Procedure for leaving HubPages?

1. 86

   Austinstarposted 8 years ago

   Should a hubber request an account deletion, will HP send the hubber a payment for all money owed up to the cancellation date? Or will they keep any funds owed to that hubber?

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   1. 93

      Susana Sposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      If your account balance is less than $50 and you close your account you'll forfeit the money.
      
      If your account balance is over $50 then you'd have to wait until payday and the funds are in your PayPal account before requesting deletion.

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2. 66

   relacheposted 8 years ago

   To answer your two questions, no and yes.
   
   Many people wait until they hit payout before requesting their account be deleted.

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   1. 86

      Austinstarposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Are you a staff member with knowledge of this procedure?

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      1. 66

         relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         No, I am not a staff member.
         
         Yes, I have knowledge of this procedure.

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3. 0

   calculus-geometryposted 8 years ago

   Just out of curiosity, are you leaving because the earnings are too meager to make HP worth your time, or because of some fallout from your Q&A activity?

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   1. 86

      Austinstarposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I am still trying to decide. My earnings have dropped to payout every 3 months and although I have toned it down considerably on the Q&A, the haters are still "reporting" me for whatever persecution they think they are enduring.
      So, If I do leave, it will be a combo of the two. I've been here 6 years, and have really enjoyed most of it.

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      1. 76

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Why not just open a second account under a different User ID?

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      2. 85

         NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I think you should stay. A payment every few months is still a little bit of extra cash.

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         1. 81

            gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I second & third this because Austin is such an asset on HubPages.  Her questions & articles are intelligent.  I LOVE her questions.  Please stay Austin!

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4. 86

   Austinstarposted 8 years ago

   Because, I'm not a troll. I have spent 6 years building the one account that i have. Why would i spend time on a duplicate account?

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5. 86

   Austinstarposted 8 years ago

   Sorry, there are legitimate uses for 2nd accounts, but i have noticed that most 2nd accounts are for the purposes of trolling anonymously.
   One legitimat account should be enough. It allows you to build credibility if that is what you want out of HP.

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   1. 94

      SmartAndFunposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think you might be surprised at the number of people with more than one legitimate account and all the different reasons having more than one account can be useful.
      
      Some people have different accounts for different niches, although with the new niche sites that is not important any more. Other people have hundreds and hundreds of articles and find they are easier to keep track of when split up into more manageable numbers. Still others feel that their original account was Google slapped or sandboxed and so created secondary or tertiary accounts for a fresh start. These are just a few reasons which don't involve trolling or sneaky intentions.
      
      HubPages doesn't mind how many accounts a person has -- but does require that we stick to using one account for commenting in the forums and Q&A, to prevent people from stirring up trouble by playing multiple rolls with multiple sock puppets.
      
      You have almost 300 hubs! What would you do with all your articles if you closed your account? It might be worth your while to move them to your own sites (you might see traffic pick up once they're no longer on a content farm).
      
      Another idea is to find a debate forum somewhere away from HP, where you can debate away to your heart's content without endangering your articles.
      
      As I understand it, if you are banned from HP they erase your account. So if I were you I'd make a copy of every article on your account (just in case your foes manage to get you banned). Then, unless you have a new site you want to move your articles to, if I were you I'd leave the debating here behind for debating on some other site that isn't connected to your work or your earnings from your work.
      
      What do others think? If she stopped commenting on this account and opened a new account just for commenting, would her foes soon figure out she is behind the new account and still attempt to get her banned?
      
      I just don't want you to get banned because of silly Q&A stuff, and see all your work flushed away. Maybe I'm overthinking it or overreacting.

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6. 86

   Austinstarposted 8 years ago

   Thank you, SmartAndFun! Yes, I corrected myself as to there being legitimate uses for 2nd accounts. I'm just used to the jounalistic thinking when it comes to "branding" and "name recognition".
   All of my hubs are safely copied to my personal hard drive and backed up, so I won't lose them. So, no worries there.
   I also have 3 domain names, but I am in the process of moving to a new hosting account as the one I have been with since 1995 is very unresponsive, re: customer service.
   
   Yes, the Q&A is silly. Much like Donald Trump - it is entertaining! Just fun and games until someone gets all bent out of shape and has a temper tantrum. And I've usually found that the moderators were fair, although slow to act until things got out of hand. But they are busy little bees, so it can't be helped.
   
   Thanks for the good advice!

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7. 86

   Austinstarposted 8 years ago

   Thank you both for asking me to stay. I haven't made a final decision yet, but your sympathy means a lot to me!

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   1. 76

      jlparkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Please stay. I miss seeing ya in the Q+A amongst other things!

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      1. 86

         Austinstarposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Well, i just got a 30 day ban, so it's vacation time, but I will miss all you guys too!

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         1. 81

            gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            What?! A 30 DAY BAN, why?  What is this world coming to?   As I become older, life has become more crescendo-like.   In 2015, my beloved mother/best friend died.  I am still getting over the shock and NOW  in 2016-THIS- a  30 day ban from the question/answer section!

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            1. 86

               Austinstarposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, Wild Bill reported me  and Paula for being rude (in his opinion) to K&T on the question that Paula (fpher) asked about where one would prefer to live -in the country, an urban area or the city. K&T misinterpreted the question and thought it was an attempt to figure out where she lived or something. Paula and I both thought that she had flipped out, and things went downhill from there. Paula and I are both banned. What's really weird is that this Wild Bill has no hubs, but has been on hp for 9 years. We are confused as to what, exactly is going on.

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               1. 81

                  gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  NINE YEARS, no hubs! This is very strange indeed-beyond strange.

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               2. 0

                  calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Wildbill's user profile shows no activity
                  http://hubpages.com/@wildbill2#activity
                  If that account had made a comment on a hub or answered/commented on a question in the past 8 weeks it would show up there.  It's just another abandoned account that probably hasn't been logged into for years. What on earth leads you to believe the owner of this 9 year old account  is reporting you?
                  
                  edit: there are a bunch of wildbill accounts that are many years old and none of them have any activity
                  
                  http://hubpages.com/@wildbill1#activity
                  http://hubpages.com/@wildbill2#activity
                  http://hubpages.com/@wildbill#activity
                  http://hubpages.com/@wild-bill#activity

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                  1. 84

                     Annsaloposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     He admitted it. I saw it. He was very active on one of my articles and another hubbers articles.
                     
                     I don't think he is a bad guy, just misguided in who he thinks needs "standing up" for.
                     
                     He is a guest user and does not have an account under that name to my knowledge.
                     
                     Different WildBill than the ones you are looking at.

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8. 86

   Austinstarposted 8 years ago

   Because WB has directly told me that his goal is to get me to leave HP. He said this and a few other nasty things on a hub - The P.O.s last gasp by Randy Godwin. I have reported him, made a forum about him, and written directly to the team about him. They totally ignore this account.

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   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I'm confused. Is this Wild Bill character posting from a HubPages account or is he an anonymous non-logged in reader?  It sounds like the latter so why are you saying he has been here nine years and has zero hubs? Those are attributes of an abandoned account.  There is no information to be gleaned from anonymous non-logged in commenters other than what they say in their comments, which could be total lies.

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9. 86

   Austinstarposted 8 years ago

   This is what is so confusing and frustrating about WB's account. It's an HP account, he is using it to post to hubs, yet there is no activity and no substance to the account. Yet he seems to have clout with hp staff or moderators. I have screen shots, but it doesn't seem to make any difference, hp will not delete the account.

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   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      What it looks like is that over the years several people have signed up to HP under the popular name "Wild Bill" and then abandoned their accounts.  These people are probably completely unrelated to the person signing his non-logged in comments as "Wild Bill" in the present day.  And those abandoned accounts are not making comments as you can see from the blank activity feed.  If I sign myself out I can comment on a hub and sign my comment as "Wild Bill" and so can anyone else, so there's no way to connect this person to a particular active user.
      
      If this anonymous person is only communicating with you through comments on another person's hub, why don't you just stop commenting on that hub?

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10. 94

    SmartAndFunposted 8 years ago

    C-G is correct. If comments on a hub come from a name written in black type rather than a blue hyperlink, that means the person is commenting while not being signed in to HubPages. Anyone can do this under any name they choose, whether they have an account here or not. As long as the name is in black and isn't a link to an HP account profile, there is no telling who Wild Bill really is or whether they are an HP member or not.

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11. 86

    Austinstarposted 8 years ago

    Ok, I get all that. But it does not explain why HP will not delete these empty accounts or why the moderators would give the power to ban a real user just by making an anonymous complaint about them.
    The moderators should do due diligence in investigating each and every complaint and make decisions based on the merits of the complaints and the possible damage they are doing by pissing off a regular contributor to the site (as opposed to a whiner and complainer and troll).
    HP is shooting itself in the foot by allowing these trolls to exist.

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    1. 66

       relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       If someone is banned from HubPages, the account is not deleted to lock-out the name from ever being used again, as well as preserving the behind the scenes notes and actions.
       
       There is no compelling reason for them to waste time and resources deleting inactive and empty accounts.

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12. 84

    Annsaloposted 8 years ago

    I agree with making another account. It makes the whole mess a lot more easy when it comes to being able to say what you want without worry of your primary account.
    And for at least a little while maybe people won't catch on to who you are, but of course that doesn't last if you go to Q and A or here much.
    Out of my 3 accounts only two have been figured out by the people who followed me on my other account, because I never go to Q and A with the 3rd.
    If you do decide to make a new account it would be nice for those of us who actually follow your Q and A and such to know who you are.

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13. 86

    Austinstarposted 8 years ago

    Incredible. Probably one line of code could delete all the empy/inactive accounts and clean up server space.  But what do I know? I was a Senior Analyst for a multi-national corporation.

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       gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

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

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14. 76

    jlparkposted 8 years ago

    They ban you for something simple, yet it takes how long to get NW to be banned for 3 days!!!!!????
    
    And some of the derogatory and blatantly rude stuff coming from one hubber on their question/s regarding trans people - how many times does one need to call a minority 'freaks' or 'perverts' before it becomes an issue? Yet we do something similar in commenting about religion or hell, the proof of there being more known paedophiles in religion than the trans community...and whoops, we get banned.
    
    Maybe I should just report that question for hate speech??
    
    Hubpages is losing its objectiveness. It seems if you are religious or claim to be you get to say what you like even if it's offensive...unless we work really hard at having it stopped (NW, Feenix, JThomp, etc) yet they make one little noise about someone and you get banned for 30days cause you insinuated she may be unwell.
    
    Grrrrrrr

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    1. 81

       gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, there are discrepancies in that regard.

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15. 86

    Austinstarposted 8 years ago

    Thanks, Annsalo and jlpark, it's bewildering to say the least. I'll ask Randy to set his comment to where only signed in users can comment. At least that will get him off that hub!

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