What are your thoughts on the new banner policy? Mine said, "Exercise your right

1. 56

   poetvixposted 13 years ago

   What are your thoughts on the new banner policy? Mine said, "Exercise your rights.  Vote."
   
   It did not say vote up.  Being American, I think voting is good.  While I understand feeling a quality article should stand alone, that does not address the underlying issue, censorship.  I love Hub Pages and the team.  They have been supportive and helpful.  This is the first policy I have seen I don’t support for I feel it is every author’s right to post what they wish.  We are asked to create original content.  The banners were.  Am I the only one that sees this as somewhat contradictory? 
   
   

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2. 82

   Brett Winnposted 13 years ago

   Seems to me the green VOTE UP button was self explanatory.

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3. 69

   Huntgoddessposted 13 years ago

   
   
   I love the button --- the one on your question. That's adorable! But, I don't know anything about a banner policy.
   
   If Hubpages enforces its posting rules, that isn't censorship. Hubpages is a private company, and we Hubbers have a contract with them. In the contract we signed, we agreed to certain things.
   
   In exchange, Hubpages provides us with space, and other cool things. We're supposed to abide by the contract we signed. It isn't censorship. It's an obligation.

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4. 60

   rob_allenposted 13 years ago

   Voted up! Simple yet juicy in context

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5. 73

   davenmidtownposted 13 years ago

   They detract from ads because they appear ad like.... I usually just invite people in the closing remarks of my article to leave a comment or ask a question.

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6. 78

   Laura Schneiderposted 13 years ago

   I'm with Huntgoddess. We're not serious writers if we have to resort to cheap tricks to get people to read our stuff. Banners just look bad, anyway.

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7. 68

   The Frog Princeposted 13 years ago

   I'll give you the technical answer, not that I agree with it.  Censorship and the provisions of the 1st Amendment apply to the "government" taking actions to prevent the free expression of speech.  Hub is privately owned, and like other media are free to make their own rules concenring content.  That's the technical explanation.
   
   The Frog

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8. 96

   Cardisaposted 13 years ago

   I can understand why HP would want us not to use the banner because there have been some incidents of people clicking ads instead. There were a couple of these banners that had an arrow pointing down. We have to remember that not everyone understands things the same way. One of the persons have lost their adsense account due to random clicks. Upon investigation the person had one of these banners with an arrow. People clicked the ad above the feedback bar.
   
   Other than that I thought it was a good way to remind people to vote for your hub because many people read and forget. Banners that are well done and looks great could have been allowed.

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9. 59

   FatFreddysCatposted 13 years ago

   I had never used a "banner" and actually I don't think I've ever read a Hub that had one attached to it. So the decision was pretty meaningless to me either way.

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10. 77

    Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years ago

    It's tough to say.  I've seen some banners that sort of annoyed me - things saying "be sure to vote this hub UP!"  I didn't like that sort of prompting, but wasn't too put off by it.
    
    I think that Hubpages has rules for generally very good reasons, so I'm going to hope that there's also a good reason for this one.
    
    I would imagine that those things could in some way damage your on page seo standing with everyone's favourite search engine...but I'm not sure about that either.

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11. 71

    terrektwoposted 13 years ago

    As Hubpages is a private company it is really up to them. As said we went through and agreement to be able to have an account here. But if they change things for the worse over time they will see account signups drop and current users not coming back, just ask Ebay.

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12. 77

    Uninvited Writerposted 13 years ago

    Not censorship at all. You are still allowed to ask people to comment in a text capsule, you can even ask people to vote your hub up. A lot of the banners I saw were tacky and took away from the content.

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13. 59

    protechnoposted 13 years ago

    
    
    We are living in a world that's so full of contradiction, so seeing a new one doesn't surprise me a bit now.
    
    As for my two cents, I think this picture says a lot.

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