Duplicate content: Should it be banned instead of just frowned upon?

1. 73

   KeithTaxposted 14 years ago

   I propose that duplicate content be banned outright on HubPages. Hub Hopping shows the massive amount of stolen or copied content on HP and denigrates serious writers here.
   
   Others have made the same complaint, but I think HP should seriously consider banning duplicate content outright.
   
   This isn't censorship, either. Duplicate content is often stolen content. If you wrote it elsewhere, write a similar, but different, piece on the subject. Take a different slant.
   
   After all, you are a writer. Right?

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      Rochelle Frankposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      No, it should not be banned. Stolen content should be disallowed and dealt with. I have some duplicate content-- two hubs placed on other sites. I know they are rated lower, they are my original work, and I like having them on another site. I don't care.

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         Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Rochelle, I agree.  I have duplicate content posted, and it's how I want it (for my own reasons other than earnings).    Although my own writing on here is mostly hobby writing, there can be a "portfolio aspect" to what any Hubber chooses to include with his own writing (wherever it is). 
         
         Keith Tax, yes - we are writers, and that's precisely why the above can apply for a lot of us.  Could I write a whole new thing on the same subject?  Sure, if I wanted to; but I have some "heavy" stuff I've written (dealing with grief, for example), and I'm done with that subject.   For someone who puts a lot into some pieces of work, it can take a lot of "mental energy" that kind of runs its course and doesn't return for that particular subject. 
         
         Could we use spinners?  Maybe, from what I've seen, if you haven't written the "standard" web article they just make a big mess that's harder to fix than re-writing.  On something like a long Hub,  intended to be humor, I don't think a spinning works; and, again, writing a similar thing can, at least for me, result in writing a far less effective thing.
         
         I don't think policies should be based on what "crummy" people do.  There are ways to deal with the crummy people without.  I figure, if I have something I think has some quality to it that makes it worth posting (as duplicate), chances are it does add something to the site in its own way.  (I've got stuff that I don't do think does much for the site, but that's not the kind of stuff I post as duplicate.)

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      2. 0

         Stevennix2001posted 14 years agoin reply to this

         yeah, i agree with that.  like you, i also have a lot of hubs that are on other sites like my myspace and yahoo pages where I used to write reviews on there since I was a kid.

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      Disturbiaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I'm with Rochelle on this.  Saying to rewrite it or word it differently doesn't work when it's poetry you are submitting.  The poem is what it is, you can't just change the wording. So I have some poems that are duplicate content and so be it. I know I wrote them and they are original because they are based on my personal experiences, thoughts and feelings.

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2. 71

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   what came first the chicken or the egg

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      Randy Godwinposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Why does the rooster never get any credit?

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         Rochelle Frankposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Our rooster was too noisy-- now just have two hens-- and two eggs a day. We got the hens first.

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         wyanjenposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         

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            alexandriaruthkposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            hehe, this is nice image

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               Disturbiaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               That's just wicked cute!

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3. 61

   Falsor Wingposted 14 years ago

   I have no love for plagiarism, but other than that I see no problem with making copies of your own work in different places. Is that not why Gutenberg is revered?

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4. 73

   relacheposted 14 years ago

   HubPages already does what it can about duplicate content.  It's penalized and winds up with little to no traffic.
   
   Now, in regards to plagiarism, the policy is clear that HubPages will take down content provided a complaint is filed by the copyright owner. 
   
   If you really want less duplicated content on HubPages, you'll have to go around notifying a lot of people as to the theft of their material so that they can file the appropriate paperwork with admin.

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5. 81

   earnestshubposted 14 years ago

   I have two hubs which are duplicate content. They are scoring ok, and hubpages has no problem with them as they are famous poems.
   Not all duplicate content is avoidable and hubpages reckon it's OK.

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6. 71

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   I always assumed one could be tricky and say the egg was reptilian - but in regards to this thread, HP doesnt have the ability to see publish dates on other sites..it never really knows which is chicken and which is egg as far as "duplicate" goes.

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   1. 70

      wyanjenposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      This being the case, we shouldn't be so quick to ban...

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   2. 69

      thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      The egg came first, which contained the mutated form of a bird that today we call 'chicken'.

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7. 91

   Rochelle Frankposted 14 years ago

   HP requests and prefers "unique" content -- doesn't matter which came first if they are both there.
   If they are both yours, it is not plagerism or stolen content. It also isn't unique. You have the option of removing one  from this or the other site, or letting it stand with a slight penalty.

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      agvulpesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hooray for Rochelle!
      I agree with you entirely !
      I do hope that was grammatically correct?
      

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8. 68

   Peter Hogganposted 14 years ago

   I hate plagiarism just as much as anybody but there may be good reason from an SEO point of view to publish duplicate content (as long as its yours) on various websites. Duplicate content is filtered so that the most relevant pages populate search results, but what is filtered for one person may not be filtered for another.  For example, if you were to post the same article to a site hosted in the UK and another hosted in the US, all things being the same the UK searcher would most likely see the page hosted in the UK and vice versa.
   
   This way content can be localized to show prices in local currencies, phone numbers, addresses, email, spelling differences etc and ensure the reader sees the correct version. (localization in itself helps ensure the correct version is seen)

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   1. 69

      thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Duplicate content will usually see one of the sites sent to the supplimentals, regardless of location.
      
      The danger is that as increasing duplicate content appears on Hubpages, this could negatively affect the rest of Hubpages.
      
      I personally would like to see stronger action taken against those users who publish nothing but reams of duplicate content.

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9. 77

   calicoasterposted 14 years ago

   Is it possible to post one of my poems here, which I have already posted in my blog or at some other places???

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      Disturbiaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I suppose you can try, what can really happen?  I did that with a poem I submitted to a contest.  They marked it as duplicate content, but nothing else has happened to it.

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10. 68

    Peter Hogganposted 14 years ago

    thisisoli, what are you talking about? Do you have any idea how duplicate content filters work? Duplicate content filters and supplemental listings are two entirely different things. Having two identical pages on different domains will cause neither to go supplemental, having two identical pages on the same domain probably will.
    
    Duplicate content filters are designed to deliver the most relevant content to the searcher, it’s not a penalty. Pages WILL be filtered but Google is smart enough to deliver the UK page hosted in UK to the searcher in the UK and filter the others, especially if some effort has been put into localization and geo targeting inbound links.
    
    A .com hosted in the US will be filtered out if the 'UK only results' option is selected on google.co.uk. The only way round this is to have content on a uk hosted site prefrably a .co.uk. The same problem holds true for most of the regional search engines and not only Google.
    
    If you control the sites or are working for a client that does, it also helps if you get country specific tld's but when not available you can geo target the site using webmasters tools.

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       thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       The information comes direct from Google and SEOmoz.
       
       I have to finish packing now but will dig out the relevant links when I am finished with this emigration malarky!

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          Peter Hogganposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Oli, don’t always believe what you read or hear from Google. By way of evidence type Article Spinning Using Synonym Substitution into google.com and also type the same into google.au.com also check out the results with the 'pages from Australia' option selected.
          
          Take a close look at the articles that rank number one, they are duplicates however Google is selecting a US hosted article for the .com search and an Australian hosted article for the au.com search.
          
          Using duplicate content in this way creates an opportunity to engage readers and access markets that were hitherto unreachable.
          
          Hope that makes things a little clearer and I hope the emigration goes well.

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11. 82

    Whitney05posted 14 years ago

    Plagarized content hurts everyone. The person that had work stolen, the person who stole the work, the website owners (if different than the theft) where the work is re-pasted, and everyone else who posts on the website.

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12. 60

    Disturbiaposted 14 years ago

    I read one of the astrology hubs and it was taken word for word right out of Linda Goodman's Sun Signs, a book I read back when I was in High School. I even mentioned in my comment that this hub sounded very much like something I had read back in the 70s just to see how the hubber who posted it would respond.
    
    I still have a copy of that book so I was able to compare. I have no issue with people posting their own original writings on their Facebook or MySpace pages, but for someone to "lift" almost an entire book and then have a really high hubscore and lots of positive comments really stinks.
    
    I was very curious why nobody else had picked up on it.

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       N. Ramiusposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Probably because no one read the book and saw the hub. Duplicate content filter only works if it is already online in some format.

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13. 89

    rmcrayneposted 14 years ago

    Recently I read an interesting comment about another hubber that got my curiosity and I checked out several hubs.  This hubber takes passages verbatim from multiple online sources and combines them into hubs.  The occasional original passages are fairly evident, as this person’s English is pretty good, but stands out because of grammar. 
    
    They are a prolific hubber with over 600 hubs.  Their 40 or so most recent hubs all have scores in the mid- to high 60s to high 70s.  I was pretty surprised that they have not been penalized more by hub scores. 
    
    Am I understanding from some of you here that these hubs are penalized in terms of google ranking, thereby impacting traffic and earnings?

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