Was there a recent policy change or did I upset someone?

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   iijuan12posted 9 years ago

   I honestly want to know. Was there a recent change in hubpages.com policies, or did I do something to inadvertently upset someone? All of a sudden I have started getting a flood of e-mails about one hub after the next getting unfeatured.  Even TONIGHT (Friday night at 7:30 pm) I am continuing to get e-mails letting me know about additional hubs becoming unfeatured due to "spammy elements." I think at least half of my 300 hubs are now unfeatured!  Is this happening to anyone else right now?

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      calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You are probably a victim of the new 300 words per Amazon capsule, a rule that was not publicly announced, but slipped in under the radar recently.  I can't find the forum thread, but it happened to others. Do you see any warning boxes when you open the hubs in edit mode?

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      1. 76

         iijuan12posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         A few of my pages had that issue, but most don't.  I did try to fix a couple hubs and deleted most of the amazon modules from them so that it wouldn't be an issue for them. They remain unfeatured.

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            calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Email HP mods at team @ hubpages.com; they are the only ones who will know exactly what is wrong.  Non-staff can only guess, and since it so many all at once it seems like you were the victim of a sudden sweep.

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               iijuan12posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you! I will do that.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            If a moderator does a random check on one of your Hubs and finds it to be "spammy", they will then check a couple of your other Hubs to see if it's a pattern.  Your Hubs definitely do follow a pattern so they could well be unFeaturing them one by one as they check them.
            
            Did you remove the other unrelated links such as Kronos Curriculum link, and the possibly promotional links to your other Hubs?

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               iijuan12posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Marisa,
               
               I really appreciate all the time you have spent trying to assist me (and so many others)!
               
               Yes, my pages do definitely follow a pattern.  I suppose that could be the
               reason for the sudden blitzkrieg of my pages.
               
               Because you have suggested a few potential "fixes" in the past, I will address two of them.  (Please do know that I am not at all saying this in a snarky tone.  I am just explaining why I have not applied the suggestions to all of my pages.)
               
               I post links to Konos Curriculum as a reference because some of my ideas came from that curriculum and similar ideas can be found in that set of books.  I did delete my references to Konos Curriculum on my Amphibians/Reptiles/Fish, and that page is still unfeatured.  (I edited it early this morning, and promptly received a "still unfeatured" e-mail.) 
               
               If the issue with my Amphibians/Reptiles/Fish lesson is that I feature a Christian book (which you mentioned in a previous post), then that is a whole other issue.  I am a Christian and believe the Bible is completely relevant to every single topic.  I think it's really cool that in the 10 plagues all 3  types of animals (amphibians, reptiles, and fish) are used! It is a longer Bible passage to read, so I wanted pictures.  I love the pictures in the book that I read to my students when I taught that lesson.  I have explained that on my page in the module.
               
               If the editor is going through all of my hubs and determining that my pages should not be featured because they contain Christian elements, then s/he is not following protocol as editors are not supposed to unfeature hubs because the hubs have different viewpoints than the author of the hubs.   
               
               Again, thank you so much for the time you take and have taken in assisting me!

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I didn't mean to suggest that the Christian book was irrelevant - just that for someone who's skimming the Hub, it may appear so. 
                  
                  The QAP team are paid a few cents per Hub, so I believe there is bound to be a tendency to skim and make snap judgments like that. 
                  
                  I fully understand the reason for including the reference to the curriculum and IMO it makes sense - however, it is "illegal" under the new HubPages rules because it is not directly relevant to the topic of the Hub.   It's akin to featuring an ad for a sewing machine on a Hub about sewing dresses (not allowed - not specific enough) or a saucepan in a Hub about cooking chicken (ditto). 
                  
                  Anyway, if you've tried deleting those links, and the links to your other Hubs in the series, and it's still unFeatured - then presumably it must be their current aversion to Amazon ads that is the problem.  That is extremely frustrating - you can see that each book is an essential part of the process so it makes no sense.  However, some of their decisions don't make sense - I may have mentioned that I wrote a Hub reviewing four ballet DVD's, with a link to each DVD. I wasn't able to get it approved until I removed one of the Amazon ads, despite having far more than the required number of words.  That makes no sense from the point of view of providing value to the reader!

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      Dale Hydeposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The norm here of late for me.....
      
      I think that they simply want new authors....
      
      All is cool, because I simply move my stuff where it is read and earns coins.
      
      Good luck HP, tossing out us veterans.
      
      When I joined three years ago, it was being sold to us as "evergreen" hubs... publish something that was read and you had to do no more.  Now it is at every whim and glitch, you have to spend time and resources to continually tweak your material for the pennies they pay here.  I used to make pay out every month...now it may be quarterly or longer.
      
      I have several websites that do not send me messages to tweak here and there.  The views are good and have been for seven years.  It is simply material that folks search for and Google points them there.  Again, no revising, no worries, the views just happen, same as on my blog.
      
      
      Greed.

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         iijuan12posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Where do you move them to?

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            Dale Hydeposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            My blog.  It is on my profile...only link I give here. I have Google Adsense there  as well.

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               iijuan12posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you!

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               mts1098posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               I completely agree with your assessment...

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      tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think it may have resulted from running the algorithm recently. I noticed at a Hub, of which I have only 7, at the 'Style Tips' at the Dashboard in the Edit Mode a caution for Link Groupings'. I had not seen that before. It did say the Hub may become unfeatured. I am sure that would be a task for those who have many Hubs to check for those Tips. It would be nice if they had those Tips published somewhere.

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      1. 85

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         You can safely ignore that warning IF your list of links is a "Reference" or "Further Reading" section at the end of your Hub and IF it is not promoting your other Hubs or linking to sites that are unrelated.

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            tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Thank You Marisa In one Hub I had three groupings - Table of Contents, bibliography, and recommended reading. The latter was using the Link capsule. I hid the Table and bibliography and that Tip went away. I think I will add back the bibliography to see what happens. I dun'no . . .

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               Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               What I'm saying is, it's just a generic tip - IF your links are a table of contents or a bibliography or references, then you can safely ignore it.  You don't have to remove or hide anything.

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      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi iijuan,
      
      Marisa has offered some very helpful and accurate info on unrelated links and products and how we determine what is related. Following her advice should help with getting your Hubs Featured again, should you choose to update them. Best of luck!

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2. 68

   makingamarkposted 9 years ago

   Given the quantity of people it is happening to I would say the underlying motive is that HubPages is having a clear out.
   
   Why this is happening is anybody's guess. Maybe they want to move to a "paid writer" model like about.com?
   
   There's more than a few ex-Squidoo people who have concluded that HubPages no longer wants them.
   
   My guess as a business model this strategy only works IF:
   * HubPages HQ think only those lenses which are not earning a lot of money are unfeatured / will go
   * hubbers who actually generate more than a little income for HubPages are NOT annoyed by being told that other hubs are "spammy" (indeterminate and undisclosed as to what this means)
   * hubbers who are annoyed re the "spammy" emails do NOT move any good quality content on income-generating hubs to their own sites
   * hubbers with good quality content do NOT conclude that the HubPages business model is looking very opaque and unsustainable - and leave as well - taking their content with them.
   
   Squidoo slid rather fast in the last year and it was IMO because a lot of people lost confidence in its ability to determine its future . They left the site in droves AND took good quality content with them.
   
   Is HubPages in the same position?
   * The optimists hope not
   * The pessimists have already left
   * The realists are having a long hard think about their options.......

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