Feed issues?

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   Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years ago

   Why has HP programmed it so that anyone that one comments on in the forum  is now added to one's feed? The fact that one comments on someone in the forum is not an indication that one wants to follow them. Likewise, if one comments on someone's hub that one is not following, all of a sudden, one now has their hubs pop up in one's feeds as well.
   
   I don't know about anyone else, but here is what I'm doing.
   
   Every time it happens, I say that I don't want to follow that person. However, as that would probably take me the rest of the life to delete every hub that HP puts into my feed, I've decided just to say that I don't want to read any stories of a particular type.
   
   This is not what I really want to do because it cuts off my nose to spite my face.
   
   However, I do not want to have to see someone with whom I had a pretty intense disagreement with on the forum now in my feed.

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      groopy11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This is just Hubpages' way of being able to keep track of notifying you if something new pops up in the discussion. There's way too much traffic to be able to link everyone to every forum that they've ever commented on otherwise.
      I do understand your feelings on seeing people that you've gotten into heated debates with but hopefully you can just zing 'em better the next time around.
      Now forgive me for unfollowing you but you understand, lol.

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         Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         This is not true. This isn't the notification on top. It is posting the new hubs that these people write - that I have no interest in seeing on my hubpage. For instance, I am a strong atheist. If I comment on the forum to a Christian, I now find that every single time that person writes a hub, it is on my hub feed. And this can NOT be adjusted in one's settings.

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            DMartelonlineposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Sophia after you comment there is a box below it where you can unfollow. It's checked by default (just like here in the forums). Just remove the check mark.

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               DMartelonlineposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               It actually says this: " Follow this Hub's comments"

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                  Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Obviously nobody gets this. I am NOT talking about comments on hubs.
                  
                  I am talking about the fact that if, six months ago, I commented on a hubber's hub, then I get every single hub that hubber writes forever more. I am notified every single time that hubber writes a hub. So are you, if you look at it.
                  
                  So, if you answer a question, respond to a hubber on the forum, notice a hub and pass a comment, you will be receiving all the hubs of that particular hubber every time they write a new hub .
                  
                  Without clicking on the 'don't follow this hubber' which comes up when it's on your feed, you can't get rid of it.
                  
                  So that leaves a choice...
                  
                  a) either make peace with the fact that one will always now have hubs posted on one's feed by hubbers one didn't ask to follow and one says that one doesn't want to hear from that hubber and it's an ongoing process.
                  
                  b) One doesn't comment on anything on Hubpages.
                  
                  There are no other choices.

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   2. 59

      courtyB3posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Smile and enjoy the traffic baby!

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         Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         It doesn't bring traffic to my hub. It is there to get me to visit other people's hubs. I don't visit other people's hubs.

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      IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I've given up understanding why my feeds are so full of stuff from people I have never followed.
      
      I've read this thread through and am still no nearer understanding, but on the plus side, it is nice to be introduced to new hubbers that I'd never have met otherwise.
      
      Talking of feeds, there are two hubbers here who I am in danger of unfollowing because they seem to 'share' every hub they read!
      
      Girls, there is such a thing as over-exposure! You two share each others hubs, as well as share other stuff, but I am getting sick of it.
      
      They will likely not even know I am referring to them, because some people here have signed up as followers to so many, there is no way they will have kept track.
      
      I occasionally share stuff, but really occasionally, not every day!
      
      Sorry, Sophia, side-tracked a little on your thread. I would be annoyed too if I found myself subjected to everything someone said after an argument, which I think was your point, really.

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2. 91

   Millionaire Tipsposted 11 years ago

   You can set up your notifications in this way: Go to your accounts page and click on "following".  Then on the left side, there is a box that lets you choose hubs, topics, etc.  Click on one of them.  At the top of the page, there will be a checkbox for the default option.  Unclick those boxes, and you won't automatically be added.
   
   http://hubpages.com/my/activity/topics-following

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Not true. I am only following three or four people, and I am not following any interests whatsoever. Nothing is ticked. The hubs that are popping up of those of people where I have made a comment in a forum. HP has been programmed for a while now to assume that if one commented on someone's hub or responded to someone on the forum, that one is interested in reading their hubs. I am not.

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         SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         The 'Follow this forum thread' is unchecked?

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I am NOT talking about forums. I am talking about my personal hub page where it gives the hubs of the people you follow.

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               SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Sorry I misinterpreted the opening line "Why has HP programmed it so that anyone that one comments on in the forum"

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   Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years ago

   This is the page I'm talking about.
   
   http://hubpages.com/feed/

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4. 76

   MickiSposted 11 years ago

   Yes, when you comment on a forum thread someone started, or a Hub they wrote, or a Question they asked, you are automatically 'following' that content. Anything (Hub, thread, question, or person) that you 'follow' appears in your Feed.
   
   We do this auto-follow because it makes it very easy to find other Hubbers and new content. This is essential to having a vibrant Community.
   
   You can 'unfollow' people, threads, questions, and Hubs that you no longer want in your feed. You can also filter your feed by clicking "Filters" to the top right of the status box to control what is displayed in your Feed.
   
   In the spirit of continuing to build a strong and vibrant Community that encourages the discovery of authors and content, HubPages is unlikely to change this implementation.

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The filters have nothing to do with hubbers - only with whether one would like to follow certain stories, questions, etc.
      
      I am only interested in what the hubbers I follow say and do. That's why I'm following them. This is the way you used to have your feed, and you used to have a pretty vibrant community then.
      
      What has happened is that HP has changed its focus from the emphasis on search engine traffic to internal traffic. While I understand the business reasons for this, it tends to make some of us just stop interacting. If the price of responding to someone is that one now has to keep blocking people on one's feed because by responding to them once, one has all their activity come up on one's feed, then it's probably best not to talk to people and interact with people that one isn't following.
      
      In any event, thank you for confirming this.

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         Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         You could try just scanning the feed. It doesn't take long. I'm surprised you have over 400 followers when you only want to interact with 4 people though.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Micki, I think you're missing the point.  Sophia is happy to follow a forum thread she's posted to, that's not the issue.   She's saying that if she replies to another Hubber on a forum thread, she doesn't just get notifications about posts on that thread - she gets notifications about that Hubber's new Hubs.
      
      Surely that's not intentional?

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         Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Marisa, you are correct. That's exactly what I mean. I don't understand why nobody else gets this.

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         MickiSposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         That's not how the feature works. You are not auto-following the person. You are auto-following the thread, hub, question you participate in.

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Perhaps, Mickis, this is not the way it's meant to work. However, it IS the way it is working. For instance, I am NOT following GM Williams. In fact, I am only following three people.
            
            However, every time GM Williams publishes a hub, it comes to my page. The latest is this:
            
            HubOnly Children Are Not Selfish, Spoiled, Lonely, Dependent, Wimpy, Nerdy, Anti-Social, Or Dysfunctional70
            Follow (5)
            by ErinElise shared by gmwilliams 17 hours ago
            
            
            Please explain to me why his new hub is on my page when I haven't commented on it. I repeatedly get new hubs on my page of people I am NOT following.
            
            I have been pointing this out for six months and nobody gets it. Please will you have the courtesy to look at this. I am absolutely sure that there is no point in my putting who I want to follow if HP assumes I want to follow people just because once upon a time I commented on something they said in the forum.

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            1. 70

               Matthew Meyerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               @Sophia Angelique
               
               Sorry to hear about the issues you are having with the feed.
               
               Part of the issue seems to be that site notifications, email notifications, and the information on the feed, although similar, are different systems.
               
               The feed has logic behind the scenes that tries to find other things that you might be interested in.  Sometimes this is Hubs that are in topics you follow or users with whom you have interacted.
               
               There are controls for the feed via the filters here:
               http://hubpages.com/feed/
               
               Click "edit" next to "Filter by type".
               
               Is there a specific Hub/comment/etc in the feed that you believe you are receiving in error?
               
               You have much more granular control of the site and email notifications.
               
               It sounds like you may be better served to use the email or site notification system which you can access here:
               http://hubpages.com/my/activity/online-notifications

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  So in other words, whatever you set your filters at, the feed will sometimes unilaterally decide to give you stuff you haven't asked for?
                  
                  It's a huge assumption on HubPages' part to think that just because I replied to someone on the forums, I give a damn what they've got to say about anything else.  In most cases, the opposite is true!  For one thing, it's very common to "interact" with people you strongly disagree with on the forums.   If you do, it's likely you'll want nothing to do with their other activities. That's the problem Sophie is facing.  But there are also many Hubbers who spend time in the forums answering newbie questions, and we don't want to start being bombarded with their Hubs - if we wanted to follow them, we would!!
                  
                  You explain to Sophie how to manage the filters - but can you explain how we can set the filters so we can remove this unwanted cr@p without losing out on the stuff we do want to see?

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                     Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Marisa, that is exactly right.
                     
                     What's happened here is HP wants to get as much interaction going between hubbers as possible so that the traffic can be increased so that they get better rankings. It doesn't matter to them whether the traffic is internal or external.
                     
                     So if someone like me says I'm not interested, the software is so programmed that they assume I want to hear from people that I have commented on, or any topic that I might had had something to say about 6 months ago.
                     
                     There is absolutely nothing I can do about this. They assume (wrongly) that if I see these hubs, I will click on them to read them. Perhaps most do, but I'm pretty sure that some of us don't, and really don't want to see the hubs of people that we are not following.

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                  Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Matthew Meyer,
                  
                  Have you looked at my account.
                  
                  I am following three people.
                  I do not follow any topics - not a single one.
                  I do not have any notifications marked at all.
                  
                  I am NOT doing anything wrong. I understand exactly how the system works. I understand the notification system. I know how feeds work.\
                  
                  What is it that you do not get? PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY FOR THE PAST SIX MONTHS I AM GETTING HUBS THAT PEOPLE HAVE JUST WRITTEN WHEN I AM NOT FOLLOWING THEM AND WHEN I HAVE NOT INDICATED INTEREST IN ANY TOPIC WHATSOEVER.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            It's good to know that's not how it's supposed to work.  Sophie is trying to tell you, that's not how it is working.   In other words, she's reporting a bug.

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5. 75

   jacharlessposted 11 years ago

   Well, am quite partial to the feed trough. It is inspiring and handy.
   For instance, I published my first official Ode the other day. Since then, Odes appear in the feed. So it nice to see what others are Ode-ing about. Plus other items, forums, etc. And actually just realized the filter for accolades, status updates was there. lol. Short of it, the internal is a huge win-win situation for everyone. It breeds new pubs, friends, ideas, conversations, comments -and to those who qualify- some cash. Not seeing the downside to it.
   
   James

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      Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree. I find things there that I wouldn't normally find.

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6. 84

   rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

   I'm not sure that is correct.  I don't notice hubs of each hubber that I have responded to on a thread or hub, but I don't really know that for certain, because my feed is quite active.  The first thing I do when I make a comment is untick the follow box.
   
   But I love the feed and use it often when I'm on HP.  The filters make it easy to find what I'm looking for plus I follow a number of topics and like to see what's being published.

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      RebekahElle, well, I do notice because I'm not following any topics and I only follow three hubbers, so it's immediately apparent to me when something is there that I don't have any interest in. Quite honestly, I don't want a lot of traffic on my feed. It means that if I don't log in for a week or so, that I can't just look at the top page (as it used to be). Now I have to go back to see if the people I actually want to follow have written something.

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         SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I know this doesn't solve the problem - but I simply ignore my feed and checkout the email alerts I have set - maybe not the most efficient way but at least I get to see only what I want to see....

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Simey C, I do not want to receive emails from hubpages. The way I check is go to my feed page and see what is new - that I want.
            
            I am fully aware that I can work around the problem.
            
            However that is not what I want to do
            
            What I would like for HP to do is stop the practice.

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         rebekahELLEposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         If that is all you want to see, why not just check the three profiles you follow?  It is unlikely the feed will change to please every hubber.

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            RebekaELLE because I am receiving so much other stuff that I can't see anything else. It takes too much time. I don't want to see 5 minutes on my feed to see if someone I want to read is there. I just want to be able to glance at it and tell.
            
            This used to be that way.
            
            It changed about six months ago and nobody wants to admit it.

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7. 79

   Aficionadaposted 11 years ago

   I have a theory and some ideas, but they may be wrong or meaningless.  But first, I have this question that keeps popping around in my mind, and that is, what is it that you Sophia actually do want to see in your feed?  I would guess any new Hubs by the three Hubbers you follow. What about posts in any forums that you are following? And comments on Hubs you are following? Anything else?
   
   My theory is that it may be precisely because you are following so few Hubbers and no topics that the Feed algorithm is having such a hard time figuring out what it is you would like to see in your feed.  As Matthew said, it has behind-the-scenes logic to try to offer up what would interest you - and what clues do you give it to help it know what those interests would be?
   
   I wonder also (as part of my theory) whether maybe the feed logic tries to balance in some way the number of forum comments, answers, Hub comments and new Hubs that are offered up in any given feed.  If so, then if the Hubbers you follow have not published recently, the Feed algorithm would be scrambling around to see what other Hubs might possibly be of interest and, barring any other clues, it would use your recent forum interactions as a sort of indicator.  But for those of us who do follow a number of Hubbers and topics, it has more information to go on and so it doesn't need to guess at our interests.
   
   So that's my theory, wacky as it may be.
   
   For checking on the Hubbers you follow, and what they have written recently, it's easy to find that information on your account page> Hubbers you are following.  And Notifications should let you know of new comments and responses, if you are following any forum threads and Hubs.
   
   But in all I am saying, you should realize that I rarely use my feed, and so as far as I know I could be receiving all kinds of notifications that would upset me if I knew about them.

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Afficionada, That's exactly what has happened. The hubbers I'm following haven't written for a while, but then I don't write that much either these days. Just now and then!
      
      I do understand that the algorithm is doing exactly what you say.
      
      Essentially, I don't like being fed anything by someone else to read, unless I've asked for input.
      
      My strong driving interest is cause and effect with regard to cultural anthropology. In other words, I look at all the different threads of events in the world and then I put them together and calculate what the outcome will be. I don't know if you have ever read someone like Jared Diamond, but I evaluate current civilizations, science, technology, climate trends, and then I look to see what the most like scenarios will be.
      
      Hubpages is not the kind of place where this kind of thing is examined and written about. There isn't really a name for what I am doing. I essentially look at human systems intertwined with mother nature's system and see what the outcomes will be.

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8. 79

   Aficionadaposted 11 years ago

   But you know, there have been a few forum threads and Hub titles that I have seen that touch on those issues, and I believe there are Hubbers who have interests somewhat similar to yours - maybe not a huge number, but I believe there are some.
   
   Some sub-sub-topics may include Hubs you would like. In Education and Science, the subtopic Life Sciences offers the sub-subtopics population biology; bioinformatics; ecology; and ecotoxicology, which should touch on issues you are interested in. Then, there might be some sub-subtopics of Economics or Sociology and Anthropology that would work; Politics and Social Issues has some subtopics, but I didn't follow that path very far.
   
   I forget, from the time I signed up to follow topics, exactly how far down the tree we can narrow our topics. It could be a fun exercise for you to check out a few of them for a few days or weeks, to see if you find any hubs worth reading or Hubbers worth knowing about.
   
   When it comes to the lists of recent Hubs, whether in my feed or in an e-mail, I look at them the same way I would the index of a magazine. There might be some articles that will interest me enough to read, but I'm never interested in all of them and some days I don't read any at all. It's always my choice.

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It is kind of you to want to help, but it's just so much easier to just check various news sources each day to see what is happening in the world.
      
      What I am doing is using a mathematical like formula of cause and effect to figure out future events in the world. Futurists do this. Yes, I read the work of futurists, but I also do the work myself. I read all news, inventions, research, etc, to see which is likely to affect trends.
      
      Here is a link about futurists
      http://www.wfs.org/node/765
      
      I'm not looking at what others say is going to happen in the future. I am doing the work of a futurist myself. I have been doing this since I was a very small child.
      
      Anything can have an effect on the future. If, tomorrow someone invented eternal life tomorrow, it would affect the future. If America lost the reserve currency within a year, it would affect the future. If Romney won the election, it would affect the future, but if Obama won the election, it wouldn't affect it so much. If there was a violent hurricane that wiped out Miami, it wouldn't affect the future so much. But if the ice caps melted, it would.
      
      I can't do a search for "which factors affect the future." These are things I've studied for a lifetime and intrinsically known since I was a very small child. I recognize the factors the moment I see them, but can't tell you what they are, until I see them.
      
      So, no, it's not something I can find on HP. It's more about breaking news, whether that news comprises weather, planetary orbits, political events, a new invention, etc. It just has to be something that will shift our current future path into another future path.

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         Aficionadaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         My suggestions were not actually intended to help you find information that exists and that you can find elsewhere, but instead were intended to help give you some tools to tweak your Feed.  Based on my theory, if you select more topics and Hubbers to follow than you currently have, then the Feed would not have to shift to serving up Hubs from people you have interacted with in the forums.
         
         In regards to the timeliness of information on HubPages, I do not see any one formula that describes the whole of the domain, any more than I see a formula that describes the skills or the insights of all Hubbers. I have seen some Hubs that have been written within hours of a newsworthy event. They may or may not be worth your attention, but they do exist.
         
         Just as with the Hubs that are displayed (in your Feed) from Hubbers you follow, the Hubs that are displayed in your Feed based on topics you follow are merely suggestions of Hubs that might interest you.  There is no obligation on your part to click through and read them if you find better information on Yahoo, Slate, LifeScience, WebMD, Google Reader, or any other source - or even if you do not find any better source of information.  The Feed includes a compilation of suggestions, not commands.

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Fan, thank you, I didn't get that. Overfocused, I guess.
            
            I think it's just that I don't want my feed constantly moving with new information. That's why I follow so few people. I get overwhelmed by too much movement very quickly.
            
            What I will do is just avoid my feed and put a notification in for comments on hubs to be sent to me.
            
            Thank you for your time and effort. Always appreciated.

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   rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

   Have you checked the Sociology and Anthropology Topic categories?  You may be surprised at what is there.  These hubs/hubbers are not found unless you look for them, but they are here.  That's possibly my favorite thing about HP -  discovering writers who write fascinating, interesting hubs.  That's a huge reason that I follow a number of topics.

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      RebekahELLE. As written above...

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    Aficionadaposted 11 years ago

    You are very welcome, of course. 

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