Please Update Old Information on Your Hubs!

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   Marisa Wrightposted 10 years ago

   Lately I've come across a lot of Hubs with outdated information in them.  If I comment or email to suggest it needs updating, I get the response, "Oh I wrote that ages ago."
   
   Sorry, that's not acceptable.  There is no date on a Hub so as far as your reader is concerned, the information in that Hub is current.    People could be making decisions today based on what you've written!
   
   And it's not enough to say in a comment (as one author did), "I wrote this Hub several years ago and I no longer recommend this product".   How many readers will read all the way down to the comments?  If you don't have time to revise the Hub, put that disclaimer at the TOP of the Hub, not at the end or in the comments, please! 
   
   I don't think I have any Hubs in that category myself, but I'm off to make sure...

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   1. 86

      DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hmmm....I don't think I have any such categories; I generally do not do product review hubs.  My only reviews so far have been books and movies, and those are what they are; they're not going to change.
      
      For those who do product reviews, it might be wise to include the full name, make and model number of the product; that way, anyone can see when going to search for it that it is, or is not current.
      
      I agree, Hubs should be kept up to date, but for products that have annual "new models," that could be tough to keep up with, since not many are going to go out to buy and test each new model; Hubbers are not consumer testing agencies with the budget to do that sort of thing.
      (Just one reason I stay away from commercial product reviews.)
      
      What else can go "out of date?"  I do a fair amount of political/social commentary/educational type articles...and that scene is fairly stable as to the goings-on behind closed doors....

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         The ones I was looking at were mainly for writing sites like Helium, Zujava, etc.   Just like HubPages, their rules change and many people who recommended them once, don't any more.
         
         The other item is software (which is a product of course).

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   2. 88

      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I totally forgot to update my personal goals hub and it had 2013 in it! I usually update it on December 31 each year and totally forgot. I did that today so am set. What I did was remove all dates and made it really evergreen in case I forget again.
      
      It was the second week in January that I realized I hadn't updated my wedding colors hub as well. Jeez...it's a lot of work maintaining hubs!

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   3. 90

      Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It does take a lot of time to update hubs, and it is easy to forget when there are a lot of them.  I know I've found outdated info on my hubs even though I do go through them from time to time.
      
      But for sure, if someone points out an error to you, you should certainly fix it right away.  It doesn't take that much time to update a hub, or at least correct the part with the error. Unpublish it if you don't have the time.

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   4. 84

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Marissa:  Maybe the team ought to automatically place dates on our hubs?

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      1. 88

         Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         When you update a hub the date is placed on it automatically. I've seen it on mine. It's to the bottom right of the hub and says something like "Last updated dd/mm/yyyy"

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      2. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I think that's a double-edged sword, because it could harm evergreen Hubs that don't need updating.   For instance, I have a Hub on how to volumize hair.  The information in that Hub really doesn't change much, so it rarely needs updating.  However I could see someone clicking away from it if they saw it hadn't been updated for a few years (as it happens, I did update it recently to swap from ebay to Amazon ads).

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2. 0

   Beth37posted 10 years ago

   I guess my "The new Rachael haircut is da bomb!" hub
   will have to be unpublished.
   

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   1. 90

      Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Oh no Beth, it is timeless.  You're good.

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      1. 0

         Beth37posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Whew! What about my Hamill-Camel hub?
         
         (I had this cut in the 1st gd. Mothers... what are they thinking?)
         

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            Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Oh. uh.  Well you could make a prediction that it will make a comeback some time in the next, let's say 50 years, to keep it evergreen!

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            1. 0

               Beth37posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Evergreen. lol... Idk, that just makes me laugh.
               
               I guess this is my evergreen hub. I'm not changing it for anyone, not even Marissa.
               

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            2. 86

               DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               What's old is new again...it will come back, like clockwork, I guarantee. 

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3. 60

   tirelesstravelerposted 10 years ago

   Oops, Have one where the date changes every year and I haven't changed it to 2014. On my way

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4. 90

   Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years ago

   Oops.  I received a notice that I had some broken links on my hubs.  I went to fix them, and I noticed some outdated information in them.  For me it is impossible to keep up with changes, but for sure, I will continue to try to do so whenever possible.

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5. 93

   jansharesposted 10 years ago

   Good points made hear. I guess evergreen is the way to go for most  hubs we write. By the way, the hubtool hates when we put dates in the article. It irks me when I get that notice, "Is this hub evergreen?" I have two hubs where I refer to a lot of dates for historical purposes. In one hub I didn't highlight the dates by putting then in parentheses and it helped.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Even in some evergreen hubs things change.  For example, in one of my RV hubs I referred to a magazine that is put out by Good Sam Club.  Recently the Club announced it will no longer publish that magazine!  So, there you go!

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      jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Edit: Good points made here.  . . .aaaaaarrrrrrggggg!

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6. 85

   rebekahELLEposted 10 years ago

   I've browsed hair style hubs with yearly titles that haven't had the content/photos updated. 
   
   I know I have at least one that that needs an update. Others simply need a refresh.

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7. 0

   mariexotoniposted 10 years ago

   This might be hard to do when someone has a couple hundred hubs published- we don't know how much time a person has to devote to HubPages or how serious of a writer they are. Yes, it is smart to update this information (and should definitely be addressed if emailed about). But it is also up to the reader to check several sources and verify the information. Hubs with outdated information, I would imagine, would be harder to find in Google search results, no?
   
   I try my best to update my hubs- but it's not always easy to keep up with, when I have my life to live (school + job). I'm just saying- I can relate to the people who can not update hubs right away at someone's request for updated information. It depends on how we prioritize.
   
   Who knows- I'm probably in the wrong light. Just my thoughts

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I completely understand that some people can't drop everything to update a Hub!    My worry was the reaction I got from a couple of Hubbers - that they wrote the Hub ages ago, so it's "in the past" as far as they're concerned - as if it's buried in the mists of time, not out there providing misleading information.
      
      As for Google search results - just because a Hub is old doesn't mean it will be harder to find.  Google respects age as well as freshness, so (unless they're on a topical event), Hubs tend to do better the older they get.

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         mariexotoniposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Oh yes! I completely forgot about seniority. You make a good point though. I agree that if another hubber goes out of their way to let another know that they're hub needs to be updated, then that should be on their to-do list. Not shrugged off.
         
         Maybe HubPages could come up with some sort of incentive for that- a better Hub Hopper type system.

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