How I was Punished By Hubpages
So I made a fatal mistake and am now paying for it. Involved with Hubpages for less than two weeks and already in the black books. This reminds me of being back in school when the teacher walks in and says "Ian -- Out in the hall and take your desk with you!" I don't even know what I did but obviously the teacher thought that I was better suited to be out of the classroom.
Well, here I am again, fifty years later and back in the hall. I thought I was doing really well and writing some great articles. Heck -- less than two weeks on the job and nominated for a HubNuggetsaward. I didn't even know what that was but it was right there in the email that came in. This made me even more driven to write and I was having a ball. Being a senior, your choices in life become somewhat limited and by the way, how did I get to be so old, so fast? But then I purchased an online program that mentioned the name "Hubpages" and so, I thought I would try it out and perhaps make some extra cash eventually.
I jumped right in and like most people, signed up real fast, just glancing over the terms and agreements and then ticking the box that says, "I agree". I was never good at reading the fine print like most of us but, I was now a member -- how cool is that? My hubs were just flying out of my head and I began watching my score rise at a dramatic pace. I read somewhere that Google really likes you if you get to 100 and so, my goal was 100. I was always good at English and writing in school but hated Math. Well -- no math here except for the numbers in my score. I was looking real good and I thought to mself that I may even make 100 in the third week. But I made one fatal mistake and am now sitting back out in the hall.
I was devastated and wrote an angry email to these heathens -- "The Punishers". The day before, I had sent in an article on "How to Download Movies Online for Free". Now I had done my research to see if this was permissable and I saw that others were writing about the same thing and that there were tons of videos on YouTube giving step by step instructions. Here was an article that someone asked me to write about and I went for it. When I pushed "Publish", a box came up saying that there were links in my Hub that were not permissable and that my Hub could not be published. Well, alright. So I figured I could go back in and take the links out and correct this error. But the damage was already done.
I woke up the next morning and went straight for my computer to get started at correcting the article. When I signed in, I noticed that my score had dropped. My stomach all of a sudden was filled with butterflies and my face felt flushed and hot. "Oh, No" --what the heck happened. I had recently joined in with one of the groups in the forum section, was receiving fan mail and correspondence on my articles and was havin a blast with this new adventure. Then, I was crushed -- my score -- my score. That's all I could think about. I felt sick and at the same time, bitterness and hate for whoever had done this to me.
I wrote off an ugly email to Hubpages and practically demanded that my score be raised back up. I had done nothing wrong. That article about the movies had never even made it to "Published" status but here I was with a lower score and that meant that somebody sitting up there on the throne was punishing me -- punishing me for an article that wasn't yet published. I was being taught a lesson that I had better smarten up and read the rules a little more closely.
I wrote back saying that no one person, no one
government and no one country owns the internet. This was the
information highway developed for all people thoughout the world.
Anything you ever wanted to know was available on this highway,
as it should be. If I wrote an article about "How to
download free movies", then there must be other articles
like this on the internet -- and there are!
There are literally hundreds of articles, links and programs to
download movies for free but I was being punished for writing
about this because Hubpages had rules. O.K --that's fine -- but
the article never made it to publication and not one of you
readers ever got to see it, so why the drop in points? I was
being Punished by one or two people that started up Hubpages and
Why ---- because they Can!
Big Brother is watching.
Well, then you better take off that thing that says everyone can
join and feel free to write about anything you want, something
you feel would be of interest to others. Well --- downloading
free movies would be of great interest to others. But a select
few have decided that this was not about to be published for fear
that Google would not take kindly to this article and so ---
admit it --- the Hubpages team decided that this article was a
risk to publish because the movie industry would read it and tell
Google and then Google would scold Hubpages which would lower
their score.
So -- my score got lowered instead as a way to tell me --- stop
writing about anthing you want and read our rules or you will be
banned.
What happened to this freedom of speech thing? Am I living in China?
O.K. -- so I made a slight mistake and you
punished me. My score was at 85. Now it's 82.
The more I write and join in with the Hubpages community, the
lower my score goes.
I have no more interest in getting up at the crack of dawn and
writing out articles. So what if I get banned. I've been in the
hall before -- fifty years ago. Nothing has changed or maybe, I
haven't changed.
I quit a safe government job 33 years ago to go on my own because I love a good challenge. I hate having a boss over my head. I love the freedom to do what I want to do and I love making money in ways that others would never think of. But now I find that once again, there is someone watching over my shoulder, watching every little thing I write about. I have lost my confidence and now get up in the morning just to see that my score is still the same or lower.
I began watching the videos on what Hubpages is all about and found them really interesting. I never knew the faces in behind the scenes until I saw the videos. These were great people -- young but really good people and I felt bad about sending off that stupid degrading email a few day ago.
If you're new to Hubpages, I urge you to sit back and watch the videos before you start writing. The members of Hubpages are really supportive because they were all new at some point as well. We are all here because we like to write and love to share our thoughts with each other and help out if we can. It's always nice to earn extra dollars here too. I have .75 cents in my account now and can't wait until I make my first buck. I think I'll go out and celebrate.
If Google and Hubpages once liked me, I doubt very much they still do and probably wish I would go away. But I think I have something still to offer. It just won't be about recipes and things like that. I actually enjoyed my days in the hall fifty years ago so this kind of punishment brings back some pretty good memories for me.
This article will probably be banned as well -- but if you are reading this, I'll be absolutely astonished and I think now is a good time to thank all my peers for voting for me in the HubNuggets contest this week. That trophy is gonna look real pretty sitting on the mantle above the fireplace.
I think there's a better chance of Hell freezing over.
