Who are hubpro editors

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  1. Buildreps profile image83
    Buildrepsposted 9 years ago

    Already long ago I changed in account section the option: 'My Hubs are eligible to be edited with HubPro:' to NO.

    I don't want anyone to touch my work I don't know personally. It's simply a matter of principle.

    1. profile image0
      TessSchlesingerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      GDPR Deleted

      1. DzyMsLizzy profile image89
        DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

        No, I don't think so; I believe that only happens when you allow your hubs to be selected as an "Editor's Choice."  In that case, there is an automatic re-direct, and it shouldn't affect your traffic.  I think it only matters on Google's end..but if I am wrong, someone with more experience, such as Marisa Wright might come along and correct me. wink

      2. Buildreps profile image83
        Buildrepsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

        No, as far as I know not. The links to the Hub remained the same. I also opted out for EC. When you do this the links to your Hubs will change indeed.

        Good writing is all about relentless reading and editing what you've written, and improve it continuously. I'm still in the process every day. This will make one finally a better writer.

        It is nevertheless a good choice of HP to offer this service. There are many Hubbers that leave their Hub behind like droppings, and for these Hubbers this service is great!

  2. Solaras profile image83
    Solarasposted 9 years ago

    I let them have at my most popular hub.  I can change it back if I want to anyway.  Mostly what I see is that the content has been broken down into smaller capsules, and capsule titles reiterate the same keywords over and again. 

    I would have thought this was keyword cramming, but it seems to have worked and thus far - 1 week into it traffic is up 30-40%.  I will check back with you after a month and let you know how it is performing with the Panda roll-out.

    1. Fiction Teller profile image60
      Fiction Tellerposted 9 years ago

      You'll get a further email listing all the things they do. It's not just grammar, spelling, and such.

      I liked having my stuff edited here, but I generally do like getting editorial feedback. I'm trying to remember any times I got zero value from an editor in the past, but I can't. Even the times I've gotten hot and bothered by an editor's opinion, I've later come around and gotten a heads-up that something at least was clearly not working in my text.

      I doubt there's an editor on the HubPages staff that has nothing to offer in the editorial process. You could research them, but I think the difference between individual HubPro editors is going to be less significant than the difference between YOUR personal style guide and the HubPages one. That's not a big deal, really; if an editor does anything/everything amateurish or against your style choices, you can revert it afterwards all you like.

      My HubPro experience was okay. Not disastrous. Some hubs lost some traffic, others gained. Worked out about the same. From the process, I did gain a sense of how to make other hubs compliant with the current standards.

      If you've been notified you're gonna get HubPro'd, they should tell you in the next email which hubs have been selected and what they're going to do. At that point, you could opt out, though they tell you of course they prefer to know beforehand.

      But yes, you're right. They're going to choose the hubs you least want changed - the popular ones. On the plus side, if you have hubs "dear to your heart" or whatever because they were particularly personal to you, they're less likely to be touched, 'cause those kinds of hubs are usually not the high-traffic ones.

      1. DzyMsLizzy profile image89
        DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

        Well, I've just done a major self-edit on my top-ranking hub.  We'll see what happens, as I applied a lot of things I've learned on my own and here in the forums.

        1. profile image0
          TessSchlesingerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          GDPR Deleted

          1. DzyMsLizzy profile image89
            DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            It did:  the hub's score went up 13 points overnight, and it's still at the top of the list of my highest-ranking hubs.

    2. Rochelle Frank profile image94
      Rochelle Frankposted 9 years ago

      I had a nice back and forth with my editor on two hubs. She made some positive changes-- and those I didn't agree with-- I changed back to the way it was. Nothting is set in stone. You can still edit after the Hubpro changes have been made.

    3. Siva222 profile image73
      Siva222posted 9 years ago

      Writing is a mode of communicating with the writer's audience. He or she communicates his or her thoughts with the the audience and what should be communicated and how it should be communicated is the writer's wish. One might be a pro but that does not mean anything to a writer and it is very annoying if someone tries to change the write up and that changes the whole meaning of what has been written.

    4. Siva222 profile image73
      Siva222posted 9 years ago

      By the way that is my thought.

      1. DzyMsLizzy profile image89
        DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

        Mine as well...

    5. Fiction Teller profile image60
      Fiction Tellerposted 9 years ago

      I think that whether or not getting edited is good or bad depends on why we write and who we're writing for. (George Orwell wrote a thought-provoking essay called "Why I Write" that's worth a read.) There are lots of different motives for writing, lots of different things writers want to get out of it. Catharsis, discovery, pride, money, fame, influence, etc.

      One thing links all writers - writing is driven by the desire to communicate. But who a writer's aiming to communicating with differs.

      Some writers - quite a lot, actually - write to talk to themselves. If others don't "get it," they don't mind, because they're actually addressing themselves primarily. Others write to communicate with a select group, either a group very like themselves (perhaps in the interests of getting validation) or one unlike themselves (in the interests of persuading them).

      And still others write to communicate with as broad an audience as possible. (Raises hand)

      To do the last, a writer has to somehow reach people with a wide range of viewpoints. Because our imagination and intelligence can only take us so far, at some point having an outside intelligence contributing to our work becomes valuable. The more our audience expands to include people who don't think like us, the more editing has to offer.

      I, personally, find I'm quite limited in my ability to reach people very different from me, so I like to know where I'm failing. Getting edited is like getting a key to a treasure chest. I know what I meant, but sometimes only someone else can tell me what I actually said. That's gold to know.

      1. aliasis profile image72
        aliasisposted 9 years ago

        My most popular hub was recently edited. Since I felt the topic was not one I really had rights to (it's just a fun one concerning a popular game/TV series) I turned off earnings after I published it long ago, so to me, it wasn't really about the money anyway. I didn't personally understand all the changes - they switched my images to Youtube videos of the particular show (and I'm not even sure if such Youtube clips are technically legal, but whatever), and reformatted/edited a lot of what I had written, and cut some things, I assume to make my writing more concise. I can't say I care too much since I haven't touched the hub in a long time, and don't make money off of it (though I don't see the no-earnings icon anymore, don't know if that's related but I assume that's not something they would change).  Aesthetically, I'm not sure I like all of the changes better, but I do assume they know how to cram the best keywords and such in and are working from an algorithm to maximize traffic. I'm not complaining because I really don't care enough, and as far as I know, the hub's traffic will rise. Additionally, I still have the option to edit the hub, and I can see a list of edits so could probably change everything back if I wanted.

        I do think it's a bit funny though that it was something you had to specifically opt out of, rather than a program you could opt into. But still, in the case of my hubs, nothing in them is so personal that I am opposed to someone giving it an edit. I really doubt they'd do anything to significantly change the tone of the article and I am certain they'll only go after high-traffic hubs, so more "personal" ones probably aren't the sort they'd go after anyway.

      2. EricDockett profile image93
        EricDockettposted 9 years ago

        I too have recently been threatened with HubPro editing. I am torn on the whole project. On one hand I do not feel it is the best use of HP's time and resources, and I think I've done okay all by myself thank you.

        On the other hand, I have really come to respect Paul and the Team over the years, and if they think it is a good idea I will give it a go. I have opted out for my other accounts. This is the only one I have left vulnerable to attack.

        I am eager to see what changes the editor makes and what Hubs they pick. I think I have a decent idea what makes a Hub successful. Let's see how much we agree.

        For better or worse, I intend to relay my experience in this forum once the dust settles. If the editor does a good job I will certainly give credit where credit is due. If they do a really, really good job I may even consider switching my other accounts over. We'll see what happens.

      3. FatFreddysCat profile image59
        FatFreddysCatposted 9 years ago

        I opted out of HubPro as soon as we were given the opportunity to do so.

        Nothing personal against the HubPro editors or their work; I just like my Hubs the way they are and I don't want anybody messing with them. Simple as that.

      4. relache profile image67
        relacheposted 9 years ago

        My editor was an overworked grad student who clearly was putting in time on weekends and evenings to edit my Hub.  There seemed to be zero workflow or procedure.  She never once actually talked to me about my writing, what audience I was pursuing or anything that I used to do when I edited other people's writing when I had never met the person and didn't have much experience with the subject matter.

        Despite being told this person was working on their PhD in editing, I got the feeling my Hub was being edited by the online equivalent of a human fast food worker.

        1. Robin profile image83
          Robinposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          I'm sorry, Relache, that you feel this way.  Just to clarify, your editor was/is not a grad student; she works 30 hours a week for HubPages, and she really did her best to try to collaborate with you.  I believe you were traveling so maybe that is what made it difficult to communicate. We have a very distinct workflow that we follow and do our best to collaborate with Hubbers throughout the process.  We think a lot about reader intent and how we can best satisfy readers; this is our main goal in HubPro.  Our NPS on edited Hubs shows that we are improving reader experience.

      5. Robin profile image83
        Robinposted 9 years ago

        Tess and Eric, I suggest giving it a try.  Both of you are excellent writers, so I don't see sweeping changes made, but you can always opt out if you aren't happy with the editors ideas, or you can collaborate with them.  Your editor will send you a personal email before they begin letting you know their thoughts—you won't be surprised.  Please share your experiences with this thread when you are finished; I think you will be pleasantly surprised.  Wrylilt wrote a nice forum post about her experience—I think she had similar feelings before editing began.  Overall, Hubbers are very happy with the results of HubPro.

        1. profile image0
          TessSchlesingerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          GDPR Deleted

          1. Robin profile image83
            Robinposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Sounds good!  Um, can I be you and travel to all of those wonderful places?  Sounds amazing!  smile

        2. LindaSmith1 profile image60
          LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

          Not long ago, it was posted    Editors are not Professional Editors and none of them had written one Hub.  There is something that lists HP editors and their backgrounds which I cannot find at the  moment

          This link takes you to page of Staff at HP including Editors.

          http://hubpages.com/about/team

          1. Chriswillman90 profile image84
            Chriswillman90posted 9 years ago

            I'd be honored if one of my hubs was ever chosen. I think many are far too cynical when it comes to others touching your work. I fully trust the staff to do what they know is best, and like others said things could always be changed back.

          2. Glenis Rix profile image98
            Glenis Rixposted 9 years ago

            Followed the suggested link to the Hubpages team. Most of the editors appear to be more highly qualified/experienced in this area than I am, so I would be happy to let them tinker with my hubs (though I hold my hands up to falling into the oversensitive category). As has already been said - you have the option to change it back to what it was if you don't like their 'improvements'.

          3. DzyMsLizzy profile image89
            DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years ago

            One more thought:  why go "after" the hubs that are already performing well?  That seems like a waste of time.
            IMO, it would make a good deal more sense, both for HP to stand to make more advertising revenue, and thereby ditto for authors, would be to fix hubs that have become un-featured for lack of traffic.

            Then, you could get more views and hence more traffic to the site, instead of what I expect would be only modest gains for hubs already performing well.  In other words, heed the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

            I have discovered that I have a substantial number of hubs that have dropped off the featured bubble for lack of traffic/engagement.  I'd like to have those given some help, but since that is not the case, I'll work on them myself, and remain opted out of Hub Pro.

            1. Siva222 profile image73
              Siva222posted 9 years ago

              So are we in Hubpages just to earn money or share our thoughts too while earning some extra amount? I would never say no to some extra money... Yes money is important but.. I don't know what to say. I don't want to sound philosophical but is that the only reason for using Hubpages? Don't we feel a sense of satisfaction when we get good review and comments from other writers in hupages. And also make friends with other people and share ideas and learn new stuff?

            2. Fiction Teller profile image60
              Fiction Tellerposted 9 years ago

              HubPages staff has said that the reason they focus on the hubs they do is that they've identified them as potential plungers. As in, vulnerable to Google hits because of lack of user engagement despite positive traffic trends. Historically, it's those kinds of articles that the Pandas have hit.

              HubPages seems to be trying earnestly to isolate the problem; they think they've sussed what quality is to Google, and they're applying it broadly to all types of articles. I think they're being too generalist, but there you go.

              1. Fiction Teller profile image60
                Fiction Tellerposted 9 years ago

                I do hear what you're saying, but I'm not sure I see the distinction you do. To be honest, I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say reading - people can "read" an article in less than two minutes, and often do. Do you mean browsing, perhaps?

                The distinction for me is browsing vs. search.  Reddit, Facebook, and such are browsing communities and users land there by navigating, not search. HubPages is most successful in gaining search traffic. Search traffic is looking for answers to a problem or question - as you say, information.

                I don't know if HubPages is trying to be a browsing community. The primary ones who browse are the writers, but free UGC sites don't generally make money off of the content generators. It's the search traffic that keeps sites afloat.

                1. Siva222 profile image73
                  Siva222posted 9 years ago

                  Then even the topics should be very well defined. isn't that important? Cause it is dependent on what readers want to read and what type of readers visit hubpages will define the topics too. So it is the demand and supply. We will supply what is demanded and not what we would like to supply. Very simple. That can be done only if the exact topics ( or the topics expected from the readers) is defined.

                  1. profile image0
                    TessSchlesingerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                    GDPR Deleted

                    1. Siva222 profile image73
                      Siva222posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                      Yes I agree to that. Make it writer friendly and that can be done by hubpages. Don't force us to write on selective topics.

                  2. Fiction Teller profile image60
                    Fiction Tellerposted 9 years ago

                    Siva222, you're right. You should be very clear in your articles about what questions you are, and are not, answering for your reader. Google's spam team is trying to identify readers who are being misled into clicking onto the page.

                  3. Siva222 profile image73
                    Siva222posted 9 years ago

                    misleading a reader is a different thing and giving selective topics to write on is different. Here we are not writing assignments for our clients to be writing selective articles for selective people. I thought in Hubpages we had the liberty to choose the topic we like and write on that.

                    1. Fiction Teller profile image60
                      Fiction Tellerposted 9 years ago

                      Re: "People don't come to Hubpages for browsing/reading, and I think that Google is focusing on browsing sites rather than content producers."

                      That's interesting, TessSchlesinger. It's possible. Those browsing sites are generally considered forms of social media, and Google's definitely taking an evolving view of social media. Social media is Google's competition; they also connect users with content.  In various ways, Google's taking an "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" tactic. I have seen more Facebook and reddit pages appearing in the SERPs in the last year-ish.

                      I don't think Google's giving up on bringing users directly to content sites yet, though. Content is currently in-depth in a way that most social media can't match. (And yes, the AMAs are in-depth, but so far reddit isn't ranking well for content, as far as I can tell. Those are high-authority pages, but they also must be browsed and aren't quick to answer impatient readers' questions - have you seen the size of some of those AMAs? Also reddit doesn't archive in a terribly user-friendly a way.)

                      We do have a fighting chance, I think - IF HubPages can really figure out a way to showcase the content that works. Google thinks kinda conditionally about websites. Unless the website's "sins" are flagrant, in which case there will be a manual penalty, a website's pages are evaluated for the SERPs not so much by their virtue per se but by their virtue for specific search terms.

                      The trick - for Google, and for HubPages, and for us - is to figure out whether our users are satisfied with the content. What metrics indicate satisfaction?

                      Where Panda really hurts is that it's a slap to the whole site authority, which means it's not enough to fix some hubs. What we have to do is make sure the metrics Google's using show that most users they send to HubPages are not leaving feeling cheated or misled.

                      EDIT: Just read your latest. I don't think it's exactly that "Google's not interested in sites where people who aren't supplying content are congregating." I think it's more that Google's having a heck of a time distinguishing low-authority and high-authority pages on these sites and wants the sites to up the authority to make their metrics meaningful.

                      1. profile image0
                        TessSchlesingerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        GDPR Deleted

                        1. Fiction Teller profile image60
                          Fiction Tellerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                          I like your point here, if I'm understanding it correctly. HubPages has always walked a delicate line, as have all of the UGC sites (many of them gone now), between saying, "Writers, come join!" and "Google, come look what we got for ya!" Keeping the writers backstage and the content central stage is  important.

                          I wonder how HubPages is self-defining these days. I wonder if they've made an effort to move away from the "we're a community of writers" angle toward the "we're a compendium of expert content" angle. The biggest problem with defining the content as authoritative, though, is that it's so diverse. From poetry to magazine to scholarly to fiction to blog-style opinion. How is that authoritative? For what is it authoritative? HubPages is changing the depth, arrangement, and quality of media to make it look authoritative, but, heck, even eHow had something Google could easily figure out it was about - how to do things.  HubPages probably needs to work a lot on its structural organization. Not just topics and such, but to functionally organize its content.

                      2. lisavanvorst profile image66
                        lisavanvorstposted 9 years ago

                        Awhile back hubpages decided to look at all the old hubs and make us writers re-do them. I had so many hubs and boom! Suddenly they are not good enough. Yet I did have comments on all of them. I have a full time job and a busy life as most of us. I did not re-do my hubs because some editors decided years later they were not good enough. I also tired of seeing the red skulls and other icons they use to tell you what is wrong with them, so I never did fix them and some I just deleted. This site has changed, and not for the better. I choose this site to write. I am not on face book or any site like that because of the drama and grief those sites can cause. I actually have read in some of these forums of people who are hurt by other writers negative comments. I do not know who these so called hubpro writers are. My question is "Why was my work good enough a year or so ago and not know?" Who are they to decide that. I also have seen work go through with grammar and spelling errors. So is that good work? This is my opinion of the hub editors.

                        1. DzyMsLizzy profile image89
                          DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                          I have to agree with much of what you say, vis-a-vis poor writing here going through unquestioned, while some who have been here a long time, and have good reputations, see their work suddenly 'not good enough.'
                          It is confusing, to say the least.  I've lost count of how many times I've read hubs that are of poor quality.  This is supposed to be an English-only site, but  some of the hubs written by non-native speakers are immediately evident as such.  They are in English, but barely.  The errors in structure, grammar, flow, spelling and simply wrong word choices are cringe-worthy. 
                          Sadly, some of the same errors are made by people who are native speakers as well.  I've seen errors of tense and wrong word choices in articles by some of the better writers on the site, and I'm not talking about typos.  That can happen to anyone.  (And speaking of which; please excuse any you may see in this post; I'm using my little notebook today, and I'm not used to the keypad or the tiny font on the screen.)
                          Yet, none of these articles, especially of the first type, get targeted.  They are allowed to languish and pull the whole site down with them. 
                          I admit to struggling to find topics people want information about, but I do my level best to write error-free articles with good information.
                          Just today, I saw a post on the front page of someone asking for help to 'practice his writing' here on HP.  I went and read part of it; it was pretty terrible.  I did not offer advice, as I did not want to be mean, and hurt the person's feelings, but what I felt like saying was 'you should learn to write proper English before you try writing on a site such as this.'  But, it will stay along with a lot of other dross, simply awaiting the next zoo animal hit from Google.

                       
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