Our Fellow Hubbers: Ships That Pass in the Night.

Most of us who have been around on Hub pages for a while - say, over two years - find we have a circle of fellow writers who we enjoy reading regularly, and appear to feel the same about us. This, plus all the satellites zinging around: hubbers who find us by accident, or while looking for a particular subject, or Internet browsers who find their way to our webpage via an article on this or that.

Then we have those who rapidly become “ships in the night,” who ask to follow us or have us follow them; who write and article or two and surely disappear for a multitude of reasons, Some would have found writing wasn’t for them, or that HP wasn’t the vehicle in which they would pin their rising star. Others may have been disillusioned when they read all the comments about how little money people made. Even more never intended to become regular contributors, (like my friend, Susan L., who wrote one hub 2 years ago about Cyprus and how people were being defrauded over there. (The TRNC). She needs to be spoken to about an update, because there have been many interesting developments since then).

The reason for this this article today is because diogenes decided to visit the list of hubbers who are - or once were - following him, and the ones he follows.

This proved a revelation and you might enjoy doing the same with your coterie.

So many names I would have thought were with us last week haven’t contributed for a year or more, and many more for several months! Their avatars jumped from the page. What has happened in their lives: some who were contributing regularly; others who had only published a few articles? So many of them were attractive females, which says something about Diogenes, (solitary old crab).

Time, indeed, flies by, especially, perhaps, for writers and all artists who become absorbed in other’s works as well as resourcing and creating their own. I know that time is malleable and there is “one time” when I am waiting for the anesthetic to take hold before my root-canal work, and “entirely another” when I am in full-flood putting words to paper. Or, indeed, when I am reading the latest Robert Crais or Lee Burke novel, savoring each word and trying to read slower and make it last. Rarely does television command the same concentration, the type that accelerates time.

There are a few - a very few - hubbers who no longer contribute but still comment on my hubs. They are surely the true lovers of words, not because my work has anything magisterial about it, but because their interest in these humble yet well-meant efforts didn’t flag when the ego-salve of publishing their own work ceased for a time.

It would be nice to contemplate that this contributor, too, would return to the well-spring of effort and creativity by others, even after his own contribution fades…

So very many new hubbers have proven to be a disappointment, a flash in the pan. I will not follow anyone with less than 20 hubs now. My hotmail/HP set up to notify me of every comment on hubs I have commented on, and on every new hub from my followers, or followed. It means that up to 150 emails greet me in the morning and many more during the day, especially in the evening and night in the UK when the US contributors come on line. (They are 5 to 7 hours behind depending on the time zone in that huge continent).

It’s a lot of messing around for something that pays nothing but rewards in some personal satisfaction and I am sure many do the same.

You hubbers own me! You can reduce me to happy tears (Yes, Sunnie!), or awe in the case of some hubbers who put so much work into their articles. (Too many to name). I truly marvel at the knowledge contributors bring to this site. I can see HP being as big as Wikipedia one day, there is just so much information free for the surfer.

We have so many really good poets! Mainly free verse, but with excellent imagery that really gets me thinking. In fact, as a published poet, I am gratified to seeing the muse make such a comeback as individuals try to make sense of their universe and tell us in complex ways. We do live in a very confusing time as science tries to understand a universe where time has little meaning and where all appears to be a mere manifestation of energy, which we might even create ourselves!

If any hairy male doubts the intelligence of women he should join hub pages and read the screeds of useful information and inspiring entertainment provided by the distaff set. Not to mention philosophy, family values and really great verse.

We are a special group on this site. We avoid the inanity of Facebook and the gossipy chit-chat of Twitter. Although I do notice a certain leaning towards attractive profile pictures, we are not a dating site (damn it!). Nearly all are strangers and will remain so, separated by the several gulfs of distance, age, lifestyle and culture.

The one great common denominator is the great English language, now used by about 50% of the world’s population - on their laptops if nowhere else. With this huge communication tool we can laugh at a joke posted by an African or Indian, be driven to tears by the pathos of a granny down in Georgia, or inspired by the poetry of a young housewife in Edinburgh. We understand how political thought and economical problems are often the same everywhere. We have hubbers from dozens of disparate nations and I am sure Hubpages does its bit to ease racial tensions - if only we could do more.

Well. Diogenes is 73 today! Yes, what an awful thought. But nice to know I’m not the only graybeard on this site.

May the sun smile on all my friends today!