Concerns About Poor Hub Quality

1. 68

   Carol the Writerposted 14 years ago

   Want to see some amazing low quality hubs? Go to the top of the page, click hubbers, then click "latest". There will be a few good ones but at least half are spam and many hubs are just a few sentences, often in a rambling broken English. There are some sophisticated ads disguised as hubs, often by the same person with a string of IDs promoting a web.
   
   Anyway, over half of the hubs are bad. What will this do to how Google ranks hubpages? Can there be a way for hubpages to temporarily put new hubs in a holding area until someone just glances at them to see if they meet minimum guidelines?
   
   Here is what happened to me.I wrote a hub on Space Shuttle Retirement on 9/23/09. I few weeks later, I wrote and submitted some articles a bring traffic to my hub, under the name Amy Adams. (My first set of articles were going to be from AA, my second set from BB, etc.) Her articles have 2 links to my hubs.
   
   In a Google search for "space shuttle retirement" with and without quotes, an article by my pseudonym Amy Adams, published in tech edition, is ranked above mine. I guess that thetechedition .com is considered by Google to be more credible than hub pages.
   
   My hub on Space Shuttle Retirement is on Google search page 1 (about#10) if you search for "space shuttle retirement" and on page 2 (about#18) if you do the same search without quotes and the thetechedition .com article is above me both places. I think this shows that we need for hubpages to be considered more seriously.

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   1. 73

      relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Your responsibility as a member of the Hub community is to flag Hubs that you feel are spam, substandard, overly-promotional, etc.
      
      That's what the Hub team would like you to do so that their attention is drawn to problems more quickly.  The flag button on each Hub is there just for this purpose, as is the quick problem checklist that displays when you flag a Hub.,

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2. 77

   frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

   I believe Maddie Ruud is responisble for trying to keep track of such things - but that doesn't mean that she's capable of seeing every single light weight hub.
   
   That's why there's a flagging option. Use it. I do. Like you said, it's so obvious which ones are spam or similar low-grade crap.
   
   Anything you see that you know doesn't comply with the TOS, flag it. I'm sure that helps Maddie check the ones she may miss and ultimately, if they're deemed unfit, that helps the hubcommunity
   
   Though ... be fair

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3. 88

   Len Cannonposted 14 years ago

   Bad writing isn't going to rank, either on hub pages or on search engines.  I understand the frustration over being around writing you're not a fan of but I don't think it should greatly affect your overall performance.   My top performing hubs are number one or two on the search engine results page for their topic, even with other, more specified websites dealing with that information.
   
   For awhile my Digg submissions ranked higher than my actual articles but I believe if you wait a few weeks they should autocorrect themselves as people follow the links to your actual article.
   
   It could be that the tech web page is indeed given more credit than hubpages when it comes to topics like space shuttles.  Is your traffic good right now?  What about on the non-space shuttle topics?

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4. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 14 years ago

   What Relache said. This is a user content site - as such, it's our responsibility to produce the content and contribute to the housekeeping.

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5. 63

   Mishaposted 14 years ago

   IMHO it is much more productive to concentrate on your own hubs than to try to correct others.

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   1. 0

      cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      i agree.
      
      i have read some pretty shall we say substandard or even questionable hubs but i have never flagged a single one.

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         any reason why not?

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         1. 0

            cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            why not?
            
            because i don't feel it is my responsibility and because it just feels wrong. i mean, who am I?

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            1. 89

               Rochelle Frankposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               You are not the one who boots them off-- by flagging you are just bring attention to it. The moderators decide.

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         2. 57

            yoshi97posted 14 years agoin reply to this

            If they violate the HP TOS, I'm going to flag them.
            
            If someone spams the forums, I'm going to report them.
            
            As I see it, as a member of this community, these people are pooping in my sandbox and I'll have none of it.
            
            With that said, I won't flag a hub because I think it should have been written better - only if it violates the TOS, as I don't want poor Maddie chasing after ghosts.
            
            Still, I think it does the site a world of good when we all work hard to produce great content, as it makes our site an authority on the internet and improves our earnings.
            
            HP gets 40% of our impressions, so you can bet your arse they want to see great money producing hubs as much as we do.

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            1. 86

               Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Exactly how I feel.

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      2. 63

         Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Not that I don't flag a substandard hub if I happen to stumble upon one. But I don't go search for them.

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   2. 71

      thranaxposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      True, but I know it would be a LOT easier for Hubpages to grow correctly if the "Crap" was gone. I went for a look and some are totally stupid. I wanted to report them but I couldn't. They had only 2 links, and it was valid info to the links and topics. It had over 400 words and it wasn't duplicated from the internet. Sigh.. lol.
      
      ~thranax~

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      1. 63

         Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Don't try to be holier than pope Thranax, and you feel sooooo much better ;

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6. 0

   cosetteposted 14 years ago

   the only hubs i would flag would be those that were stolen.
   
   maybe those in clear violation of HP's TOS...maybe. if it's our responsibility to police our peers' hubs why do we need moderators?

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Because HubPages can't afford enough moderators to check every single Hub.

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   2. STAFF

      pauldeedsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      While we do devote considerable resources to enforcing our rules, if we hired people to review every single hub, question, answer, or forum post we certainly wouldn't be able to share as much revenue as we do with authors.  We operate the HubPages site, but you the community is what makes it tick.
      
      Anyway, all that we ask is that if you happen to see something that violates the HubPages rules, help us out by taking a few seconds to flag it.  All flagging something does is bring it to the attention of our moderators.

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      1. 0

         cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         ok, i shall do my best. thank you for explaining that.

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      2. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         While I was eating lunch I worked out what I was trying to say.
         
         cosette, I agree we're not the Hub police.  However, we are Hub citizens.  Not flagging a Hub is like walking past a house, seeing that it's being burgled, and doing nothing. 
         
         As a citizen, it's not our job to catch the thief, but it is our job to make the authorities aware of it.  When you flag a Hub, you're not making a decision to take it down - you're just letting the right people know, so they can decide.

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         1. 60

            hinckles komaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               If i read something that i feel was negative i do have a right to complain. Why not its only right to do that. I agree what you said completely. love all.

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   3. 73

      relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      This site has a handful of employees, all of whom wear a few hats, of which only 1 is moderator.  They need us to help them, and the whole site will be better if we do.
      
      Take five minutes a day to take a look around, read some stuff and flag the garbage.

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7. 60

   ThisGirlsOpinionposted 14 years ago

   Focus on writing hubs that you believe contribute to the quality of the website, which is the best use of your time.

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8. 69

   Choke Franticposted 14 years ago

   I hate how a lot of the hubs these days are pretty damn crappy, but I've never even thought to flag a hub I saw as substandard! I think I might try that, at least it'll make me feel better..

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9. 68

   Carol the Writerposted 14 years ago

   Thanks for all the comments. When I am not busy I try to read new hubs.
   
   If they have any potential I encourage them and make sure they have a link to http://hubpages.com/guide/overview  If they are so-so, I leave them alone or make suggestions.
   
   But I flag the ones that are pure spam. There are a lot of get rich quick, come to my website and sign up for my class hubs. There are some hubs that have one sentence.
   
   Pauldeeds, I just think if you had a "holding tank" where hubs went for, say 4 hours after submittal, and then community volunteers could glance at them and vote up or down if they were out-right spam. And I mean just the really spammy or one-sentence hubs.
   
   This would improve the overall quality of what is out at any given time.Just an opinion. - Carol 
   P.S. Can we get a spell checker for the forums?

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10. 0

    cosetteposted 14 years ago

    yes, i understand now. as Paul said, we are a community. thanks!

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11. 72

    AEvansposted 14 years ago

    I clicked on hubbers and then latest , I agree that some of the hubs are of poor quality but then again some of them are new writers who are trying to take a stab at what they love to do. My percpetion is that all of us have been new at one time or another and everyone needs a chance. If they are just plain garbage flag them or if they are substandard guide them just like may of us who have been around for a couple of years we were new once ourselves.

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    1. 68

       Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I agree completely with you AEvans.  I know I have learned alot and feel I have improved from others here at HP. I am not quick to judge or put down other writers. I would rather offer to help them improve. But...if something is total garbage/spam...well, that is different.
       
       What about hubs that are just about keyword stuffing? No names, but I have seen a few that it is like reading a 2-3 word phrase only. I got nothing out of them except a hub written around a keyword/keyword phrase.

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       1. 72

          AEvansposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Keyword stuffing drives me nuts but then again maybe they didn't realize they were keyword stuffing. I have found that once I have gotten to know a new hubber and we have sent e-mails back and forth that some of them are reading all kinds of information on the internet so that is what they believe they should do, only to find that they are not doing it correctly to begin with. As for garbage/spam I flag it for review.

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       2. 73

          relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Keyword stuffing is a form of spamming (direct at a search engine) and it's against the TOS of Google, so I say flag away when you find Hubs that do that.

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12. 68

    Carol the Writerposted 14 years ago

    Yes some are very nice first hubs. Some are obviously just keyword stuffing spam or a 4 word hub saying, "go to by website".
    
    That was why I was thinking of a holding area might let volunteers flag hubs for review before they were oficially published, thus increasing the number of good hubs that are actually published.
    
    But even with the present system, if we all look at new hubs for 5 minutes a day like relache says, and flag the spam, it would help.

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13. 61

    sandwichmomposted 14 years ago

    I am fairly new - and have noticed that there is some poor quality on here- but on other sites as well. Many seem to have poor grammatical skills- and others that may not understand english vocab common terms. Not that I am perfect by any means.
    Some of the poorly completed in terms of english grammar skills are quite high in their hubber scores. The search engines seem to have found them- I guess.

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    1. 89

       Rochelle Frankposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I think flagging might help the moderators to make their decisions, but I don't do a lot of flagging. Some things are so bad that they might drag down the whole site.  Bad grammar and spelling are not the worst offenses, and I do think some people who are giving it a good honest try ,and learning in the process need to be given a  bit of a break.

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