Depersonalizing the HubPages Experience
Community Options Disappear
Today I posted the following question. “What happened to the BUTTON allowing us to share a good or interesting hub to our HP followers?” Some of you will shake your heads when reading this and wonder how a grown woman can be so out of touch with the ins and outs of he HP corporation. Fair enough.
OK, a little background about me then. I am not averse to making money. Currently I make 10-12 dollars a month on Hub Pages without really trying very hard at all. That’s cool. After all ten dollars is ten dollars.
Management Decisions Affect Labor
But I have a full-time and demanding day job that keeps me very busy. So I read what I like and I write what I want on HP, but I do not follow Questions or Forums or Weekly News-letters or Pronouncements from on HubPages high.
I do not usually know about changes to HP’s format, regulations or platform, until they smack me in the face. Not being able to find or use the SHARE with Followers button smacked me in the face.
I will admit to sharing my own hubs, but the great majority of the time I hit the Share button when I wanted to share a good piece of work with friends and community members who might otherwise have missed it.
A Long-time HP Community Member Speaks
So I posted the Question : “What happened to the BUTTON allowing us to share a good or interesting hub to our HP followers?”
The first HubPages member to respond was Jaye Wisdom:
Many of us want it back, but I doubt we'll get it. According to Simone's reply on a forum about this issue (who obviously felt the need to leave her mark on HP during her final week), she lobbied to get it removed mainly because she didn't think it looked good or blended with other options. Go figure!
If I seem disgruntled, it's because I am. The option to share a hub with followers was another positive element of HP that is no longer available...for no good reason and without allowing HP members to voice an opinion before the fact.
Labor is Frustrated and Confused
I responded to Jaye, of course:
Thank you Jaye. Since I avoid the forums I missed all that. Its funny, I used to think HP was arrogant and didn't care that much about hubbers. Now I think they are short-sighted, not terribly smart and are quite willing to shoot themselves in the foot.
What rational business, removes a feature that has no real downside, but is obviously popular with and appreciated by its customers? Only a short-sighted, not terribly smart business.
Funny, with all the buttons and methods clearly displayed on the right side of each Hub, to encourage us to link to many other social media sites, you would think that having one, just "one" button, for serious writers, poets, and thinkers to share work with each other wouldn't be too much to ask.
But apparently, one of HP's unspoken goals is to “weaken community bonds and connections" on this platform while increasing revenue. Increasing revenue is understandable.
Removing the Share button is not. It seems like the action of an arrogant and cranky corporate bully. How sad that the management of HP thinks so little of their users and customers.
Other Hubbers Weigh In
Theater girl, a great Hubber, responded: I know! Where did it go?
Audrey Howitt, our poetry princess, responded: Well rats!
Theater Girl responded: Definitely a mistake on their part.
Jaye Wisdom, who writes essays and short stories, responded again: ...I noticed the forum at the top of my feed this morning. Needless to say, I agree with your assessment: short-sighted, not terribly smart.
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I wonder how many long-time hubbers, the faithful ones who have been here for a long time, who contribute to HP regularly, and who help generate HP’s "income" through the advertisements attached to their hubs…
I wonder how many of them have noticed this new, disruptive, disheartening, and entirely unnecessary change? If you are new here, are purely commercially focused, or have no desire to belong to or function within a supportive community, then you may not have noticed and this may be no loss to you.
But it is a very, very big loss to many of us.
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HubPages really should make the right and community-oriented decision.
HubPages should restore the "Share with Followers" option.
Is anyone at HubPages listening? Anyone at All?
The Share Function is Up and Operational
First, thank you so much for your concern and for responding. If we are indeed a community with community concerns, then from time to time we need to respond like a community.
Second, as you probably have noticed, the Share function has been returned and as far as I can tell is operational on everyone's hubs. We all hope this is permanent. Thank you HubPages.
Third, I cannot take responsibility or credit for this (it would be nice if I could). After I posted my hub yesterday, someone pointed me toward the forums where quite a few hubbers had been voicing their concerns and complaints for about twenty hours.
Fourth, I am still glad I wrote the hub. It was a great exercise in "speaking Truth to Power" which we all need to do from time to time. And it was gratifying and encouraging that so many people responded. We are a community of many intertwined communities here on HP and that counts for something. :) Thank you. Theresa
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