Haunting/Haunted Houses/Ghosts

1. 86

   Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years ago

   I just published a hub about the Amityville Horror. I was forced to categorize it under "Halloween" because it is a "haunting" story. I would like to see a category for haunted houses somewhere *else* so that the content is recognized as ever green and categorized as such. Thanks!

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   1. 76

      JamaGeneeposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I second that, EM.  I just did a hub about an indie film company that made a cult-fave horror flick, and had to put it in "Entertainment - Movies" when a main category "Horror" or "Hauntings" would be much more appropriate.
      
      Looking at the Categories list as a whole, many of the sub-categories would be better as the lead/main.

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2. 93

   Rochelle Frankposted 15 years ago

   Maybe a "paranormal" or category with hauntings, spirits, ufos dreams, visions?

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   1. 76

      JamaGeneeposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Paranormal as a main category would work.  Thanks, Rochelle!

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3. 86

   Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years ago

   Yes, Rochelle. Paranormal and everything under it.
   
   I wound up putting it in crime since it was mainly about Ronnie Defeo anyway.

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4. 93

   Rochelle Frankposted 15 years ago

   So will the right people see this?  the "Team" who can do something to add it?

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5. 86

   Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years ago

   I imagine they will, though Paul made an announcement after I posted this lol

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6. STAFF

   Fawntiaposted 15 years ago

   There is already a paranormal category under Religion & Beliefs, with subcategories for ghosts, UFOs, etcetera. In the future, please use the search functionality if you are having difficulty finding what you are looking for.

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   1. 76

      JamaGeneeposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I beg to differ, Fawntia, but Paranormal as a sub-cat under "Religion & Beliefs" is quite a stretch. Just my two cents.
      
      FYI, I do use the search functionality.

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      1. 86

         Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         So do I, and so did I when looking to place the hub. That's the only way I can find what I'm going for with so many categories. I was deposited right into "Halloween" because I'm not dealing with ghosts, but a reported haunting.
         
         I also agree with JamaGenee that Religion and Beliefs really isn't the right place for it. It wound up in the right place (crime) but regardless, I think this issue should be revisited by the staff.

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   2. 60

      HubPoliceposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/14427

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7. 99

   Gordon Hamiltonposted 15 years ago

   Wow - The Amytiville Horror takes me back! Certainly nothing whatsoever to do with religion as it is full of more holes than a tennis net but it was a great film.
   
   I will be honest in that I haven't seen the Hub yet (though will check in a minute) but isn't there a section for films (movies) on HP?

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   1. 76

      JamaGeneeposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, Gordon, there is - under Entertainment.  I know this because that's where I put my own hub about a horror flick made by an indie movie company.  Oddly, there was even a sub-cat for indie movies!

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8. 74

   mayhmongposted 15 years ago

   When I published my hub Living in haunted house, http://hubpages.com/_4s51btzfmykm/hub/L … nted-Homes I didn't know what kind of topic to mark it under?! Maybe just an ordinary hubber topic?

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   1. 86

      Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      EXACTLY MY POINT!
      
      I'm sorry for the caps but I feel as though people are missing the point I'm trying to make.
      
      The hub wasn't about the movie -- not at all. It was about the history of the house, the Defeo murders and the Lutz "conspiracy" if you will. But the house is "known" as a haunted house, not known for the crimes that took place there. I wound up putting it in crime, but it's going to look out of place there.
      
      The story has NOTHING to do with ghosts so Fawntia's suggestion doesn't hold water. I wanted to put the hub in a category where it would be useful and recognized, but that was impossible for me to do, since the necessary category (hauntings/haunted houses) doesn't exist.
      
      And once again, I need to state clearly that I *did* a search for Haunted Houses, because that's where the hub belonged!

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      1. STAFF

         Fawntiaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         I apologize if I have upset anyone. When I suggested that "you" should use the search function, I didn't mean anyone in particular. Many people were suggesting that we create a paranormal category, which already exists. So I came to the conclusion that no one had searched for "paranormal" or "ghosts" since no one seemed aware of the existence of those categories (which are easily found via search).
         
         Whether or not paranormal belongs under Religion & Beliefs is a separate issue. Ghosts, UFOs, and all of those things are not established facts, but things that some people believe in and some people do not. So it seems perfectly reasonable to me for those things to be under Religion & Beliefs. But if anyone disagrees, please feel free to explain your reasons why.
         
         As for Everyday Miracles' hub in particular, the issue seems to be that her hub does not fit perfectly into an existing category. That is bound to happen sometimes, particularly for hubs that cross the boundaries of multiple disciplines. It sounds like her hub is about the history of crime in a haunted house, so it sort of belongs under "history," sort of under "crime," and sort of under "ghosts." (You can argue the ghosts thing if you want, but every other haunted house story fits well enough under "ghosts" since haunted means, by definition, "inhabited by ghosts.") In cases like these, you really just have to pick the category that fits the best and live with imperfection. If it would solve the problem, then I am open to creating a "haunted house" category, but I would probably just change the name of the existing "ghosts" category so that it specifically mentions haunted houses.

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9. 86

   Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years ago

   Fawntia, I'm going out on a limb here, but how do you define a house that is (purported to be) infested by demons? I've always defined that as "haunted" but there are no ghosts involved.
   
   At this point I'm satisfied with the hub being under "crime" though I'm not sure it will get the best traffic there (and therefore benefit both HP and me).

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   1. STAFF

      Fawntiaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      In fact, our ghost category is currently called "ghosts and demons" so for the purposes of our categories it doesn't matter if "haunted" also includes demons.

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      1. 86

         Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Okay.
         
         I do see a potential problem here that I think the staff (in general) might need to look at. I have become incredibly bored of digging through categories and sub-categories to find the right one, so of course I'm using the search feature. A search for "haunting" brought up the Haunted Houses in the Halloween sub-category. It was never going to lead me towards ghosts. And I was too exhausted from the writing to think of demons, darnit!

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         1. STAFF

            Fawntiaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, search definitely has its limitations. For many of our categories, we do not have detailed descriptions of what the categories contain. I spent a couple of days writing descriptions for the main categories and most of the second level categories (which was deadly boring), but for third level categories and beyond, we do not have a lot keywords for search to latch onto. I agree that this is a problem. As we add more descriptions over time, search should improve, but unfortunately we don't have a lot of extra time to do this.
            
            For now, the best I can suggest is that you try searching for many phrases related to the topic you are searching for. So, if "haunted" doesn't work, try "ghosts," "paranormal," or any other related words you can think of that might lead you to the right thing. I often have to do this even when using Google to find what I am looking for.
            
            I realize that this can be annoying and time consuming. We have done our best to make it as easy as we can with the resources that we have, but there is admittedly room for improvement. In general, I wouldn't worry about it too much. A few imperfect hub categorizations are not going to make a difference to your success on HubPages. If you are particularly concerned about traffic to your hubs, I would worry more about writing text and adding tags that are appealing to Google. (The hubs with the most traffic generally get it directly from search engines.)

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10. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 15 years ago

    Okay, I finally get your point, demons are not ghosts of people who previously lived - but come from some other source in the universe.
    
    I don't have a problem with haunting as a category to put it in. To me being haunted, just means by something other than what we typically see every day. Could be ghosts, could be other stuff.
    
    But I do appreciate you angst.

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11. 86

    Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years ago

    Okay, so I do then have a question: If I had left the hub in the Halloween category, would the search engines have treated it as a seasonal hub?
    
    I wound up doing what you suggested, which is how I got to "crime." I think that's the best place for it, anyway, and I hope to improve the hub in the future. I just, darnit, have to get my hands on some books for research since the internet isn't offering me much on the Defeo case.

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    1. STAFF

       Fawntiaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       No, I don't think so. I don't know exactly how the search engines work (few people do), but I doubt it very much based on what I know.

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12. 86

    Everyday Miraclesposted 15 years ago

    Thanks, Fawntia!
    
    It's true, who knows how Google and other SEs really work? LOL

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