers, why not extend that or add a new scheme for raters - then add the incentive for 'qualified' raters into the HP Ads program. I agree that it has to be very difficult to qualify for this - but I think this would give the whole thing more visibility and perhaps persuade a lot of doubters that it is a useful thing...

    15. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
      Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years ago

      @SimeyC, Our view is that Mturk is available to Hubbers.  Mturk is a platform designed to tap a crowd to do work.  The idea is they are the marketplace of workers.  We would love to see Hubbers give it a shot.

      If we built the same app on HubPages, I'm not sure we would see enough volume of raters.  It's pretty clear that we need more ratings.  Perhaps we will have both at some point.  We had to make a decision early on around doing the app  on HP or Mturk.  I still think Mturk is better for this, but time will tell.   

      The issue for us today is how do we find and recruit more good raters?

    16. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
      Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years ago

      @hollie thomas - It's about the quality and the scale we need.  Simply, we don't have the scale in accurate raters on HP.  Rating is a pretty unique skill and Hubbers are welcome to go to Mturk.  Some have and we really appreciate it.  Even internally where people have been breathing HP for years aren't accurate enough to be raters.

      We have a vested interest in getting accurate ratings.  We incent the turkers by giving bonuses for accuracy.  Based on the ratings and technology we make decisions on featuring Hubs. 

      Part of your question goes to how the system works.  There is a group of employees that rate Hubs.  When we all agree on ratings, they are used to assess the accuracy of other raters.  So, in a sense the raters are an extension of our editorial team. 

      We believe that improving the quality will be a good long-term benefit for Hubbers.

      1. aa lite profile image85
        aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        The one thing that I don't really understand is why is it important to have such accurate ratings on a multi-point scale?  What is the advantage of this over a simple feature/don't feature binary system.  Are hubs rated at 9 treated in any way differently from hubs rated at 6?

        1. janderson99 profile image54
          janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I also cannot understand this. Surely a simple pass or fail system would be much easier to implement (the old hubs would have been rated by now). HP has hinted that they want the ability to 'raise the standard'  i.e. lift the pass mark from say 50 to 75 => that would be something to look forward to.!!!

          1. aa lite profile image85
            aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            This makes a lot of sense.  I guess I've been thinking of the QAP as dealing with spammy content, but it does look like it might be a case of eventually only featuring really good stuff. 

            If you think about it, the PR about featured hubs doesn't really meat reality at the moment.  "If your hub is particularly good it will be featured".  I've always thought that it was propaganda, to make people who're not featured feel less bad, but it might be that HP staff really mean it, they just haven't implemented it fully yet.

            But I'm not sure the plan is working so well.  It sounds like they don't get enough raters, nobody's passed the newest test for raters, and meanwhile all sort of junk is polluting the site.

      2. Hollie Thomas profile image61
        Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Paul, who are you rating for? Raters could be editors? Please do not change the language here. Before we go any further you need to make the distinction between the two. I'm honestly not trying to be inflammatory, but if you want an individual to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a hub, you're asking for editorial skills, not raters. In all honesty, I believe that you have editors here, on site, who will evaluate a hub based on merit, not profit!

        I haven't been happy with the way things have happened at HP lately, but I do understand that there must be change. I get it! I also want it to work! Melissa and others are examples of how it could work. Please bring others into the conversation, you may perceive them as whiners, the almighty G may have sand boxed them. But they where once your bread and butter, and they could be in the future. Inclusion is so much better than the alternative smile

      3. janderson99 profile image54
        janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Paul, my comment on http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/109266#post2325883 is relevant here.

    17. rebekahELLE profile image85
      rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

      I notice a few hot air balloons taking off?  Geez.

      1. kathleenkat profile image83
        kathleenkatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I notice some unconstructive spam not pertaining to the subject of this thread. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all---that's why I'm so quiet.

        1. Mark Ewbie profile image81
          Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          http://s1.hubimg.com/u/7663528_f248.jpg

          1. profile image0
            EmpressFelicityposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            lol lol

          2. kathleenkat profile image83
            kathleenkatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            You made me smile lol

            Perhaps if I write a disguting Hub about this, including such photos, it will get high traffic. I might even have the honor of being bitched about on the forums.

        2. rebekahELLE profile image85
          rebekahELLEposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          My post was simply an observation, it had nothing to do with your post.

          1. kathleenkat profile image83
            kathleenkatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I see a candy wrapper.

            ^my post was simply observation as well. But, why would you care about my observations? Thus, I keep quiet and my opinions to myself and my cat-butt.

    18. SmartAndFun profile image93
      SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

      Wait for it.... screenshots in 3...2...1...

    19. profile image0
      EmpressFelicityposted 11 years ago

      Did someone say... naked cats?

      http://sphynxcats.com/wp-content/themes/just_like_old_times/thumb.php?src=http://sphynxcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/sphynxcatlunasun.jpg&amp;h=270&amp;w=420&amp;zc=1&amp;q=90

      1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
        MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Now that IS offensive.

        *shudders*

        1. profile image0
          Motown2Chitownposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Umm...that cat looks very angry.

          1. MelissaBarrett profile image59
            MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Wouldn't you be angry if you looked like that?

            As a matter of fact I know people who do look like that... they are always angry too.

      2. kathleenkat profile image83
        kathleenkatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        lollollol

        Just put him in a provocative pose...
        http://www.funnycatsite.com/pictures/Hairless_Cat_Spreads.jpg

        1. Mark Ewbie profile image81
          Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          oh my.

          1. profile image0
            Motown2Chitownposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Mark - I actually said that - out loud.  LMAO

    20. WriteAngled profile image74
      WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

      It's Gollum gone feline.

     
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