Future of HubPages - Will the Hubpro Cream be Diverted to a New Site?
I'm not sure why you would leave if a split like that would happen - I would love to see that happen. Why would you care if 'just creative' stuff like poetry doesn't get big hits. It doesn't now unless you promote it via social site - does it?
The reason why *I* would LOVE to see this change; is because the best-written articles on any given subject SHOULD be the most accessible. There are different qualities of articles within HP - and having them all meshed together makes us all look bad when so many people really don't care about their own writing (or how it comes across), at all.
The 'creative' folks who have it in their heads that literary/grammatical criticism of a creative expression is an offense and a sin - can have their own 'level' of HPness; while the (much) better articles are properly showcased and accessible.
I guess I just don't see how it would be an insult. I would expect the majority of my articles to fall within the lesser website. The ones that 'might' be good enough for the 'better-writing' site, I would simply be extra-proud of.
Where each one falls would be my own fault.
Thumbs up to that Phyllis Doyle!
So true, Makingamark!
You make a good point, Marisa, as always. I have 4 blogs that are totally neglected at this point. No new posts in well over a year.
However, I don't think much of the material would make for good hubs, either. I may just copy/paste it into a file on my computer, simply so I don't just throw away those efforts.
Who knows: they may be the inspiration for an e-book someday...since the open Internet is apparently dead or dying as a place to write anymore.
Story of my life; a day late and a dollar short--always coming into some new and seemingly exciting venture just as it's winding down and going away...
Hardly a fiery death for the better run content farms just yet.
About.com is US rank 22, HP is 97
It is hard to imagine too many hubbers getting a better ranking with their own private websites, Will.
- calculus-geometryposted 7 years ago
0 It's available in my local Boots, between the Imodium and the haemorrhoid ointment
I signed into HP on a whim to look at my account, and found this thread. Reading between the lines, it sounds as though acquiring all those Squidoo lenses has done nothing for HP's income.
Now that my Adsense and Amazon earnings have virtually hit zero, I think I will be taking down my remaining hubs and either retiring them altogether or putting them on my own sites (not that I make anything off those either, but hey ho).
PS: Evening all
- It costs nothing to dream, Jodah!
Further evidence of what a lovely, creative imagination you have. If anyone can do it, it will be you!Hi Jodah,
One of the things about poetry is that there are far more poets than audience, in real life and on the net. Your poetry is funny and interesting and stands out to me, but I cannot say the same for the other 1001 poems I have read on here. Whether it's quality poetry or crappy poetry, they are all fighting for a very small pie.
Poetry that tends to get read more by the general public includes Valentine's poems and wedding poems or life poems, which people can put in cards and print out for their loved ones, to save themselves writing one. I have seen successful poetry sites built on these niches, where poetry provides great thoughts and a good sense of humour in the work, that people want to share because it says what they want to say in a clever way.
Life definitely needs creative souls of all sorts!
People who do want to read quality poetry look for places where it hangs out. Unfortunately, there's a lot of places out there that like to put the dross alongside quality poets. I really like your profile and Billybuc's one with all the amusing and funny writing on it. Unfortunately, not many people aspire to the kind of quality you and Billybuc do and not many try to cultivate a real audience with their works or they would soon learn whether they have what it takes and most of them don't
No one thinks you should leave at all. But I think HP does need to assess the merit of how poetry entertains an audience on here and efforts of the poets to build a real audience as there is a lot of poetry that doesn't attract any audience at all and was purely written to pump up page numbers and provide more feathering for profiles with a quick SEO scramble. The number of quickly scribbled haikus published on here is staggering...and I've only read a handful that actually did it for me.
As someone who was a poet for about 10 years and was paid for every poem of mine published (about 55 - internationally), I can say that the audience for poetry is very small. It's usually other poets who will enjoy quality work - they are still a viable audience, but need to be cultivated into finding your good work and communicating with you (I'm sure you and Billybuc have this sorted). I think HP should assess poets based on their audience building and involvement in the writing community, as well as the dedication to the written word on their profiles (eg they focus all on poetry or all on writing) - which is a true indicator of ever-learning, quality poets worth publishing. This would remove all the crap (including my sad, lone poem on here) that just isn't going to make any money or views from an internet audience.
Maybe assess the poets, give the good ones a badge and make them Featured Poets who are the only ones allowed to publish poetry and get rid of the rest if it isn't performing? HP could save a lot of money on hosting fees.
Then again, if we apply these strict rules.....it could be too hard to attract any new quality writers in the first place....The bells and whistles to writing poetry hubs are based on HP's notion of engagement. Good poetry will engage people without all that. HP does need to allow freedom from that and carry Featured Poets (but not everyone). The alternative is what we have today - lots of useless poetry taking up space and only a handful of dedicated authors correctly on the poetry path, hindered by the extraneous stuff.
e.e.cummings would never write a hub around his poem because it would kill the impact. He is one of my favourite poets and one of the most lauded experimental poets in writing circles, of all time. He would not believe in bells and whistles, were he here today, but his poetry is engaging, especially for non poets and his books still sell well worldwide. e.e.cummings is an example of an experimental poet that should be carried by HP, free from the chains of pretendy "engagement"
Yes LTM, I was beginning to get concerned that I seemed to be taking over this thread and taking it off track when it wasn't specifically concerning poetry
You are right though, it is saturated with Aussies and I personally only know eight other Aussie hubbers all up. It would be interesting to find out the actual statistics of how many of us there are. I was also wondering if Hub Pro do edit our hubs would our spelling be changed to American English? Never even thought about the em - dash.
I must confess I've never ever understood why HubPages was seen as a place to write poetry or creative stories.
I have a friend who is a well known author and as, as result, I've come across a number of very active writers groups where members post links to their latest new piece of writing and it gets shared around and/or critiqued on a regular basis. They seemed very buzzy and productive places to me. Much more helpful to those who want to write......
Mind you all the members seemed to want to get published too - so they can enjoy the benefits of becoming a New York Times listed authorJust supposing somebody set up a website for authors and the condition for entry is you have to know how to write the Queen's English!
@Makingamark, these are some of the reasons I no longer have content on HP. I really wanted it to work, and I did everything I could to re-write, edit, and comply with all the things HP wanted. But it was never enough.
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