Take off Number of Featured Hubs from my Profile Page

1. 82

   Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years ago

   It appears that there has been a recent change on my profile page.  Underneath the number of published hubs, there is a number of featured hubs.  I do not want this to be shown.  My ratio of featured hubs is less than 50% of the number of published hubs.  My understanding of why the hubs were unfeatured in the first place is that Google was not sending traffic to them, so if HubPages doesn't feature them, Google can see the overall quality of my portfolio as better. 
   
   Little tweaks just to get it featured again defeats the purpose, and from the beginning I was told I did not have to do anything with these unfeatured hubs.
   
   What is the purpose of announcing both the numbers? Please take one away!
   
   Both of the numbers do not need to be on my profile page.  I am fine with just leaving the featured number and not the published number if you feel that it is misleading.  I think the best thing would be to use the number that best reflects the choices in the profile. So if all hubs are shown, then the published number is good, and if only the featured hubs are shown, then the featured number is good.

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   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I agree because decent hubs can be unfeatured for lack of search engine traffic, which is an unreliable signal of quality.  If hubs were unfeatured only for being badly written or spam (real spam, not HP's definition of spam), then it wouldn't really bother me.  Frankly, crap hubs should be unpublished, not just hidden from search engines.
      
      I suppose the intent is to make it easier for readers to judge the quality of a writer. But since non-users of HP likely don't know what how the featuring process works they are going to be mislead.

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      1. 84

         gmwilliamsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         1,000,000,000,000,000!

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   2. 78

      jackclee lmposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think the real debate should be about the whole quality process of HubPages. It seems to me the test for being featured and the continuing re-evaluation of hubs is flawed in some respect. To reveal the number being featured vs. unfeatured have little meaning if the process is flawed. My main objection is that a "quality" hub should stand on its own merit and not be unfeatured due to lack of updates. Currently, we are forced to make small updates periodically just to keep hubs featured. That makes no sense. Alternatively, I like the broken link warnings. That is a great feature when a link stop being available. I would update the hub so the reader would not encounter a bad link.

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   3. 84

      Marina Lazarevicposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the feedback. Our intent was to reduce confusion when there is a mismatch between the number of Hubs visible in the My Content panel and the number listed at the top of the profile page. We definitely did not do this to shame folks into deleting unfeatured Hubs!
      
      We decided to revert this change and simply add the word "Published" before "Hubs" at the top of the profile page. I believe the change is going out this afternoon so you should see it soon.

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      1. 78

         jackclee lmposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I wrote a hub that makes suggestions to HubPages to improve this process.
         Here is the link-
         http://hubpages.com/community/How-To-Im … ss-Of-Hubs

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      2. 86

         Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Ms. Lazarevic, all my hubs are showing including those that are idled.  No one can take the time to count my hubs if they have nothing better to do, and find any one of them not showing.
         
         Saying they are unpublished is wrong also.  If you want to tell the world some are not indexed by Google that would be accurate, but all of mine are visible and available to people who come to my profile page to read them.
         
         If you l tell the world that I have 118 published articles and they can see for themselves that all 137 articles are visible and present, won't that be confusing too?
         
         The problem seems to be that some people are in fact ashamed that some of their hubs are idled and so do not check the correct box on their profile page to make sure all of their hubs are visible.  Some don't check the box because they aren't aware that they can do that and make all of their idled hubs reappear.  Maybe you didn't know that?  Many of us have checked the correct box and so all of our hubs are visible.  I am not the only one.

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      3. 82

         Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Marina. I appreciate the change back.

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      4. 84

         Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for listening to our concerns Marina. HubPages is the best.

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      5. 79

         Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Marina, Thank you for listening to us.

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      6. 81

         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Bravo! Thanks so much for listening. Much appreciated. It did feel a bit shameful to see the disparity between what we had published and what was deemed worthy of being featured.

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      7. 66

         relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         If the intent was to reduce confusion for site authors/users, how come the info wasn't added to our dashboards?  After all, that's where site users get all their other Hub info, and where most people go to edit and update their Hubs.
         
         Why was the info added to the public profiles?  How was that decided to be the best location to communicate that info to the site authors?

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         1. 84

            Marina Lazarevicposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            It was intended to reduce confusion for site authors when viewing other site authors' profiles. For instance, a new Hubber might check your profile, see only a few Hubs listed but the number 30 in the profile bio section.
            
            But now that you bring it up, do you think this information be useful if it were displayed in My Account > Stats?

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            1. 86

               Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               I refer again to my above comment.  If people simply check the correct box on their profile page under 'edit profile' all hubs will show whether they are idled/featured or not.  I'm surprised you don't know this.
               
               Click on 'edit profile' at the top on your profile page.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page that comes up where it says, "Show only Featured Hubs on my profile:"  You are given the options of yes or no.  Choose 'No,' and then all hubs will show on your profile page whether Google indexes them or not.

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               1. 82

                  Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Not everybody choices this option. I would prefer not to.

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                  1. 86

                     Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     It avoids the confusion Marina mentions.  Why do you not want to do it?  Most hubs are idled because of little or no traffic, not because they're inferior.  They still have advertising on them and if someone comes to your profile page to see what you've written, what's wrong with them reading it?

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                     1. 84

                        Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        Most of us know of this option but some choose to only show their featured hubs. The same as some people prefer to moderate comments and others don't.

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                        1. 86

                           Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                           I moderate my comments because I get some nasty ones periodically and I don't like to encourage people to write those kind of comments.  When they know those comments will never see daylight they usually don't bother to write them.
                           
                           Sounds like some people can't accept that their hub doesn't have something wrong with it and that low traffic could be the only reason it's idled.  I've talked to one or two that believed that way, but most of the people I know who weren't using this option didn't know about it.  They were fairly new hubbers.

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                        2. 97

                           Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                           It's just nice to have the option.
                           
                           And really, how many people go around counting the hub blurbs on a profile to see if they match the number of hubs listed at the top? If it really disturbs them when they count 495 hubs on the account of someone who has 500 hubs they could always ask about it on the forum. Or they could read the learning center information or learn how to use their own dashboards, from either of which they could logically conclude that everyone else's dashboard works the same as their own and deduce that it means the hubber has some un-featured hubs.

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   4. 86

      Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The new 'featured hubs' has been taken OFF my profile page!

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2. 84

   jansharesposted 9 years ago

   I hope we get an answer from HP to explain the reasoning behind this real soon. The more I think about it, the more I want to believe it's a glitch because it doesn't seem to serve one good purpose to be seen openly.

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   1. 97

      Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The only thing I can think of is that they'd like to shame us into deleting the unfeatured hubs.

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      1. 79

         Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Kylyssa, That was my thought right away.

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            paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            My interpretation as well.
            
            Things are getting mighty grim around here...

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            1. 97

               Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Readers have no idea what these numbers mean so it just comes off as a passive-aggressive attempt at behavior modification.

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                  brakel2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I wish the Friday surprises would cease, as they do not serve any purpose, and no one understands the purpose. If the rules need to change, why can't they be posted. I know they are working diligently to find ways to increase traffic, but so many surprises undermine moral.

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      2. 69

         Pearldiverposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I think it's somewhat of an insult and totally unnecessary to draw a reader's attention to such things as what is or isn't 'featured' - especially given the fact that we as writers of quality have had to endure several years of search engine backwash, solely as a result of other questionable management decisions relating to 'featuring' the presence of highly substandard dross on the site!
         
         If it is indeed intended to 'shame us' into some form of action, then I believe the need to clutter our profile pages with such dribble merely serves to highlight the fact that the 'shame' is completely misdirected!
         
         Such a shame... so many tend to lose the plot at this time of year 

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         1. 84

            gmwilliamsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Agreed!

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      3. 86

         agvulpesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I also had the same thought?
         Then had another thought !  Could someone be trying to embarrass our 'leader' Paul :
         Published Hubs 151
         Featured  127
         Only kidding Paul
         My solution: Just hit the 'unpublish' button until I have either the time or the inclination to do some editing!
         Cheers everyone

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         1. 84

            Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Good one! It makes me feel better if even the hierarchy aren't immune.

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      4. 86

         Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Kylyssa, delete the offending hubs and see what happens.  In the past when I have deleted hubs, not because they were idled but because they were deemed offensive (on the subject of sex)  my hubber score dropped like a rock and of course all the views the deleted hub received are subtracted from your total page views.  It's like they were annulled.  You now how the Catholic Church annuls some marriages, basically saying they never were marriages?  HP will delete all the page views your hubs received before you deleted them and say those views never happened.
         
         I think that's pretty mean too given that the views did in fact happen and HP made money on them even if we authors didn't.
         
         Wouldn't you think if HP found a hub offensive because it has the word s-e-x in it that they would be thrilled that we deleted it?  Wouldn't you think they would raise our hubber score for deleting such an offensive hub instead of lowering our hubber score?
         
         Further, my hubs including that nasty awful disgusting thing we save for the one we love, and use to bring our dear children into the world, was said to offend advertisers.  That is why they are not allowed to have advertising on them.  Someone placed an ad on it before I deleted it and it was an add for a 900 number.  How do you offend 900 number owners?  Refuse to play along on the call?  What?  I was offended that the ad was placed on my article because my article wasn't sleazy or pornographic.
         
         Well, that's another issue, but go ahead and delete all of your idled hubs and let me know what happens . . . 

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         1. 97

            Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            This reply makes no sense at all. Staff had already explained what they intended the new feature for and that they got rid of it before your post.
            
            I saw this thread in the forums and went to the OP's profile, seeing the new feature that had been discussed there. People were speculating on what the new and seemingly useless new feature might have been added to do. I speculated along with the rest after reading the multiple posts in the forums and on the Q&A. I tried to figure out what the new feature could be for and, judging by early reactions to it, it looked like it was intended to shame people into deleting the un-featured hubs. So I speculated and clarified for others what it seemed to me some found irritating about it.
            
            But it's all moot because Marina Lazarevic told us they were getting rid of it. See how gloriously responsive they are when we don't like a new feature? I've seen this happen multiple times since my content was moved from Squidoo and I really love that HP works that way. Squidoo used to add new features that made old features buggy and they would imply we were horrible brats and should take our ball and go home if we didn't like something. My years over there are probably what made me come up with that cynical "reason" for the profile feature HubPages just tried out.
            
            HubPages listens to our feedback!

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            1. 78

               jackclee lmposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Also coming from Squidoo, I agree with your assessment. HubPages seems to be more open to suggestions.

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3. 82

   Titiaposted 9 years ago

   For a moment I thought it was only seen by me, but it sure is seen by the public as I clicked on your profile page. The same goes for the number of writers I follow or the number that is following me. It's nobody's business how many writers I chose to follow or how many chose to follow me.

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4. 79

   lobobrandonposted 9 years ago

   Janshares, sadly this cannot be a glitch, as it needs to be coded to show there.
   
   I like Millionairs idea though.

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5. 0

   calculus-geometryposted 9 years ago

   The only thing I can think of is that they'd like to shame us into deleting the unfeatured hubs.
   
   I think you're right.
   
   Perhaps HP would compromise and display the number of featured hubs calculated as total number of hubs minus hubs unfeatured for being low-quality.
   
   Punishing hubs unfeatured for traffic is a bit mean, and how many people have had the experience of hubs being selected for editor's choice and yet simultaneously unfeatured for not getting enough search engine traffic!

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6. 82

   Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years ago

   And they have a tendency to make changes like this late in the week, leaving Hubbers to stew about it all weekend.

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7. 75

   DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years ago

   There is a post about this very thing in the Q&A section:
   
   http://  hubpages.com/literature/answer/261960/does-everyone-like-the-new-feature-that-shows-how-many-featured-hubs-we-have-along-with-the-total
   
   I do not believe it is a good idea, for the same reasons everyone else has stated.  I have over 300 hubs, and it is showing only 142 as being featured.  This looks BAD, unless you realize that the majority of the unfeatured ones (lack of engagement) are mostly poems, which typically do not do well here anyway, and about which I do not worry.
   
   It IS, however, very misleading to any members of the public who might see that, and make an incorrect assumption, for it would appear that less than half of my writing is not up to par.
   
   Outsiders do NOT know the HP standards, rules, and general types of writing that do well (or not) here, so they cannot make an informed assessment of the caliber of the author's writing.
   
   (Which brings to mind another question:  how many members of the public, seeking "information and answers to questions," actually visit the author profiles????  If it is a small number, and our profiles are mostly seen by other hubbers, then I would not see it to be as big an issue. )

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8. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 9 years ago

   According to your profile page, you have 173 unfeatured hubs.
   
   [Edit] I see that the post I was responding to has been updated, never mind.

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      brakel2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Liz - Maybe we can figure out what is happening, or get an explanation. Hugs.

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9. 61

   Mark Ewbieposted 9 years ago

   No one normal (external visitor) is going to notice that message or have the remotest bit of interest in it.
   
   I guess HP put it on in the hope it will encourage people to work on those non featured blots on their copybook.  Yeah, good luck with that.
   
   It looks rubbish.  Too much pointless information on a profile.  I was surprised you can see it when logged out.

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   1. 87

      sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      i really don't like this feature. Seems like a name and shame feature to me.  I would delete all the offending hubs if mine were not featured.  I doubt I would have the stomach to improve them.

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      1. 83

         SheilaMilneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Did you not see Marina's reply earlier?
         
         http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/134008#post2779893

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         1. 87

            sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I guess your time is different to mine.  It is pretty close to 11 pm here. I wait with baited breath

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            1. 83

               SheilaMilneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               11:30 pm GMT and mine has changed.

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10. 84

    jansharesposted 9 years ago

    Thanks for the change, Marina and staff. Thanks for listening.

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