HubPro Basic has gotten more invasive and far less basic. Now they're changing text and replacing related photos with unrelated generic photos, thinking they are improving hubs.
Computer generated writing exists. It's getting better and better, but why would that lead people to believe that removing the unique and personal elements from writing by humans would increase its popularity?
I just don't understand why HubPages is going in the direction of removing writers' voices from their writing. In my opinion, they've got it all wrong. Writing from human beings will likely gain in popularity rather than sink and computer programs will try to emulate human writing voices rather than trying to sound as much like machines as possible.
Readers actually enjoy reading and enjoy the human element in writing. Imposing a more emotionless, less human tone on hubs really won't help anything, nor will removing relevant photos and replacing them with irrelevant ones.
I do NOT think that making our work more generic is the answer. You are right. We each enjoy the human element in others' hubs.
I wish HP would settle on one thing and as the Beatles said, "Let it Be."
I don't know about anybody else but I know that in terms of what I read elsewhere on the Internet I trust articles written with an author's voice far more than one written with uniform editorial language.
I think the move to strip out the author from hubs is a HUGE mistake.
There's absolutely NOTHING in Google's Webmaster Guidelines https://support.google.com/webmasters/a … 5769?hl=en which says anything about grammar and spelling having to be perfect
I suggest HP reviews the section which says this
Basic principles
* Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.
* Don't deceive your users.
* Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you, or to a Google employee. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
If a hub says the author is "xyz" then the person who should be writing the hub is that person and NO ONE ELSE. I refer to 2 and 3 above.
IMO a much better approach - which would in no way compromise or breach Google's guidelines - would be to create a report and a separate file for review by the Hub author in which SUGGESTIONS are made about aspects which might improve a hub in the view of HubPages.
The action to be taken would then be left to the hubber to implement - and in that way:
* decision-making about content is 100% down to the author
* the content remains the author's in its entirety
* copyright has not been breached
* Google guidelines have not been ignored
It's really frustrating after spending hours choosing the right image and making comments which are attached to those images to then have them removed on a hub which already receives high traffic when energy could be focused on getting rid of or improving hubs that are poorly written, riddled with grammar and spelling errors and lacking in any valuable content. Many of my readers are autistic people who rely on the visual supports and my images are planned with that fact in mind. Kylyssa, I agree with you 100%.
Thank you for this topic. As some of you saw, I recently had this issue myself, and you're right: HubPro Basic is NOT always basic at all. Not only were they going to change out my personal photos (until they agreed to leave my hub alone and return it to me), but I could also see that they were going to remove chunks of content that related to my personal experience on the Appalachian Trail. I could see the changes they were going to make by clicking on the hub link while it was locked away from me by an editor. To me, what they were removing was MY voice, not to mention photos I took while out there on the trail. They were removing what I consider legitimacy.
Do we really need to make hubs more generic? My response: NO WAY! Without the personal elements -- even IF that includes less than perfect photos -- a hub, or any article on any site for that matter, can come off reading like just another cranked out piece of content. Or even spun content. Just regurgitating the same old, same old info you can find on a bunch of other sites.
As a reader, I want legit and real. If that comes through in the writing (not to mention the photos if possible), then I can happily overlook less than perfection (whatever that is).
I've read HP's explanation(s) of why they're concentrating on "fixing" the best hubs and highest trafficked hubs in their efforts to appease the almighty Google, but I just don't agree with their logic.
My view is that HubPages misunderstands in a significant way what Google does want to see - which is individual authors with expertise talking about their own personal experiences in their own voice.
There's no way an editor should be involved beyond suggestions on spelling and grammar and possibly some SUGGESTIONS re formatting. (I'm fine with suggestions to remove caps!) and/or how modules are organised.
This is what Google states on https://support.google.com/webmasters/a … 1093?hl=en and this is what editing should be limited to.
Be careful of things that can make visitors not trust your site or leave:
* Errors such as broken links or wrong information
* Grammar or spelling mistakes
* Excessive amount of ads
* Spam such as comment or forum spam
Remembering of course that if you have to remove irrelevant adverts from a page you would do better to start with the wholly irrelevant ones outside the author's control rather than the wholly relevant Amazon modules within the author's content!
My view is that once they start to tamper with my text and/or the Amazon modules then the hub is unpublished and moved to another site where it will be my content in my voice and 100% my income.
If they are really keen to lose content then so be it......
Why surrender to HubPro? I do not like my hubs edited by anybody. I can accept only suggestions. The human voice, personal experiences and feelings, and opinions should always be maintained by the writer in his writings.
Oh, I'd opt out immediately if I could. But this is so-called HubPro "Basic" and we cannot opt out.
Our hubs should be written as professionally as possible. The staff should offer help as far as proofreading and correcting misspelling as opposed to just rejecting a hub because of a very few flaws.
That could be done by any software that you would subscribe to like Grammarly.
+1
HP certainly does not want to waste money on staff for a job which can be done by software which provides feedback to the author - so mistakes can be corrected as the hub is written. (Which I seem to recall is in fact what has happened in relation to spelling and common phrases)
HP could also write a program to highlight hubs to authors which have too many mistakes in them - and thenunfeature them if the hubs are not revised.
by Henry 10 years ago
Hey folks. I'm a long time member here and an SEO guy by trade. I love this platform and want to support it. I've been digging into Panda data, and I have a few suggestions. Let's work together and 'right the ship!' 1) Start a brand new account today. Fresh content is what Hubpages needs. Google...
by Georgiana 5 years ago
I can't seem to find an answer for this in the learning center. I have a large set of articles I've been writing for a while + some time on my hands to dedicate to Hubpages for the next couple of months. Would publishing 10 hubs a day benefit or disadvantage me, both in terms of hub score /...
by Marcy Goodfleisch 10 years ago
Do you have ideas on ways HP could improve the site or its usability in the coming year? No flaming, please; hoping to have some serious and helpful suggestions for staff to consider.Please share your ideas on: - How the site can improve Google rankings? - How the site can drive...
by Jim 10 years ago
I already had one post about low traffic. Here is another one. It just keeps going down. I was excited at first about being on Hubpages, but that has changed. Traffic was going up, and I was enthused about writing again. From my high point on hub traffic, which was on September 7, my traffic has...
by Kate Swanson 13 years ago
We all appreciate that it's our own responsibility to protect our own work, but it's a big job, and it's in HubPages interest to help us, because plagiarism affects the whole site's income.On another thread, there have been several suggestions of features HubPages could add. So far we have:-...
by Nell Rose 8 years ago
If we find that our new site for health is falling drastically, wouldn't it be a good idea if we scrapped it and gave it back just as hubpages again? I keep reading that google only likes professional health articles. Actually that annoys me because who better to know, understand and experience the...
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |