Is it possible that, even when a Hub is in Idle Status, it could still be found on the Web and get views and thereby come out of Idle Status? I ask this because I was searching the Web on a subject and accidentally found a Hub and when I checked the Hubber's profile, this particular Hub was not there; so I assumed it must be in Idle Status, but I still found it on the Web.
If I'm understanding correctly, you went looking for an unpublished hub.
When a hub is unpublished for any reason, the search engine will still have it indexed and cached for some time, and it will still show up in searches. Clicking the link however, results in an error as it is no longer there.
Same thing, in a way, applies to not finding on the profile. It is still indexed, although that will disappear through time, but although it is still published a sleeping hub won't show on the profile. Clicking the link will produce the hub whether sleeping or not, though, so conceivably it could gain traffic from somewhere and "awaken".
What happened was I stumbled on the Hub on Google search. I read the Hub, it was still viewable, but when I went to the Hubber's profile, it wasn't on his profile.
Probably the cached version as these can still be read and will state 'cached' on the search engine result. This version too will vanish after a week or three when Google completely de-indexes the unpublished article.
IMO .
The hub was crawled and indexed by Google . Google included it in it's search results .
After that, for some reasons , the Hub slid into the idle status .
But after the hub slid into the idle status , Google did not visit the hub, so the Hub is still visible in the Google search results even though the hub , being in the idle status, is not visible on the Hubbers profile. Google has no idea that the hub is in the idle status so it is still visible in the Google search results .
I could be wrong . Please correct me if I am wrong .
That makes sense to me. It takes time and it's unpredictable (seems to me) when Google crawls or when algorithms start to affect content. So, it is reasonable to think that the idle hub just hasn't been read yet, but it's still in the search engine results.
Can views really awaken an idled hub? I thought the only way to take a hub from idled to featured is for the author to edit it.
I'm not sure, but I thought since a lack of page views puts them to sleep, maybe views could wake them back up. That's what I'm wondering and asking.
As I am given to understand no amount of views will reawaken an idled hub. The only thing that will awaken it is an edit of some kind, no matter how small (I usually delete a picture or change the title slightly and this works). After 24 hours the hub will 'wake up' again, and then it will depend on further traffic to keep it 'awake'.
I have had a sort of Twilight Zone experience related to the topic of this forum thread.
A couple of days ago I am pretty sure I had two more Idle Hubs than I have today. I did edit one of them, it went pending, and it is now featured. But I don't know what happened to the other one. I don't even remember which one it was.
I know that I've been pretty distracted from HP recently (new grandbaby and all !) so there is the chance that I miscounted. But I really was pretty certain that there were two more than there are today, just a day or two or three ago.
I've tried to check by sorting by date of last edit and by number of views to see if I could remember which other Hub may have been Idle, but I haven't figured it out yet. The point, though, is that I think I have had a Hub that came out of Idle status without any action on my part - but I can't say for certain that it is true.
I looked again, and I was able to remember which Hub it was. I know for certain that it has been Idle for a while. In the past 7 days, it had two views. There is a possibility that another Hubber linked to it recently, although I'm not completely sure about that.
So, I agree with you, Nate, that there seems to be something that will bring an Idle Hub back into Featured status. Maybe it is organic traffic, but if that's the case, the bar may be pretty low.
It can still get views even in Idle status. This is because any backlinks that have been put out there on the World Wide Web, either by you or by other people, Facebook shares etc are still live links and will work. I am pretty certain that from other threads on this topic that only an edit can bring a hub out of Idle status, and this is because HP are working on the principle that Google like 'Fresh' content. Problem is that from what I am told you have to virtually rewrite the entire Hub before Google will treat it as 'fresh content', therefore the Idle status being so easy to get out of makes the concept virtually meaningless.
This is actually what was being discussed here. The Hub I mentioned is one that was in Idle status, and it came out of Idle. But I did not edit it. The theory was that perhaps those new views may have played an important role in bringing the Hub out of Idle.
Yes, it stands to reason: If the Hub has not been edited but comes out of Idle Status, then something made it "wake up". It's something else, traffic is the possibility that came to mind: Seems the most logical theory, the thing that would have a direct and good effect on a Hub.
I was basing my comment on your earlier post where you said you couldn't say for sure if you had edited it or not quote:
"The point, though, is that I think I have had a Hub that came out of Idle status without any action on my part - but I can't say for certain that it is true."
I suspect you probably did make a minor edit, (even correcting a typo would do it), but you should be able to tell for sure by making sure you find the correct hub in your account list, and then checking the date it shows for its 'changed' column. If the date coincides with the time it went 'live' again then you did make an edit and were correct when you voiced your uncertainty in your earlier comment.
Quote from the FAQ section of HP regarding getting hubs out of Idle status:
"To pull a Hub out of an Idle state, update it by incorporating feedback from friends and fans, editing it to catch any remaining typos, and adding fresh text, photos, and other media. After being edited, an Idle Hub's status will be Pending for up to 24 hours as HubPages reevaluates its status. Once that period has passed, it will return to a new resting state: either Featured or Idle.
Though well-composed seasonal Hubs should not become Idle, it is possible that Hubs getting very little traffic in the off season will fall into this state. To get Idle seasonal Hubs back in the saddle, edit them about a month before their peak season arrives. Their status will be re-evaluated and in most cases they will once again be Featured."
After rereading all of my responses, I see that I did not state clearly what I thought I had said.
In my first post, I knew that one of those two Hubs had been edited and had come out of Idle status, but I was not certain about the other one, because I didn't even remember which Hub it was at that time.
In my second post, I had remembered which other indirectly mentioned Hub (the "uncertain one") had been Idle, and I mentioned it and described two possible reasons why it might have come out of Idle status. But, in that post I did not state explicitly that I had not edited it.
In my third post, I did mention that I had not edited the Hub. I didn't spell out that I had already checked the last edited/changed date as you suggested (and that date turned out to be 10/16/11 !!!), but I actually had checked the date before I posted that I had not edited the Hub.
There are several possible explanations for this puzzle, including the possibility that the Hub had been labeled as Idle by mistake. (I don't think that's the case, because I agreed with the Idle status.) But I don't know how it would have had the label removed, because I never communicated with HP about it. I honestly don't know how it came out of Idle status. I'm happy to hear other theories.
The only theories I can suggest, based on what I know about the Hub, are that (a) a small number of views brought it out of Idle; and (b) someone may have linked to it. I'm basing that theory on an assumption I have made based on a comment I saw elsewhere. If someone will remind me of how to check on existing links (and the dates they were added), I can investigate that theory.
The way I check who has linked to my Hubs is through Webmaster Tools; from your homepage on Webmaster Tools, you click on your Hubpages site; page comes up, on left there's a link "Traffic"; click on that, on drop down selections, link says "links to your site"; click on that; there will be choices, I pick "most linked content", click on "more" underneath it; it shows list of hubs that are linked to other sites; click on the hub and it will show who linked to it.
Thanks, Nate, that was very informative and helpful!
I honestly do not understand this then. It goes against everything HP has said and you appear to be the first person to voice having experienced this. Might be worth messaging team@hubpages.com for clarification as to how this can have happened. Certainly it would be very unfortunate if other hubbers fall into the trap of thinking a few views created by FB shares etc are all it will take to come out of idle mode when in reality this is not going to make a difference without an edit taking place, (sounds like you experienced a glitch in the system).
A glitch is very likely the correct explanation. I will contact staff to see if they can shed any other light on this.
I did check for links in Webmaster Tools, as NateB suggested, and I suppose I am laughing at myself. Out of all my hubs and questions, the Hub in question is one of only a little handful that have no links.
If I learn anything after contacting staff, I'll post it here. That may take a few days.
I would love to hear what they come back with Aficionada as I too am curious as to how what you experienced could possibly have happened unless it was an error or glitch of some description. Do let us know
by Shasta Matova 12 years ago
I know that you can choose to display your idle hubs on your profile page, but I don't, because I don't want Google to see them at all and get confused by all those "do not follow." What this means is that my idle hubs are not available for anyone to see, and I have to actively...
by Shorebirdie 10 years ago
I have a hub that was moved here from Squidoo in September that I haven't touched at all. But, now it's unfeatured due to lack of engagement. I thought I had four months before stuff like that happened.
by AnnaMKB 8 years ago
First off, my hubs are transferred from Squidoo, and I am aware of various issues there. I'd already checked and edited hubs after the transition, so this is all post transfer.What I don't understand is why some of my hubs get unfeatured after I've edited them? One even got...
by Eugene Brennan 5 years ago
My article with the highest traffic is getting an edit. What's the logic behind this this if it's top of the SERPs and pulls in 1800 daily views? Is it for a better user experience or to potentially get more views? I would have though hubs with less views could have done with being edited.
by Melanie Palen 13 years ago
As per the new changes HubPages has made, I was required to make a few changes to the amount of Amazon products I was showing. I lowered the amount of products to lower than an average of 1 per 50 words on the hubs that HubPages has penalized. Furthermore, on hubs that weren't penalized I got rid...
by Skarlet 12 years ago
How Many of Your Hubs have been put into idle status?A few months ago one of my hubs went into idle and since that time several of my short hubs have transferred to idle.
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