Profile score blues

1. 77

   LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years ago

   As some of you may have noticed ads show up on articles, the answer section and the forums. Great, the more ads the more that we can possibly earn.
   
   But I am still having a problem with the hubber (profile) score. Since any links that appear on a hub are no follow if the profile score is below 85, and since search engines will not follow these links, it seems unfair. Why? Because I have links to other articles/places that offer useful and relevant information (outside of HP) that may benefit my readers and in turn may benefit me as an author.
   
   Granted, many say that the profile score is irrelevant but I  don't see it that way if it affects us negatively in some way (no follow links). I do not post hubs daily as I used to but still publish at least one hub per week, my views have gone up and I still participate, although much less than before, on the forums. I have noticed that my score only goes up if I participate in the forums at least once or twice per day, and the more I participate the more the score rises.
   
   This appears to be nothing more than an attempt to force hubbers to participate in other things besides writing articles, which is why many came here for; to write. The more participation there is on a forum post for example the more that HP is likely to make.
   
   Yes one can argue that authors can make some money from the forums but while we can make a few cents Hp can make a few cents multiplied by how many participate in the forums etc...
   In other words it benefits the host more than the writers and I don't have a problem with that.
   
   It is to everyone's benefit to have a host (HP) that is healthy but artificially "forcing" participation seems unfair, or at least it does to me.
   
   I love HP and I think that this is the best site out there by far, but come on HP......really?
   
   Shouldn't this among other factors wisely brought up by more experienced hubbers be more than enough reason to either get rid of the profile score or truly make this number irrelevant (other than an ego booster) ?
   
                                                                                      

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   1. 59

      The Examiner-1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I studied about the scores, in fact I wrote a Hub about them, and HP's main point at the beginning was to write quality Hubs and also be a good partidipant in the community (i.e. - Q&A, forums, comments, etc.)

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   2. 95

      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Just a thought, but perhaps something to consider.
      
      Your links are still there, still useful to readers.  They just don't provide any "link juice" to the articles they are pointing to.  They don't raise those other articles in the SERPs, in other words.
      
      But for google to consider such links as valuable, raising the SERP position, they have to come from a very good site.  Hundreds of links from low value sources (in Google's eyes) are worthless for SEO, no matter how much traffic they produce as readers follow them.
      
      So what have you actually lost?  HP is not the equivalent of CBS News, Wikipedia or any of the giant, "authority" sites that google loves.  Google is highly unlikely to give such links any weight in the SEO game, particularly now they have the Panda, Penguin, etc. in operation.  Some posts even claim Google will devalue a site for links coming from low value sites.  While I have no opinion about the value of your subdomain or mine (and mean no disrespect), it is possible that HP is doing some of us a favor by making those outgoing links no-follow.
      
      So backlinks do not carry anywhere near the weight or value they used to years ago, to the point that they should NEVER be used primarily for SEO of the linked to site.  Yet there are still thousands upon thousands of "writers" that will scatter as many links as they can, thinking it will help them.  Undesirable links, links that harm HP as a whole in Google's eyes.  HP has made it unprofitable to using a linking strategy like that, and on the whole I support that decision.  We don't need those "writers" that scatter hundreds of links and the cost to writers that only put in useful links is very minimal.

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      1. 77

         LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         You are probably correct, but what I still do not understand is why the profile score goes up with forum participation and goes down if I do not participate and this seems not to focus on the quality of the article,hubber, links etc but rather on the quantity of activity in the forums. That is my main concern.
         
         Granted low quality articles and links should be no follow but I have not seen how quantity can be used as a measure which is what it appears to be, although I may be wrong.
         
         For example, even if I do not post any hub or do anything else that may be helpful to me or HP, and by solely participating on a forum(s) the profile score will rise. It does not seem to matter what I post on a forum post. I have posted "comicons"  or a "1+" only and still the score will rise.
         
         I can understand when HP says that you should write quality articles and participate, this is good. But how do we explain a rise in score with only a forum entry and nothing more.
         
         How can it be said that this is quality and that this is what Google and other engines want?

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         1. 95

            wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            It goes up and down with forum participation because HP wishes to encourage that activity.
            
            But that doesn't mean that your observations of comicons or +1's have anything to do with it, or that eliminating either one is useful (in Hp's vision) or possible with minimal effort.
            
            Personally, I don't like either hubber or hub scores: both are useless to me.  HP disagrees though, and I try to understand why they do and what they are trying to accomplish, working within that framework.  If it is important to you to have dofollow links then hit the forums once a day for 5 minutes and leave a handful of comments.

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            1. 77

               LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               But wilderness, I have the utmost respect for your work. I find it useful and quite interesting. However, does it not seem that this rise/drop in profile scores with a penalty (no follow links) is not only odd but also illogical?

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               1. 95

                  wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  I could not comment on it being illogical without knowing the purpose behind it, and I don't.  I suspect that part of it is to promote/encourage forum participation; if it does than then it is doing it's job, whether you and I think that job needs doing or not.
                  
                  It is also possible that the spammers, filling their hubs with useless links for failed SEO purposes, won't be here anymore because they either take some time in the forums or have all useless links.  So there are two possible reasons for the way it is.

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   3. 93

      SpaceShantyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I love the forums, I learn something new or discover a new and interesting writer everytime I come here.  BUT I do feel that I HAVE to come here often to boost my Hubber score which in turn helps my Hubs when I could be using that time to research, learn and make better quality Hubs.

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      1. 84

         CMHypnoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Are you so sure you have to visit the forums frequently to keep your hubber score high?  I very rarely post here any more but my score has not dropped significantly.
         
         I think Relache's suggestion of going through your hubs and improving/unpublishing any low scoring hubs will do more to improve your hubber score than spending time you would rather be spending elsewhere in the forums.  In fact you very rarely see any of the the hubbers with a perfect 100 score here - they are too busy writing!

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         1. 74

            brakel2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            We spend a lot of time discussing scores. I have a special request again to do away with hubber score. When I first came here three years ago, scores were more favorable. If you wrote good hubs, Hp rewarded you with good scores for hubs and as hubbers. That brings good feelings and more desire to write. Now that everything has changed, people, including myself, become disillusioned and confidence drops. This does more harm to writers. Your writing is still good but rewards are few. The friendships on the site keep people here. Can someone help us to enjoy the site by at least doing away with hubber score. It may even bring good writers back and raise the writing quality. Thanks.

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2. 60

   paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

   I agree with the OP. I think HP is shooting both the writer and themselves in the foot with this one.
   
   Telling search engines links are nofollow is the same as saying the page and the entire subdomain are a piece of crap. This is hardly conducive to enticing search engines to send traffic.
   
   Currently, too many good pages and subdomains are being unfairly hamstrung. Below 85 is too high. Set it to below 80.

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   1. 77

      LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks and I agree 85 is too high and many have other things to do besides writing.
      
      BTW if anyone wants to test my so called thesis; post any response in any forum, skip a day, post again and see if your profile score rises.
      
      Here is what I did; I posted a short response on a forum on Monday, the score rose, I did not do anything on Tuesday, the score fell, Wednesday posted=rise, Thursday nothing=drop, Friday posted=rise etc... with everything remaining the same this points to be a measure to "encourage" more participation with a higher profile score as the reward....illogical isn't it?
      
      God bless HP for trying but this does not appear to be "reasonable" or well thought of.

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3. 73

   relacheposted 10 years ago

   Rather than pursuing this purely from a standpoint of participation, you might find that removing a small number of your lowest performing hubs brings you the adjustment in score you are seeking.

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   1. 77

      LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      relache, this has nothing to do with hubs or anything else besides the fact that I have noticed that forum participation has an effect on the rise or fall of a profile score. Participation on a forum post by itself, without regards, as it seems to me, as to what is posted ie. amount of words, comicons, 1+ with everything else being the same seems counter productive.

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      1. 71

         galleryofgraceposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         So according to your theory LuisEGonzalez my score will increase tonight because I'm responding to this forum. We will see. Just a  couple days ago it dropped because I responded.

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         1. 77

            LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            In my particular case when I have participated in the forums somehow my score has risen, and when I have not participated my score has fallen. I do not have an explanation for this it is something that I have noticed.

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      2. 73

         relacheposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Forum participation has had an effect on your overall Author score for years now.  (Are you only realizing this now?)
         
         I used to participate/interact with the site for several hours per day, every day.  Now it's less than half an hour per day, and I've given up many of the interactive activities.  The effect on my score was just a point or two, well worth the hours of my life I spend elsewhere now.  But improving Hubs, and pulling really low performers, had a significant, long-term effect on boosting and stabilizing my score.

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         1. 77

            LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            No I have known this for quite some time. Just found it odd

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   2. 76

      JRScarbroughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I did what Relache suggested before. They were featured hubs but had no traffic and their scores hovered around 77 - 79. I unpublished them nd my score went down initially. I started studying those hubs and got their word counts up and added pictures and video that was relevant. The I republished them and their scores started going up. My score went up with them. One of them sits at a hubscore of 95 right now.

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4. 76

   JRScarbroughposted 10 years ago

   Hubpages does this to test each person’s ability to learn how to improve the quality of their hubs before their hubs are allowed to do follow link. If the person never learns, they can’t hurt hubpages.com’s ranks or each subdomain’s rank.
   
   It also prevents the link farmers from joining here and just mass linking to content on the web thinking that will improve traffic on their sites or a site they sold links to. I am sure all of you have seen blog comment sections that auto approve and are do follow. It is filled with bad english and links. That hurts the blog in search engines as would low quality hubs with millions of links to low quality sites hurt hub pages.com.
   
   Despite the fact that we all have a subdomain inside hub pages.com, it is still the mother domain. Anything we do will affect the mother domain in Google.
   
   It’s just a measure to prevent as much harm from the whole domain.

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   1. 77

      LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Perhaps I am not making myself clear. [ I am not] talking about anything other than the fact that I have noticed the rise/drop in profile scores when I participate or do not participate in the forums...That is all.......

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      1. 76

         JRScarbroughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, that does affect scores. The weird thing I have noticed was not doing anything at all and the score going up on its own and then down. I am thinking that a rush of traffic to your hubs is a part of scores. Just asking one poignant question a week will help lift your score.
         
         I am pretty sure your score is affected at a greater percentage with more interaction on each forum post or answers question by community members.
         
         Here is one for you and I both to wonder about. I didn’t come on HP for almost a full year and when I signed on the 4th of December, my score was 93. So, I do not know exactly what all goes into it but I am thinking that as long as your forum and questions are still getting activity, it still counts. Maybe?

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         1. 77

            LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, that is something worth wondering about. So from what you and wilderness are saying I gather that the profile score is most affected by traffic and forum participation can either bump/drop your score a bit.

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            1. 95

               wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Not saying that at all - merely taking your word that it goes up when you post in the forums and toying with looking at possible reasons why it would do so.
               
               Mine never moves, but then I post here every day, several times.  I'll have to take your word that posting increases it.
               
               I suspect as well that traffic plays a part and I'm almost sure the HP has said overall hub scores - an average, maybe? - is factored in as well.  Plus, I think there is still a random factor, moving it around for no real reason.  At least there used to be...

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            2. 76

               JRScarbroughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, something like that. The biggest boost i have ever gotten from questions was when I went into Hot Questions. I woke up the next morning 2 points higher. Getting something removed can knock a point off. I think gaining a point over traffic relies on the upkeep of that traffic or the point goes away.
               
               I believe it all is to encourage participation and to also ensure we do not turn into a link farm here. It is still very mysterious how it works. I just experiment and try to stay out of trouble.

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               1. 77

                  LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Well, I was just wondering since I found it odd that after not posting any hubs, with my traffic staying about the same and the only difference being that I participated in a forum my score went up. Well at least this brought up some interesting discussions. Thanks to everyone.

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5. 74

   brakel2posted 10 years ago

   I apologize for not sticking to the main subject of this thread.

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   1. 77

      LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      In a way the inconsistency surrounding profile scores are part of the thread so you really were addressing the subject.

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      1. 74

         brakel2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Luis. Interesting discussion.

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6. 89

   William15posted 10 years ago

   I agree, but I'm happy to jump through the hoops if that's what it takes.

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7. 83

   donotfearposted 10 years ago

   I don't know about you, but MY hubber score has NOT risen with forum participation.  I'm dropping like a rock.

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8. 95

   SmartAndFunposted 10 years ago

   Didn't HP tweak their criteria for calculating Hubber score a few months ago?
   
   It seems like before they tweaked the scoring system (if I am remembering correctly and they did), my score fluctuated based on my participation. Then after the changes were made, my score went up and so far has stayed up, even though I participate much less.
   
   Doesn't it have something to do with our hub quality assessment scores now? I have such a bad memory, but I have some inkling of this in my head. Or is the fact that I sign in every day and check my earnings considered participation?

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   1. 80

      LeanManposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      They changed both hub score and hubber score calculations and things became a little more stable than they were previously....
      The hubber score is more related to your average hub score than anything else; so you could improve your lowest scoring hubs or delete them as has been already suggested..
      
      These scores however really are counter productive in my mind as it is not clear at all exactly how they are calculated so people become disillusioned when they take an action to improve a score and it actually goes the other way!

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      1. 77

         LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         If your hubber score is more related to an average of your hubs( an announcement I seem to have missed) then doing what others have suggested makes a lot  of sense. Thanks for pointing this out LeanMan.

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         1. 72

            Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            As @relache and @LeanMan have both mentioned.
            HubberScore comes from many sources, but it strongly linked to the QAP assessment of your Hubs.
            
            So, if you write exceptional Hubs (aim for an 8 or higher, see "Quality Criteria" http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/Featured-Hubs) that should have a positive impact on your HubberScore.
            
            Your Hubs being moderated for issues also has a negative effect on your HubberScore.
            
            You can find more details here.
            See the "Factors Used to Compute Hubber Score" section
            http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/hubs … d_13970188

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            1. 77

               LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               OK  I get it. It was just a question based on some things that I had noticed in my own experience and found it strange.  So to sum it up: write like Anthony Burgess, Doris Lessing, James Joyce, be nice, conform, play with others...did I  miss anything?........................

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               1. 54

                  janderson99posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  => Don't make friends too quickly. (follow requests)
                  => Don't post more than one or two hubs a day.
                  Both of which don't make a lot of sense.

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                  1. 77

                     LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     among a host of other things.............

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                     1. 54

                        janderson99posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        .........none of which is described or explained. HP loves it's mystery and silliness otherwise they would fix it. (in the past they have said to ignore it!)

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               2. 76

                  JRScarbroughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  As you can see Luis, my Hubber score went up 3 points since I answered this post the first time. All I did was make a new hub and asked 3 questions and responded here.
                  
                  Traffic has been especially good too. So I am assuming that traffic and overall hubscore (mine is 84) impacts the math.
                  
                  I don’t think moderation activity impacts the score too much. I had a question removed due to it not being in line with something or other. This was the day before yesterday and I went up from a 95 to 98.

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                  1. 77

                     LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Interesting. My traffic has remained about the same and so has my score. Again the only thing that has changed is the frequency of forum activity on my part. My opinion and enough, has been said about this, is that the major influence on profile scores is the traffic. Anyone can argue till they are blue in the face or hell freezes over, but no matter what anyone says traffic is the engine that runs things around here, which in a way is a good thing.

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                     1. 72

                        Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        I would suggest reading over the Learning Center entry as there still seems to be some confusion related to what factors contribute to HubberScore.
                        
                        From the Learning Center entry
                        http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/hubs … d_13970188
                        
                        Factors Used to Compute Hubber Score
                        
                        Factors used to compute Hubber Score include:
                        
                            The collective HubScores of your Hubs
                            Your activity in the Forums
                            Your support of other Hubbers through commentsThe number and quality of Questions you ask
                            The number and quality of Answers you have given
                        
                        In general, your Hubber Score is meant to not only reflect the collective quality and success of your Hubs, but also the contributions you have made to the community as a whole.
                        

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