Where and WHAT are the NEW RULES?

1. 84

   LiliMarleneposted 8 years ago

   Hi everyone,
   
   first of al let me say,l I really like Hubpages and the creativity all writers show with their different hubs from all over the globe. Now, the rules seem to change and I partly don't understand them.
   
   1. Features
   Why can articles which were featured for over a year now suddenly not be worth to be featured anymore? This is ridiculous. Kind of "You get minus points from us". Why isn't this in a more adult way. Like "please, we discovered the article is not up-to-date anymore, please work it over"??
   In my case it's not even that, they are not featured anymore because of less traffic. Well, if they are good enough to be featured why doesn't hubpages do EVERYTHING to promote our articles, eh???
   
   2. Comments and Accolades
   I added some comments on my own articles and suddenly got such an accolade for being a first degree commenter. So, this is ridiculous. Then, I recently deleted a few of these comments - and hubpages took away the accolade. This is Kindergarten here or what?
   Who needs an accolade for commenting? Why does commenting bring me any further and higher in the internal ranking which no writer here can explain or rumble?
   
   3. So called TRAFFIC
   The number of readers or clicks - no idea what is counted here. Every click longer than 20 seconds? Well, I reached an accolade for the first 10,000 readers very fast which even impressed me, but no accolade when I reached 20,000, maybe 25,000 or now I even am over 50,000. Nothing. Are you guys real, actual persons or computers?
   
   4. Timeless - but suddenly not worth a feature anymore
   So, what shall I do with my obituaries for example which are now no longer worth to be featured by hubpages because the people are dead and nobody is interested anymore? This is life. So, why do you degrade ME or MY work? Obituaries are timeless.
   
   5. Please Learn to Communicate, dear Hubpagers!
   Really strange so called "modifications" here. And I bet I don't know them all yet. Hence, where and what are the new rules, because it looks as if you really changed everything and we all look and feel like idiots now. I would appreciate if we would have gotten an email with some explanations and time to change articles before you suddenly de-feature them. Then, you suddenly change everything and only explain it in posts. Why the heck don't you write articles or "hubs" yourself so it is open for everyone to read? Why do I as a writer have to search for what has changed???? Upfront communication is the key. This all is really annoying.
   Thanks in advance.

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   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      1) You need to check if the article is unfeatured for lack of search engine traffic (half moon) or unfeatured for quality issues (new moon).  If the former, a very minor edit will re-feature it and then you can work out why it's not getting much google traffic and maybe add more content to attract readers.  If the latter, could be a variety of problems like too many links and products.
      
      2) Accolades are stupid and yes, HP does think we are kindergartners.
      
      3) HP counts the number of times a page is viewed, including times when you view the page yourself.
      
      4) Don't take it personally.  Unfeaturing is done by bots, not by humans.  Sometimes you write about a topics that interest you a lot, but unfortunately nobody else cares enough to google it. It's life.
      
      5) Nobody disagrees with you.

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      1. 84

         LiliMarleneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you very much for this. I'm happy that I'm not the only one who thinks this is strange, illogical and somehow kid's stuff.

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   2. 91

      Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hi LiliMarlene,
      
      We do our best to make HubPages a good place for both writers and readers, and unfortunately, that does often mean bowing to what Google is looking for in order to make sure the site survives.
      
      The HubPages Blog is a good place to look for an overview of changes to the site if you've been away for a while or haven't had time to check out the Newsletters. You can browse through our announcements in one place there when it's convenient for you.
      
      Some Accolades are permanent, and some, like the Commenter Accolade are intended to reflect your current level of activity on the site, so they change based on your recent interaction. Some Hubbers find Accolades helpful and motivating, and others don't. If they don't work for you, no need to stress about them. It's perfectly fine to ignore them.

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2. 79

   LeanManposted 8 years ago

   It is not just HP changing to annoy you and the rest of us - the expectations of the visitors change and so do the expectations of the search engines.. If the site does not change to meet those changing expectations then we will see even less views than we see now.
   
   If your work is un-featured for lack of traffic it makes no difference as you were already not getting traffic from Google - so maybe you should ask yourself why? Most of the time it is because people are just not searching for what you have written about, the keywords that you have used, or there is just so much better competition out there.
   
   If it is unfeatured for quality - well things are changing, if you want keep it as it is, put it on your own site and use your own rules.. But HP can see using the masses of data that they have what does not work and what does - maybe it is worth listening to their advice and changing things accordingly. They have made announcements about spam, amazon and a truck load of other issues that they are going to unfeature for... So they have told us.. They are not making arbitrary changes just to piss us off, they are trying to survive as a business also remember.
   
   As to accolades - well they are meaningless on the whole so ignore them..
   
   At the end of the day - we follow their rules - if we don't like them then we have a choice...
   
   But HP is still here - it is still one of the most trafficked sites on the internet and it is still making money for many people. Even if it is getting less and less...............

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3. 83

   psycheskinnerposted 8 years ago

   I think the point is that they could just say what the metrics they are using are.  It would be easier to comply.  And update the "help" material accordingly.

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   1. 84

      LiliMarleneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, that's the point, I think. I mean I check my account regularly but do not write that regularly nor do I have time to read EVERYTHING. They could just email us and send a link what will be changing. I didn't receive anything like this. That's why I'm now totally confused and don't know where to start and how to continue.

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      1. 87

         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I wrote a Hub on the essential HubPages Rules, you'll find it in the spotlight on my profile.  I also wrote a Hub about the whole unFeaturing/Featuring thing. 
         
         A lot of us disagree with the unFeaturing process but it is their site and they're entitled to set their own rules, I'm afraid.

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         1. 59

            paradigmsearchposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            No they're not.
            
            (pretend he's a panda)

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            1. 84

               LiliMarleneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Somehow I think it's more our site, because without us writers what would Hubpages be? I mean we follow their rules and write a certain number of words, use their templates, add "enough" photos, videos whatever, leave out helpful links because this could be seen as spam or commercial abuse or whatever - and now they tell us after months and years our articles suddenly are not worth to get "featured" anymore? Featured means your articles won't appear when people search for items your hub actually is about! So, this whole search engine result is totally under control of a few and has nothing to do with the real result you would get without any manipulation.

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4. 84

   LiliMarleneposted 8 years ago

   Thank you! This is really helpful.

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5. 70

   ddsurfscaposted 8 years ago

   I have been writing on this site since 2009, and have about 200 articles and stories here.  During this time the rules have changed more times than i can keep up with, and the "money" I make is not worth mentioning. 
   For these reasons I changed my mind about being here and writing for the money, to being here and using the site for a good place to write, get input from other writers, and as a place to see what people are interested in and what people are reading.
   Dont get upset about all the who, why, if, and the google bots, it just isnt worth it.  it began making me not want to write and spend time making my stuff worth reading.
   Write to please yourself, and always do that, because in the end, you are the one who will or will not feel the satisfaction of creating something people want to read.

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   1. 91

      Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      +1

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   2. 84

      LiliMarleneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I agree. So, this is a LIKE as well

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6. 76

   cheaptrickposted 8 years ago

   Find something you Love to do...and the money will follow...and I believe that's true.
   HP was saturated with passionate writers when I first signed up(me and Moses)many moons ago.The forums were full of brilliant eccentric people(no...I wasn't one of them...except for the eccentric part)who were a joy to read.The 'old' hub hopper was a speed lane to click thru hubs quickly to get to the interesting stuff...and the freedom to write and post what ever you wanted made a trip thru the 'old' hub hopper an exciting ride...I loved it...never knowing What might pop up next...now things have changed.We've gone from "find something you love to do" to :follow the money and use these parameters to get it :The passion and spontaneity that is So attractive to those millions of readers out there....is dwindling fast...and we sit around going...What's Wrong?

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