Readers Vote for Hub of the Day

1. 92

   Sue Adamsposted 11 years ago

   There have been so may forum threads and posts (some quite offensive to HOD authors),  that I would suggest the HOD should be selected by readers votes.
   
   
   
   Under the "useful, funny, etc." chain, a link: "Vote"  would allow a reader to vote for the hub as HOD.
   
   The hub that gets the most votes becomes HOD.
   
   Possible?

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   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Or how about once a month, users with a score over 70 can nominate one article they'd like staff to consider for the front page.  It would be harder to cheat the system and staff wouldn't be overwhelmed with nominations.

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   2. 69

      Richard-Bivinsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Rising Stars are voted on by the community why not HOD?
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/115602

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   3. 67

      relacheposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Sounds to me like a system that would be gamed within the first ten seconds of being implemented.

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2. 0

   calculus-geometryposted 11 years ago

   Actually, I have a simpler suggestion to improve the quality of HOTDs: Relieve one of the HOTD pickers of his or her editorial duties. I have no idea who the culprit is, but the staff must know which person is always picks duds for front page honors. 2/3 of the time the HOTDs are decent, but the other third of the time they're terrible -- dumb subject matter, poor grammar, typos, bad formatting, etc. Taste tends to be consistent and I would guess the crap HOTDs are all selected by the same person. Probably this person is just picking hubs written by his or her friends. Or is trolling. If the latter, I say hats off to you staff troll! for you have provided much fodder for laughter and flame wars around here.

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   1. 95

      LongTimeMotherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting thought.
      
      Also have to wonder why so many 'questionable' HOTDs are written by apprentices. Is it to make the A program reward participants? Without doubt HOTD draws traffic and raises ones stats for a while.
      
      I think a staff member should have ultimate responsibility for choosing because in theory it allows them to ensure the quality is high enough to represent HP in a positive light. But as you say, they need to allocate the right staff member.

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      1. 0

         calculus-geometryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         In recent memory, one of the most interesting hubs of the day was by Randy Godwin.
         http://randygodwin.hubpages.com/hub/Geo … olina-Bays
         And I believe it was nominated by AALite, an apprentice program alumnus.  Now, maybe they are friends and that motivated her selection, but still it proves that HOTDs can be very good -- you just need a good a reader to find them. 
         
         Someone on the HOTD selection committee is simply not qualified for the job, but could easily be replaced by someone who is.

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         1. 95

            LongTimeMotherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Hadn't seen this hub although I have read many of Randy's hubs in the past. Just took a look at it now and, yes, this is the type of hub that we can all be proud of.
            
            Hard to imagine it took four years before he was nominated for HOTD though!

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            1. 84

               IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Randy is one of the best writers here on HP. His short stories are wonderful - they should be in print!
               Unfortunately, Randy also tends to be outspoken, and staff have permanently banned him from the forums.
               That should not prevent his work from being chosen, and indeed, it didn't.
               HOTD is a relatively new introduction, and it is harder for established hubbers to get their work show-cased, in light of the staff's preference for friends'/Apprentices' work.
               I'd be against hubbers voting for HOTD hubs simply because there are a number of cliques here on HP and the results may be skewed in favour of popular writers.

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               1. 82

                  gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  +1,000,000,000,000 in agreement.  The HOTD should be chosen by a nonpartial consensus based upon the overall content, quality, and merits of the hub in questions, not popularity and who likes who!  The vote should be made by impartial members of the HubTeam or HubStaff.

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                  1. 78

                     LuisEGonzalezposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Amen to that! Although I like that it be chosen from votes.

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3. 92

   Sue Adamsposted 11 years ago

   Integrated into the
   
   
   
   "useful, interesting etc, bar" counts up automatically. Then it is just a question of programming a daily winner.The cheating factor would be same as all with all the other buttons on that bar, when found out, ban the bstrds. And you are right, Calculus, Hub of the Week, Hub of the Month, all possible.
   
   
   This would be different Richard, easier to use, and available to non-signed up readers too, not just the community. The voting button would appear on each hub next to the "interesting" button as shown above.

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   1. 95

      LongTimeMotherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I would agree with a 'nominate' button on the bottom - or even HOTD? (with the question mark) to indicate a nomination - but I still believe a staff member should decide on the final choice - then check it and make sure it is as close to perfect as possible before being 'shown'.
      
      If the HOTD is simply a popularity contest, new writers will not have a hope of competing against those who are more established. We should nominate new writers as well.

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      1. 60

         Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         All votes are unfortunately abused through the popularity process.  If they really mean what they say about QAP why not randomly select the highest scorers?
         
         Or maybe they already are...

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4. 82

   Robinposted 11 years ago

   HODs are chosen by a few staff members; I am one of them.    I don't think it would be possible to have HODs selected solely by Hubbers because we have backend tools that Hubbers don't have access to, e.g., dupe scores, keyword stuffing numbers, etc. However, I like the idea of nominating Hubs for us to review; it would be really helpful for us. There are many Hubs that we don't see that could be HODs.  One of the reasons that Apprenticeship Hubs are chosen is because they appropriately use and attribute photos.  A fantastic Hub is disqualified for not using photos properly.  It is incredibly frustrating to us when we see an amazing Hub that could easily be a HOD, but it has stolen photos. 
   
   Thanks for the suggestion, Sue.  I will bring it up in the Thursday Community meeting. 

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   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Robin, If HubPages trusts MTurkers to score hubs for the QAP, then why not let them nominate hubs for HOD? They are impartial judges who know HP's quality standards better than most.  Some people on the HOD selection committee are just phoning it in and robo-picking whatever an apprentice has recently published.  That method doesn't achieve the HOD's purpose, which is to showcase the best HubPages has to offer.  If committee members are too pressed for time to look beyond a small group of authors, then perhaps fresh sets of eyes are needed.

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      1. 82

         Robinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I wish we were robots!  That would make choosing the HOD a lot easier!  We look at Hubs and their QAP ratings when we do our selection, so in a way, the QAP helps us and introduces us to new authors. Unfortunately, many do not meet our HOD criteria.  Having Turkers choose the HOD would not work, because, as I said in my earlier post, they don't have access to all of the information on a Hub like we do. 

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         1. 0

            calculus-geometryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Yes I understand that MTurkers could not choose them, but could they nominate them?  When they are giving a hub a rating, they could click a button that says "nominate this for hub of the day" that then puts it in a queue.  It would provide a way for staff to look at more non-apprentice hubs that have the potential to be on the front page. Thanks.

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   2. 70

      Matthew Meyerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      We discussed this in our community meeting and decided not to implement this feature at this time, but are taking this into consideration as a future development allowing readers to nominate Editor's Choice Hubs to be considered for Hub of the Day.

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5. 92

   Sue Adamsposted 11 years ago

   Robin,
   
   Sorry this is a long post.
   
   I did not mean chosen by Hubbers, I meant chosen by the reading public, whether they are hubbers or not.
   
   Anyway, thank you for considering nominations. 2 questions to put to the meeting:
   
   1.  Could the general public nominate? So it is not such an inside job?
   
   2.  Could the function be added to the "useful etc. bar" as originally suggested?
   
   I like the idea of HOD, but with Editor's Choice as well (yet another experiment), I wonder if HP is not overdosing us with incentives. Allow me to illustrate with a sad short story:
   
   Sue, the Carrots and the Worm
   
   Once upon a time HP decided they would give hubbers incentives to publish high quality work. Like carrots, you know, to make a donkey walk faster. The first carrot that Sue encountered on HubPages looked like this:
   
   
   
   It was called the HubMob carrot, now replaced by the Rising Stars carrot.
   
   A few of Sue's articles made it to HubMob status. She was, at the time,  very proud, excited and encouraged. So she published many more articles.
   
   A few years later, HP decided it would give Sue even more incentives to continue publishing high quality work. So they gave Sue a few more carrots. Over time, HP gave Sue an entire carrot salad with the following ingredients:
   
   HP's Carrot Salad
   
   Rising Stars (for new hubbers)
   Hub of the Day (for HubMasters?)
   Editor's Choice Hubs(Teachers' pets?)
   layered with
   Hub Scores
   Hubber Scores
   Commenter Scores
   Likes / Dislikes, Useful, Funny, Awesome, Beautiful, Interesting,
   Garnished with plenty of accolades.
   
   One day, Sue found a worm in the salad. The worm was called Related Search. Sue  spent a lot of her time trying to get rid of this worm, but even with the help of many friends, she failed. It got so bad, Sue was now spending all her available hubbing time either eating carrot salad, or trying to get rid of the worm, and she had no time left to write new articles.
   
   At that desperate point, a thought occurred to Sue:
   
   Hp can only whip a donkey to its limits. The more articles I publish, the more whipping (having to change them all). Sue went on strike. Well, there go all the incentives to write more articles out of the window. When all along, had the worm been removed, the salad would have been fine.
   

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   1. 95

      LongTimeMotherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      True. Sue's not the only one who rarely bothers putting meat on the plate any more. That is what happens when the final meal is nowhere near as satisfying as the chef knows it could be.

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   2. 0

      Christy Kirwanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Sue,
      
      I'm another member of the HP Team who works on selecting Hubs of the Day. As Robin mentioned, there are specific criteria we require for HoTD candidates (like proper image citation) and we're really bummed out when we have to pass over great Hubs that don't fit those criteria. If you're interested, I mentioned the most common factors preventing Hubs from being chosen as Hubs of the day in a past Newsletter.
      
      To address your comment about nominating Hubs, we strongly encourage Hubbers to email us with potential HoTD candidates as you come across them. We love getting those emails because we're exposed to many great Hubs we may not have found on our own that way. Please feel free to email me or email Robin with any Hubs you'd like us to consider. Even if we are unable to select Hubs nominated by Hubbers, we're usually happy to provide feedback or suggest changes to those Hubs that would allow us to make them Hubs of the Day.

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      1. 92

         Sue Adamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         So the answer to outside readers (non-hubbers) participating in nominating a hub for HOD is "No".  Why jump around the bush, why not say so directly?
         Being a lucky hubber, can I nominate my best friends? Can I nominate myself?

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         1. 0

            Christy Kirwanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, as Robin mentioned, non-staff don't have access to all the information we use in selecting Hubs of the Day, so, while anybody can suggest a Hub to us for HoTD consideration (including non-Hubbers), only staff members can choose Hubs of the Day.
            
            And certainly, any Hubber may nominate any Hub they like to us providing it follows the Hub of the Day criteria laid out in the Learning Center Enrty.

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   3. 60

      Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Wow.  Great story.  A point that will never be addressed but hey ho - let's talk about other stuff.

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6. 86

   aa liteposted 11 years ago

   One nice practice on Squidoo is that when somebody receives a "purple star" for their lens, they are encouraged to nominate somebody else's lens for the same award. 
   
   I wonder if this could be used here.  Maybe in the standard "your hub is HOTD" email there could be a (non-binding) request to pass the favour and suggest somebody else's page, which HP staff could then check out.  Perhaps add a quick summary of what is required in terms of image attribution for an HOTD. 
   
   As a member of the Poisonous Clique, I definitely think that cliques might be a problem.  It is quite natural to nominate a friend for HOTD, not just because they are friends but because we've read their hubs and think they are good writers.  However, if staff still play a role in finding HOTDs, at least they will be distributed between different groups, and if the quality standards are raised, hardcore mutual admiration groups might find it difficult to get their nominations accepted.

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