I'd like feedback on my Hub: Eating Horsemeat

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   Rupert Taylorposted 8 years ago

   Hi Hubbers,
   
   I'm told by the powers that be that my first post "Need Improvement," a comment that is too vague to be of much help. Perhaps, people with experience here can offer some enlightenment.
   
   I'd like some help with passing the Quality Assessment Process. Will you please give feedback on my Hub Eating Horsemeat (must be signed in to view). What can I do to improve? Thanks!

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      RonElFranposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I read your hub, and thought it was well written with some nice touches of humor. I'm not sure why it's rated as "needs improvement." At less than 800 words, it's a little shorter than HP's ideal, but that shouldn't keep it from being featured. One thing I see is that your photos don't have attribution. That's something that should be corrected. Also there's an extra quotation mark hanging off the end of a sentence. I would make those changes, then try publishing the hub again.

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         Rupert Taylorposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you so much for taking the time to read the piece and offer helpful tips. I will act upon your advice and see what happens.
         I have tried adding image credits and URLs but for reasons that mystify me I cannot get my cursor to click into the cells.
         Also I wanted to include a YouTube clip of interviews on a college campus and the willingness of students to eat horsemeat that ranged from Why not? to Eeww. Again, could not click into the cell.

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            RonElFranposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Rupert, remember that when the hub is in edit mode, you still have to click the edit button for each capsule, whether text or photo or otherwise, that you want to edit. Hover your cursor over the bar at the top of the capsule, and the Edit button will appear.

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               Rupert Taylorposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks to your help the article is now featured.

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      cam8510posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with RonElFran.  Your hub is well written.  The humor is refreshing in this kind of writing. Usually it would be passed on in a straightforward manner as information.  Your article is entertaining as well as informative.  You might work on the opening by combining the three independent sentences into one paragraph.  Three, single sentence paragraphs might be a turnoff to HP.  I'd lengthen most of the single sentence paragraphs throughout the article as well.
      
      I would go right to the top and take a look at your title.  Your article seems to be written with the assumption that there will be a considerable negative response to the idea of eating horse meat/horsemeat, and I believe you are correct on that point.  The title is abrupt and throws into the reader's face the very thing you are expecting them to reject.  I suggest a softer approach that encourages readers to give your article a try if not the horse meat itself.  A change as simple as adding the words "The Benefits of...." to your existing title, might make the article more attractive to the average, American reader.  Would the title be something that would make your article unacceptable to HP?  I doubt it, but it is a good place to begin. 
      
      Ron mentioned unattributed photos.  I humbly disagree with Ron when he suggests this would not cause your article not to be featured.  This is an important point and should be addressed first to see if it makes the difference. 
      
      The quality of the writing is far superior to many articles I have read here, so I'll not even dwell on that subject.  But the length of the article, coupled with unattributed photos, is likely your problem, in my opinion.  If you could find a poll that gives statistics about how Americans feel about this idea, you could report on the data.  That would add some length to the article.  Anything you came across in your research that would fill out the article with additional, helpful information as well as more word count would be beneficial.  Are there horse farms in America which raise the animals for food?  I'd be interested in knowing about that.
      
      You also have no followers and follow no one.  Don't follow three hundred, as some people do.  That's a turnoff.  Just find a few people who write what you want to read and let your audience grow organically.  But you do need to get it started. 
      
      More content, attributed photos, change the title, firm up the opening, get some followers and I bet you are good to go.

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         Rupert Taylorposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         You've put a lot of thought and time into this and I thank you for it. As mentioned above I don't seem able to click into the cells for image credits etc. I'm going to go with Are You Read to Eat Horsemeat? as a title, because there are pros and cons and the question might draw in readers. I didn't see anything in guidelines about minimum lengths but I've seen forum comments suggesting 1,000 words or thereabouts is optimum. I've certainly got additional material to patch in.
         Thanks to both you and Ron for positive comments about writing style.

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            cam8510posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Hp recommends 1200 words as optimum.  Where are you getting photos from?  Taking them off Google images, even with attribution in most cases is a violation of copyright.  There are places to go such as Wikimedia Commons.  Lots of other places for free photos too.  Your own photos are best.  But they will all need attribution.  Your title sounds great.

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               Rupert Taylorposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Flikr Commons or Wikimedia Commons are my main sources, but I also use Morguefile (rarely) and Pixabay.

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                  cam8510posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  You've got the sources, so attributing will be easy once you get the capsules working.  I can't think of any other reason your article should not be featured.  Let us know how it goes.

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                     Rupert Taylorposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks to your help, the article is now featured.

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                        cam8510posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        Good to hear.  Keep up the good writing.

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      Oztinatoposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      To me personally a hub with "eating horsemeat" in it's title is an immediate turn off. I wouldn't get passed the title and simply move on. The title immediately turns the stomach.

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      Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I just took a look and your Hub is currently both published and Featured.

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   Wesman Todd Shawposted 8 years ago

   The title would be great though for someone who googled something simple like, 'how does horse meat taste?' or 'Is horse meat good to eat?'
   
   That is to say, I think the title would show up in search results for such queries.

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   Sherry Hewinsposted 8 years ago

   I wonder if all the links at the bottom might be causing a problem. I know you are giving references, but I had a similar problem when I did the same thing with an article on bees.
   
   I think more sub titles to break up the text and make the information easier to scan would be an improvement.

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