HP keeps idling them, I keep unpublishing them.

1. 99

   Sally's Troveposted 12 years ago

   The latest of my hubs to be "idled" is one written specifically for hubbers about how to improve the readability of your HubPages hubs. Published in March, '09, with 143 comments and a current hubscore of 73, it is now deemed "unworthy" or whatever idling means.
   
   Shortly after this idling status was implemented, I decided to unpublish any hub that became idled rather than "tweak" it to get it back into featured status, an exercise that isn't worth my time and would also jeopardize the integrity of the article. This will be the fifth hub I've unpublished because it was idled. Five and counting.

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   1. 61

      weekendposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I wish somebody could enlighten me as to how this system is expected to work. When I publish a hub, my first traffic is from HubPages which dies off very quickly. It then takes a while until it shows in Google search results etc. ... but is idled during this time for lack of views? Ummm ...

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   2. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It's almost inevitable that a Hub written for Hubbers will be idled, because  HubPages has said that even if a Hub passes the QAP, it can be idled for low traffic.  As you know, the Hubber community is not large, so a Hub written specially for it is unlikely to get a lot of readers.
      
      I made the same decision as you, and I've now unpublished about one third of my Hubs.    However, I made an exception for those of my Hubs which were written for Hubbers, and I hope you will, too, because of their value to the community.   I've opted to show idled Hubs in my profile and put my Hubs for Hubbers in the slider.

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      1. 99

         Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That's a very interesting use of the slider. I hadn't thought of that. It makes sense for promoting hubs of specific interest to hubbers (who else reads hubber profiles?).

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         1. 87

            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            My thoughts exactly!

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         2. 61

            Nurseyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Marisa is a genius. ♡ ♡ ♡

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      LillyGrillzitposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Most of my early (2010) how to for Hubbers about Hubbing are idle. There have been many changes at HubPages since then, and I am not sure if they have a place any longer. Your  "100" score is making me lean toward scraping and un-publishing them...thanks for bringing this up.

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      1. 99

         Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         The handful of hubs I've written for hubbers, with one exception, remain worthwhile because they don't deal with the specific mechanics of HubPages. They are more geared to techniques writers may find useful within this HP environment.
         
         It is true that these hubs don't get much organic traffic (who in the global net environment is likely to search for "hubs" or HubPages?). Yet, they remain potentially valuable to the HP community (as Marisa pointed out about her HP-related hubs). While they may be valuable to the community, HP does not promote or support them; instead, it penalizes them for insufficient organic traffic. I don't have the time or desire to chase idle status around the block for the sake of having these hubs "featured", and I'd rather use the slider to feature other hubs, so instead, I'll find another venue in which to publish the idlers, or I'll just let them go to their graves.

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   4. 59

      tirelesstravelerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think they are deemed unworthy so much as they don't get noticed by the web crawler if nobody has looked at them in awhile.
      I go in and update a couple of words or links and the hubs are up and happy again within 24 hours.. I don't un publish unless it's something that I have totally lost interest in or the topic is no longer viable, I have been reading someone else hub and I get ideas and go recreate my hub.

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      1. 87

         Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That will work but only for a few weeks.  That means committing myself to checking on them regularly, which I don't want to do.

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         1. 65

            psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            In my experience it works for a period of about 6 months to indefinitely.  I normally update a hub each day and if one is idled I just make it that hub.

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            1. 87

               Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               How can you say that, when the Idled feature hasn't been in place for 6 months yet?
               
               When the "idled" feature was introduced, I 'reactivated' my idled Hubs by editing a couple of sentences in each.   That worked, but within a few weeks they were back to idled again.  Others tried the same thing and had the same experience.
               
               Patti Inglish has been successful getting her Hubs to stay Featured but she did it by adding a couple of paragraphs to each.

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2. 94

   MizBejabbersposted 12 years ago

   I haven't unpublished any of mine yet, but I am considering doing so. If I revamp any, I will probably republish them on another website to see if I get any better views. Some of mine actually are dated and it is probably time for them to go. I'm just grateful that someone can't line a birdcage with them for birds to poop on.

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