Cannot click on hubber's names if not signed in.

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   Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years ago

   Have you noticed that you must be signed in to click on a hubber's name to go to their hubs? This does not seem good to me; it keeps readers from spotting hubbers they may want to check out and the traffic we are after is non-hubbers isn't it? So they would never be signed in. This seems an issue that should be considered by Hubpage management; don't you think?

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      Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      This is nothing new. The fact that only logged in Hubbers can click to visit the profile of a commenter is a privilege for other Hubbers.
      
      But there is a good reason for not allowing all those links for outside visitors. I am sure this has been well thought out, and is not a bug.
      
      You have to understand that you lose link juice for every additional outgoing link. So as comments keep adding up, your hub would go downhill if Google saw all those links. That's why only other Hubbers can see it and Google can't.
      
      In addition, many times I find comments from people who were banned. It would be terrible if Google got to see those links. Google bots are really good at comparing tracking known spammers. If you have too many links to spammers, that can hurt too.
      
      Besides all that, outsiders usually don't have a desire to follow comments to profiles anyway. Most of the time they never even read the comments. I refer friends to other Hubber's hubs sometimes, and I ask them later if they had read the comments. They never do.
      
      Only our own family of Hubbers think of reading comments and have a desire to check out other Hubbers who comment.  Of course there may be exceptions, but I am pretty sure the majority fall into this mode. And for those the links are available.
      
      So as you see, this was done for a reason. HP has your back, even if you don't think so.

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         Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I can understand this stand of HubPages. But, we may like to get as much traffic as possible to our hubs from non-members also.

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            Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Links to profiles don't help much anyway. 
            
            If a hub is well written with useful information that answers questions people are searching for, and with little competition, then it will attract organic traffic.
            
            Most non-hubber visitors never read comments anyway, as I discovered from my own research. They may enter their own comments, but they don't read them as much. And even if they did, they have less of a reason to follow links to profiles. Most people who read my hubs never even click to MY profile. I know this is be fact from analyzing my "traffic flow" in Google Analytics.

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               Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for clarifying things. I should use GA and benefit from it as per your advice.

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         Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Good points Glenn, thanks for sharing

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         Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I guess I can understand that. Too bad it is such a cruel world. lol
         It is just I don't always have time to sign in and if I do I forget to sign out which for some reason drops my score and I do see so many hubbers of interest and cannot go see their content etc and I could jot their name down to go back to when I am signed in. But yes, I am sure HP knows what they are doing.

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            Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Leaving your browser signed in to HubPages definitely does not lower your score. I never log off. The only reason to log off is if you are using a public computer such as in a library.

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               DzyMsLizzyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I always log off when shutting down for the night.  Who knows what hacker or other miscreant landing here from a web search, might find my articles while I sleep, and discover that they then have open access to my account to mess with anything they wanted???

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               Faith Reaperposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I never log off either because I want to be able to read and comment whenever I have a moment, even from my phone while waiting in a doctor's office.
               
               So, are you saying that if someone comes across our hubs via Google, they can read but just not click on the comments of others to see what they have written?  I know I can go straight to Google without being on HubPages and read whomever I want if I know their Hubber name, i.e., Jackie Lynnley on HubPages and it allows me to read all of her hubs or any other hubbers' hubs when I type in their username, etc.
               
               Thanks Jackie, for the good question, as I have wondered about it too, myself.

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                  Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  It's like if I go to one of your hubs reading without signing in and see someone new I want to check out, I would like to be able to click on their face and go to their profile/content but I can't. Sure I can write it down if I happen to have a pen on me and paper...but all I want to do is see first if they are someone I am interested in but i can't. I mean if there is good reason then OK but this really happens to me so often and they just are out of my memory as soon as I leave not being able to check them out and I really hate that. When I am signed in I have an agenda and usually limited time lately.
                  I know I should learn to use my phone; maybe when winter comes and I am not so busy.

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                     Faith Reaperposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, I understand about wanting to check out someone else.  For me, it is best that I just never sign out.  However, when I ask a question, I have to sign out and log back in just to do that for some reason LOL.

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                        Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        If I forget to sign out; especially at night, I drop at least 2 or 3 points.

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                           Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           Jackie, I thought I mentioned already that your score does not drop when you stay logged in.
                           
                           I never log off so when I come back to HubPages I'm already logged in. I find it easier since I can get right business without extra work logging in. I never found that it has an effect on my score.
                           
                           Something else must be causing it in your case. I see you are following over 500 people. Do you read all their new hubs?
                           
                           If one follows so many and doesn't intend to really read their new published hubs, I think that may be one reason for scores getting lowered. Personally I could never keep up with reading new hubs of 500 people, as much as I'd love to. Some people follow just to try to get followers. These people never actually intend to actually read anything. I am sure HP knows when one is serious about following the people they chose to follow. And the hubber score reflects that activity. I'm not blaming you. I'm just saying my opinion in an effort to help.

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                              Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                              I support Glenn's views. I never log off from any of the sites. I simply switch off the supply. So, whenever I open my computer, I am logged in and browse easily at any of my sites. This is one great facility for you. I do not think there will be any threat to your security because of this.

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                                 DzyMsLizzyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                                 If I do not sign out, I can then open HP (or any other site) from another computer, and continue to work, even if my power supply to my desktop computer has been switched off.
                                 Turning off the power does not log you out; your site will remain open, "logged in" and therefore vulnerable.
                                 
                                 Only a very few types of sites, such as banking and medical will "time you out" and auto-log off for you if you are inactive for over a certain period of time.  HP does not.

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                                    Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                                    I don't know this. How can anybody else work as me and post something or do some activity in my account? I can never imagine that.

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                                    Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                                    It's only vulnerable to someone else using your account if you leave it logged in on a public computer. For example, if you are accessing your account on a library computer, you indeed will want to log out before you leave. But if you are working on your own private computer in your home, and you know that no one else can physically get to your computer, and/or you trust your family members, then it's okay to leave it logged in. That's your choice.
                                    
                                    HP still does force you to reenter your login information once in a while. But I never paid attention to how often that happens, or if it's related to a timeout period or something else.
                                    
                                    One other thing, the login status is on an individual computer. For example, I use both my iPad and my desktop. If I leave one device logged in, the other device has nothing to do with that and if the other device is not logged in, then I'll have to do so in order to access my account on that device - even though the other device was left logged in.
                                    
                                    It's important to realize that I am the only one who has access to my iPad and to my desktop, so for me it's safe to leave both logged in. And I use fingerprint technology to access my iPad when I turn it on, so if I lose it somewhere, no one else can turn it on.
                                    
                                    I hope that clears up all the misunderstandings about this now. We've been getting somewhat off topic from the original trend of this thread. Although I guess it applies anyway.

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                                       Mark Ewbieposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                                       It is a problem.  I left my machine in 2012 for a few minutes and when I came back someone had changed all my Wiki and sales style pages into idiot stickman rantings.
                                       
                                       I never recovered.

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                                       brakel2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                                       Thank you Glenn for all your help. So many questions come up, because so many issues are difficult to understand. When we learn, it keeps our brains sharp.

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                                       Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                                       Thanks Glenn, for clearing up my doubts (or fears?).
                                       My desktop is only for me. Nobody touches it. So, I am safe.

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                  Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Faith, It has nothing to do with if they came from Google search or not. If someone visits who is not logged in, they can still read comments but they cannot click on the name to go to the profile of the person who left the comment. I explained earlier in this thread the reason for that.  Only logged in Hubbers can click comments to visit the person's profile.

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         DzyMsLizzyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I don't understand how a person who arrived via "organic" search, and then is able to click on the hubber's name, is related to "spam" or "outgoing links."
         
         Please clarify.  It seems to me, that if they liked the article, they might well want to follow up to see what else that person has written that may be of interest, in which case, they might well read another of their hubs.
         What has that to do with spam?

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            Millionaire Tipsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            When I first read the original post, I thought it was awful that you couldn't go to the link of the Hubber who wrote the article. I tried it and found that you could indeed click on the link to go to the Hubber's profile and see what else they wrote. 
            
            Looking at the other posts, it seems like they are talking about going to the profile pages of people who posted comments.  I have no problem with not having live links to other Hubber's profile pages, because you want the focus to stay on the Hubber who wrote the article, or at least other hubs that are of the same topic - things that can be controlled by the Hubber and / or HubPages rather than the who write comments.

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               Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               You are correct. Thanks for clarifying that for Lizzy's question. This discussion has been entirely about profile links on comments.

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                  DzyMsLizzyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks for that clarification; it was not clear from the OP that it was about commenters.

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            Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I don't even pretend to understand it. Makes no sense to me either but apparently Glen knows what he is talking about and I will just take his word for it...he is almost always right.

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      skperdonposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Glen Stok makes some good points. I'm sure it is to protect against spammers. Google really goes after spammers and everyone linked to their activities. I myself feels secure knowing that they're being blocked from my profile.
      But your concern about genuine traffic is understandable.
      Are we really losing huge traffic because this as opposed to being protected from a large number of spammers?

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   Jodahposted 8 years ago

   If this is in fact the case Jackie, it is concerning. you are right that we are upposed to be trying to attract outside traffic as much as possible. If they can't click on a hubbers name in comments to check their hubs it is quite a hurdle in that respect.

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      Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It is a fact for me John. Try it and see. I hate it for myself as well because I come in to read sometimes and maybe spot someone interesting to follow and I can't get to their profile to check them out.

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   WryLiltposted 8 years ago

   I thought "That's not right" - then I went and tried it. Ugh - that's a big issue. That's one of the cool things about comments - they can lead to outside traffic trying to learn more about you.
   
   I hope the staff make usernames clickable again for organic traffic!

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      Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I hope they do too and it has been like this for so long it is hard to tell how many missed chances very many have missed...both ways!

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         Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         But, Glenn's argument above is quite reasonable, I think. It is to protect from spammers and outgoing links. Viewers should search from keywords and when they are on social media sites, I hope they can come from those links to our hubs.

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            Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Spammers! I wish the internet police would catch them all!

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