RESOLVED: subdomain URL save issue for non-Hub content

1. 94

   Glenn Stokposted 10 years ago

   I have just noticed today that many of my hubs where I reference other author's hubs and included a link to their profile, the URL has been shortened to just "hubpages.com" - thereby removing the actual link to the author.
   
   I have no idea how long this has been happening, but I am going through my hubs now to remove the links that are just going to HubPages' home page as a result of this.
   
   I did not find any mention of this practice in the newsletters or HP blogs.  Can anyone from staff elaborate on this?

   replyreport
2. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 10 years ago

   Glenn, will you send me an example URL. I think this is a bug if it is happening. We don't change the destination of Urls.

   replyreport
   1. 94

      Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Paul, I had spent that last hour removing those links. But I still have some that had my own link to my profile. Those also had my subdomain removed. So "glennstok.hubpages.com" is now just "hubpages.com"
      
      Since you are asking for an example, I assume it's okay to list one here without being moderated. So here it is: http://hubpages.com/hub/Laser-Glaucoma-Treatment
      
      See the link at the bottom of that article. When I try to change it, it changes back when saved.

      replyreport
      1. STAFF

         Paul Edmondsonposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         The link at the bottom you put in as http://glennstok.hubpages.com/.  If so, that's a bug.

         replyreport
         1. 94

            Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, that's how I always create the link. I also noticed that links to hubs also have the domain removed. But they work anyway since they follow the 301 redirect. So just the links to profiles end up going to HP's home page.

            replyreport
            1. STAFF

               Paul Edmondsonposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               That looks like a bug to me.  I'll see what Deeds says about it.  Thanks for alerting us.

               replyreport
               1. 94

                  Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Okay. Thanks for your quick attention to this.

                  replyreport
                  1. 71

                     Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Glen, just to update, this appears to be isolated to Editor's Choice Hubs and we are working to resolve the issue.

                     replyreport
                     1. 94

                        Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        Matt, I have another hub that is not Editor's Choice which also had the same problem.
                        
                        Unfortunately, I removed the links in it a couple of hours ago. They were links to several hubber's profiles. If you have access to backups prior to changes made today, let me know if you want me to specify the one I'm referring to. I don't want to just list URL's here without a request from staff.

                        replyreport
                        1. 71

                           Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           @Glenn
                           As a general rule, sharing links to Hubs or providing URL with which you are having problems is permitted in the Technical problems forums (even if we don't ask first).
                           
                           We may be able to see a historic version of a Hub. So, please share any other Hubs or URLs with which you are seeing the issue and I will do further testing to get information for our engineers to better address the issue.

                           replyreport
                           1. 94

                              Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              Okay. I found that Google still has the cache of the non-EC hub that had the problem. Here it is…
                              
                              http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s … &gl=us
                              
                              The actual URL is http://glennstok.hubpages.com/hub/HubPa … s-HubMeets
                              
                              As I mentioned in the last post, I was successful this time changing them back. But that Google cache will show you what I was talking about. Look for the references to Hubbers Jim Bowden, Quilligrapher and Stuart McCallum.

                              replyreport
                        2. 94

                           Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           Matt - more info - In the non-EC hub I just added those links back to those member's profiles and it worked this time without getting changed to the home page.

                           replyreport
                           1. 71

                              Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              Thanks for the details Glenn.
                              If there was an issue with just the profile links somehow being changed after you enter them, then it appears that is no longer the case.
                              
                              Please let us know if you see this occur again and we will see what we can determine.

                              replyreport
                              1. 94

                                 Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                 Just to be clear - This morning I could not change them in the non-EC hubs either. They kept getting changed back to the home page. But then when I tried this afternoon, it worked.
                                 
                                 HOWEVER, I just tried correcting one in another EC hub, and it still keeps reverting back to the home page. See the last link at the bottom of http://hubpages.com/hub/thinking-though … t-language
                                 
                                 Maybe you might want to try it yourself. Edit that hub and try to include "glennstok." in front of that URL. When you save the capsule, it drops it again.

                                 replyreport
                                 1. 71

                                    Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                    @Glenn I will let you know when the fix has been deployed for the link issue.

                                    replyreport
                                 2. 71

                                    Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                    Glenn, the fix has now been employed.
                                    Please let me know if you see any other issue with URLs being altered and I will look into it! Thanks for your patience and for reporting the issue.
                                    You may need to clear your cache and restart your browser to see the changes.

                                    replyreport
                                    1. 94

                                       Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                       I cleared my cache and restarted my browser. Even tried another browser I had not been using. The URL's have not been corrected.
                                       
                                       Do I need to edit each hub and fix them? Or should they be set back automatically? My guess is that the fix just allows me to enter the correct URL now, but not correct what was lost due to the bug. But before I spend a few more hours, I need to be sure.

                                       report
3. 71

   Matthew Meyerposted 10 years ago

   The deployed fix should address any issues affecting URLS being altered going forward, but it does not change URLs in existing Hubs.

   replyreport
   1. 94

      Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Okay, but I have 37 EC hubs I need to check now. Not too happy about the time this will take. 
      
      I just tried fixing one. The bug is still there. I reset my browser and cleared the cache. So that's not it. For an example, Please look at http://hubpages.com/hub/thinking-though … t-language
      
      ...and see the link at the bottom, with the text "See a complete list »"
      
      That should go to http://glennstok.hubpages.com/#myconten … ience_hubs but my subdomain is still removed after saving. It works now with direct profile links. But not with the "topic" included.  All these links have been lost too. They had worked prior to this ever since the "show topic" filter was included in our profiles a couple of years ago.

      replyreport
      1. 71

         Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         @Glen
         How about we start over as it may be we are talking about different issues.
         
         Please provide the following.
         
         1. A Hub URL in which you are seeing the issue
         2. The URL you are using (the one you enter that is being changed)
         3. The URL you seeing it be changed to.
         
         Is the change occurring in the Hubtool and reflected in the saved HTML or are you seeing a forward from that URL to another URL when it is followed (issue is a forwarding one and not the URL in the Hub)?
         
         I will then do further testing.
         
         Just some clarification
         
         If you enter this URL
         http://glennstok.hubpages.com/hub/think … t-language
         
         It is supposed to forward to
         http://hubpages.com/hub/thinking-though … t-language
         
         Due to the different in URL structure for Editor's Choice Hubs.

         replyreport
         1. 94

            Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Matt, These are good questions to clarify the issue. What your questions pertain to is your desire to figure out if I am talking about 301 redirects. To clarify -- I am not. 
            
            I am talking about the actual link in the HTML. I can see where it is supposed to point to since my browser shows that in the lower portion of the screen when I hover over the hyper-link.   I am sure you know what I am referring to since most browsers do that.  WIth that said, I can see that after I enter the link correctly and save the capsule, it has dropped the subdomain portion in front of the URL.
            
            In an effort to be as clear as possible, let me answer each of your three questions. 
            
            1. A Hub URL in which you are seeing the issue
            http://hubpages.com/hub/thinking-though … t-language
            
            2. The URL you are using (the one you enter that is being changed)
            http://glennstok.hubpages.com/#myconten … ience_hubs
            
            3. The URL you seeing it be changed to.
            http://hubpages.com/#mycontent_educatio … ience_hubs
            
            As you can see, I use this method to give the reader a link to my profile where the profile only has a list of hubs in that same topic category as the hub they just read.
            
            I feel this is in the interest of reader satisfaction, since they would not be interested in other topics I write about.  This has always worked ever since we had the latest profile format that was introduced about two years ago (give of take).  But now since the subdomain is lost, the link goes to the HP home page and the part after the # is meaningless on the home page. So it just goes to the top of the home page.
            
            Once again, I am not talking about what happens with 301 redirects. I know that all URL's without subdomain redirect to the subdomain and visa versa. I'm an HTML programmer myself and I know you do that so hubs can be made EC status, and removed from EC status, without any conflicts.   But as I said, this issue is not about that.
            
            I hope things are clear now and I appreciate your desire for clarification.

            replyreport
            1. 71

               Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               @Glen Thank you for the helpful details.
               I just tested and see the issue you are describing.
               I have made our engineering team aware of the issue.
               We may not be able to get a fix deployed today, so please hold off on editing any of your Hubs that had the issue as to not waste any more of your time.
               
               I will post an update when the issue has been addressed and will test it before doing so.

               replyreport
               1. 94

                  Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Okay, no problem.

                  replyreport
                  1. 71

                     Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Hi Glenn!
                     We just deployed a fix for this.
                     I tested it in the Hub you specified, http://hubpages.com/hub/thinking-though … t-language
                     
                     I added the full subdomain URL and it kept the proper URL after the Hub was saved.
                     So this URL now works properly and resolved to the Education and Science articles on your profile.
                     http://glennstok.hubpages.com/#myconten … ience_hubs
                     
                     So if you make any changes now, they should stick.
                     Do you know how many of your Hubs this affected?

                     replyreport
                     1. 94

                        Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        That's really great news!  Thanks Matt. And thank you to your team too. I never kept a separate list of the hubs I did this with. But I'll go through my 37 Editor's Choice hubs and make sure they are all working. Not all use this method, but I have to check to be sure. I'm grateful for the fix before the weekend. Thanks again.

                        replyreport
                        1. 71

                           Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           Glad we could get it fixed and please let me know if you run into any other issues.

                           replyreport
                           1. 94

                              Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              Will do. Thanks Matt. Have a good weekend.

                              replyreport
                              1. 71

                                 Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                 You too Glenn!

                                 replyreport