Are we able to block a follower?

1. 84

   Lady Loreleiposted 3 years ago

   I see the report button but it is more seeing a person with 0 hubs following large numbers of people that worries me. Obvious fake profile picture. These types worry me as being a possible plagiarist picking up articles so is there a way that we can block them to play on the safe side?

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      Rochelle Frankposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      People who join and follow a long string of people, especially when they have no other activity, are penalized by a very low score. They usually get discouraged and leave.
      Do not respond to them. It does not hurt you at all to have them follow. If you are very concerned you might go to their profile, click "report" and leave a note for the moderators.

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   2. 83

      kenneth averyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Lady Loreli,
      In the past few months, I have followed a New Follower's name and found out that they had been banned from HP, by HP, or I deleted them for ZERO hubs.
      This is an area that I too, am scared of.
      But in simple terms, just do not post any of your personal info.
      I am sure as intelligent as you are, you would not do this.

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      1. 84

         Lady Loreleiposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I have been hit very heavily by plagiarists through my 8 years of writing online so what I worry about more is them having the opportunity to slowly copy and paste my articles where ever they decide to. I hate thieves and it is a big dent out of my day to spend so much time filing DMCA's against these characters. It is just easier to block them or have it made more difficult for them to accomplish their disreputable activity.

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   3. 83

      kenneth averyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Lady Loreli,
      Rochelle is RIGHT. This happened to me two weeks ago. I deleted some followers with 0 followers and did not resond to one and the one I didn't respond to, left.
      Thank God.

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   4. 73

      Matthew Meyerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      There is no mechanism to block user from following you.

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2. 85

   relacheposted 3 years ago

   Paul E once said HubPages deletes 5000 profiles per day, just in spam accounts.
   
   If you suspect an account, use the report button on the profile page, and use the text box to explain your concerns, so that info goes with the flag.  The moderators will take it from there.
   
   If nothing is wrong, it's no harm no foul all around.  If the mods find a legit problem, they follow whatever procedures are appropriate.

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3. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 3 years ago

   I wish we did have a block system but we don't.  Usually the fakers are spammers.    Do like Rochelle said, Report them if it bothers you.

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4. 78

   Lionrhodposted 3 years ago

   Just me? I consider it rather normal to lurk on a site before I decide if it's one to get involved with. I usually don't sign up until I have something I'm dying to say or ask though.
   
   But with a site like HP I could see taking some time and wanting to look around while in the process of creating my first hub.
   
   On Squidoo my first lens took several days to first write and then publish once I'd worked through the interface.

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   1. 84

      Lady Loreleiposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      You have quite a few articles and no distinctive look of trying to disguise your identity.

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      1. 78

         Lionrhodposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Agreed. But before I published my first articles on Squidoo I didn't have that. I lurked around for a week or two, found several writers I certainly wanted to follow and then eventually decided I'd try the site out by writing a page or two.
         
         So I'm not sure why someone who follows you is automatically suspicious. Even if they're also following others that they're impressed with. Just because they haven't yet committed to writing their own page?
         
         Certainly we can be paranoid and wonder if they're scoping out our hubs to borrow content. Or they could just be honest readers impressed with the site and it's writers.
         
         I guess what my main question is, is HOW USEFUL is it to ban a particular follower? If they're going to steal/spin our content, they'll try to do it anyway. If they're not, no worries. IF they DO steal/spin, it might actually be easier to catch them if they DO have a Hubber account because they just might leave trails and links to their other sites.

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         1. 84

            Lady Loreleiposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            I have been writing online for more than a few years and filed hundreds of DMCA notices on plagiarists. It is a sad thing to say but I am getting old hat at recognizing disreputable activity. I am not looking to say anything blanket over a number of profiles or to offend you. This is just an unfortunate fact of working online. There are many individuals out there who do not have good intentions. I prefer to distance myself from them.

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   2. 95

      Kylyssaposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Lurking before posting seems like the norm to me, too.  Also, I don't understand the perceived danger in having fans who aren't also hubbers.  It would be far easier to just collect subdomain URLs and set up alerts without signing up to HubPages to keep track of content that spammers want to scrape.
      
      People read.  People who enjoy reading tend to read a lot.  They may also not realize how quickly many hubbers churn out material and subscribe to more writers than they can reasonably read.  I don't think most non-writers realize a subscription to a few dozen hubbers could flood their inbox every day.
      
      I'm very slow compared to many online writers but my non-writer friends are still shocked to find out how many things I write in a week.  I asked one of those friends how much she thought I wrote and she thought I maybe wrote one piece a month and got paid way, way, way more per word than I do.

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5. 61

   Cristinarezaposted 3 years ago

   I think Yes if they keep on doing it

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6. 95

   Kylyssaposted 3 years ago

   I find this conversation very, very odd.  I read it through three times and I still can't understand what is supposed to be suspicious about readers who like your work but who don't also write on HubPages.
   
   The "follow" button is there for people who like your writing to subscribe to your writing and to get notifications when you publish something they haven't read yet.  It's not intended to be a quid pro quo social button.  There's no reason your fans should have to publish some number of hubs to be allowed to read yours.
   
   I live with two non-writers who routinely follow writers they enjoy.  Heck, I have a few rare and special friends who follow me even though they don't write.  I am also a voracious reader and enjoy following numerous writers online, even on sites I don't write on. There's nothing suspicious about having readers.  Writing is intended to be read!

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   1. 84

      Lady Loreleiposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      If you can get your email to me kylyssa I will private message you.

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7. 83

   aminebombomposted 3 years ago

   Well if somebody somehow would like to steal an article you wont even notice anything suspicious, so let everybody do what everybody enjoys.

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8. 78

   Lionrhodposted 3 years ago

   Yes, I've had folks steal my work in the past. In fact one person who did so actually then had the balls to say that I'd just happily stumbled on a truth SHE knew but I was obviously in the dark (about things I'd studied and explained for years).
   
   However, as a hypnotist and metaphysician I feel that living in fear of what someone MIGHT do is unhealthy.

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