I just saw a lot of hubs about marijuana, with ads enabled. So...?

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   Shades-of-truthposted 9 years ago

   As a consequence of seeing a post in the political and social area discussions, I decided to do a Hub Pages search for marijuana. There are quite a few published hubs about it.
   
   So, are Hubbers allowed to write about it, or not? The hubs I saw had Google ads displayed on them, too.
   
   I am confused.

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      Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The topic is generally not ad-safe.
      You can find more details here.
      http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/restricted-topics
      
      See the "Subjects that Are Not Ad Safe" section in particular.

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         Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I saw that, Matthew. Before I posted this, I double checked on the restricted topics. I don't have any reason, at present, to write about it.
         
         However, I am confused about the published articles. If that is part of the drug topic that is restricted, how could there be so many hubs written about it here?

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            Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            We have systems in place that monitor for this type of content, but the reality is that we are not able to proactively determine and disable ads on all content that does have potential issues.
            
            If you see a Hub or other content that violates the terms of the site, then please report it using the report button. Each and every one of these reports is reviewed by a moderator.

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               Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you, Matthew, but will all due respect to your position as a member of the HP team, I am still a bit confused.
               
               My image of a malnourished child resulted in the ads being disabled on one of my hubs. I fixed that, and they are still disabled.
               
               The hubs that I found that I refer to in my original post above, are apparently in blatant violation of the drug-related prohibitions, and some have been here for years. That simply does not "compute".
               
               UPDATE about half an hour after I posted this:
               HP Team says ads have been reinstated.

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      relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You (a site member) are supposed to flag violations when you are feeling quite sure to darn positive you see them.  That's how HubPages was designed to work.  It's straightforward on this end. 
      
      For the moderators who actually review the material against the rules and make a judgement call, maybe not so much.  Please note that for some topics, the entire topic may not be taboo, just content which "promotes" it or includes offers for sales.  For example, you can make Hubs about quitting smoking.  Hubs about vaping would violate the rules. 
      
      As for your confusion, what are you actually confused about?  If a Hub does not trip one of the automated filters, and no site member has ever flagged it for review by the moderators, then that Hub has been in existence in whatever form it is for however long is has been published.

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         Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I see, relache. Very odd...

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            It's not odd, it's just the way the system works.  It's not perfect, some Hubs slip through the net and we are asked to report anything we find to help reduce the number that do. 
            
            I've often felt there should be one moderator whose job it is to just sit there and do searches for prohibited subjects, it would get rid of problems like this much faster.

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               relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               I recommended specific filters to admin on several occasions, where you could have someone scan a report very easily but based on the Hub content I still find it's clear they've not embraced the idea of automated scans for taboos topics/content beyond a mere handful of the most objectionable niches.

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                  Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  relache, your idea would catch a lot of them. Sometimes, I see hubs with words that should trip the filters, deliberately misspelled. They pass right on through.

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  That kind of filter would make a lot of sense and I'm mystified why they continue to have a blind spot in this area.

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                     Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Dear Marisa,
                     
                     I am 100% in agreement with you. There are quite a few filters that could be implemented creatively, which could also eliminate hubs that are simply fluff.

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               Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Marisa, I would love to do that! Half an hour each morning would work, and I'll bet it wouldn't take a week to find them all.

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                  relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I used to spend two hours a day flagging spam and crawling for particularly offensive topics (back when my earnings here paid my full living expenses), and it was clear I wasn't even making a dent. 
                  
                  To think that a half hour per day would fix everything in less than a week is, in my opinion and experience, a belief independent of the genuine scope and function of the situation.

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                     Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Ah, well, relache - I always have been independent in my beliefs. My desire to help improve the overall quality of Hub Pages may simply be incredibly naive. Optimistically speaking, though, it could help.
                     
                     What is a bit disheartening, is that I still see articles published here, and I use the term "articles" loosely, that have been repeatedly flagged. Doesn't the "Okay, we're on it. Thanks!" mean anything?

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                        relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        A repeatedly-flagged article means that admin doesn't agree with you, or that they are just fine with leaving that content Unfeatured.  This is why I feel all UnFeatured content should not be findable on internal search.
                        
                        I suggest you not keep flogging a dead horse in these instances, as you just wind up wasting your time and the moderators.

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                           Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                           Advice taken, relache. I was under the impression that it made a difference.
                           
                           Two of the hubs that I flagged are apparently not going anywhere soon. They are simply awful, but I shall cease and desist. Lord knows I do not need to waste my time, nor the moderators' time, either.

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         Uzochukwu Mikeposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Relache really made clear point on this topic.

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      peachpurpleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      since you have read the article which is not appropriate, do flag it and report to HP team,

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         Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         peachpurple,
         
         I have found lots of them. Some have been on HP for years. I will continue to report them, since that is all that can be done at this point in time.

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   MuellerWordsmithposted 9 years ago

   I too am against freedom of speech. How can we oppress these shifty hippies?

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      CuAllaidhposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It's not about freedom of speech but rather about not losing advertisers. Google adsense has a strict policy on drug related articles, HP is being extra careful on it by restricting all topics on the subject. You can still write about the topic all you want, you just can't have HP provided ads on the article. It's a perfectly reasonable stance in my opinion. I have at least one article which does not run ads, even though it is a political topic and not sexual topic it does touch on the issue and thus I understand the reason for HP not providing ads and I am ok with it. I leave the hub up because the topic is important to me and I am proud of the article and I'd like people to read it. The fact I don't generate income from it is a bummer, but that's what I agreed to.

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      Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      MuellerWordsmith,
      
      I am not against the subject, nor am I against freedom of speech. I would be glad to see my husband be able to benefit from using it, as he is constantly in pain. My only question, in my original post, was about it being allowed on HP.
      
      Lord knows, the site needs more traffic, and if those articles compromise our position with Google, it hurts everyone.

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   MuellerWordsmithposted 9 years ago

   Ah well, we mustn't upset google. All that money everybody here is making will dry up.

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      Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Some people are apparently enjoying a good income from their articles. Many, are not. However, if articles are tripping Google flags, we shall all suffer.
      
      My inquiry was simply to find out if it was allowed, as a subject. I did not mean to offend anyone.

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         relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         If you want to know what is allowed here as a subject, you should read Google's policy on content first, as HubPages has said this supersedes their site policies and specifics.  I've copy-pasted the list of specific article headers but you will really want to read all the details of how each topic is handled by Google as some ban just specific angles or facets of the material. (Like the drug, tobacco and alcohol content) AND each article contains examples and more information about why they ban that content.
         
         https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1348688?hl=en
         
         Adult content
         Content that advocates against an individual, group, or organization
         Copyrighted material
         Drug, alcohol, and tobacco-related content
         Hacking and cracking content
         Sites that offer compensation programs ("pay-to" sites)
         Sites that use Google Brand features
         Violent content
         Weapon-related content
         Other illegal content

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            Shades-of-truthposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you, relache! I shall bookmark that, after I read it. I appreciate you taking your time to post it, too. Somehow, I missed that.

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