There are so many incredibly talented authors publishing articles to HubPages every day. The quality of much of the work, here, is so high, that I'll frequently come straight to HubPages to do research on specific topics rather than to Google or other search engines.

There is a contrasting element to that, as well. Because search engines favor HubPages so strongly, it attracts the riff-raff - the dregs of society - the social networking, internet marketing wanabee. They are attracted to HubPages with the promise of high Google pagerank and they post their spammy little advertisements right in our faces.

I've grown weary of all the spam filled, no value hubs that people slap on this domain. It stinks up the place and devalues the resource. I wish people would put a little time and effort into creating content rich hubs. If they did, it would benefit all of us on hubpages.

There, now. I feel better, already. Even though this hub sounds much like a childish rant, it's really a multi-faceted plea; first, to all the new hubbers just joining the hubbing crowd, and second, to all the dedicated users of HubPages. Let's unite with a cause. Together we can create a new, improved HubPages, devoid of the "Free Classified Ads" placed here by the get-rich-quick-with-no-effort crowd.

If you are a new Hubber, please take some time to look through the Terms Of Use. Pay particular attention to parts 3 and 4 of these rules.

http://hubpages.com/help/user_agreement

There are some unofficial rules for Hubbers. Read and follow the golden rules on this hub about attraction marketing. If everyone would follow these rules, this would be a much better place.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Attraction-Marketing--Selling-or-Serving--A-Change-in-Attitude

Please pay attention to your HubScore. If it hovers around 50 or less, something is wrong. Either you need to add some additional elements to your hub, you used content that is copied from another source, or it is just plain BAD and nobody wants to touch it.

Here are ways to increase your hubscore.

Here's a list of suggestions that will help the cream rise to the top.

1. If you see a hub you like, it's well written, and provides usefulness, always give it a thumbs up. This is a no-brainer way to push the best to the top.

2. Be sure to leave a comment on good work. Let the author know that they've done a good job. Provide your own thoughts or twists to their topic. Add any suggestions for further improvements. Ask a question pertaining to the hub.

3. Take the time to give a thumbs up on StumbleUpon, Digg, and any other social media that you are using. Add it to your Del.icio.us bookmarks. Subscribe to the Author's feed through Bloglines or your favorite RSS feed reader.

4. Direct traffic to the good hubs by linking to them. Provide links in your related hubs, webpages, or blog posts.

5. If you find a hub that is spammy, poorly written, and appears to be quickly slapped together without thought or research, don't feel bad about giving a thumbs down.

Since I'm typically a compassionate person who resists doing anything that might hurt someone's feelings or lower their self worth, I had a difficult time with this. I've since come to realize that it is more important for people to know the truth. If their work is substandard, they need to know, so they can either put in more effort and improve the quality of their work or they can go somewhere else where shoddy work is condoned.

I still refrain from giving thumbs down to work simply because I disagree with them. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Just because I disagree with their opinion, doesn't mean that it is a substandard piece of work. At the same time, I will not likely give a thumbs up to an article that I passionately disagree with.

6. Finally, refrain from giving any attention to lousy Hubbers. Commenting on their hubs only raises their scores and attracts more attention. Even negative attention can raise the score on their Hubs.

This is really tough for me. My inclination is to argue with them, or offer suggestions. The problem is that I don't know how to communicate the suggestions to them without drawing attention to them and raising their score.

The HubPages staff has done an amazing job of creating a simple and effective place for writers to publish their work in a high profile location on the internet. What more can they do?

The rest is up to us - the Hubbers. With very little effort, we can do our part to further improve this great site. Let's all step up to create the new, improved HubPages.