Do you think HubPages would warn us in advance if they shut the site down?

1. 68

   Teresa Schultzposted 12 years ago

   Do you think HubPages would warn us in advance if they shut the site down?
   
   I suspect that, sometimes at least, many of us write directly onto the page at HubPages, without having first written offline and saving written work to our own pc. This question is also a warning to hubbers to do just that - write your articles offline, and then only post them onto HubPages. What would you do if you came to HubPages one day and there was a message that the site was shut down and you couldn't get your articles to use them elsewhere? How would you feel if HubPages hadn't warned us in advance that they were shutting down? I doubt they will. Just curious as to your thoughts.

   replyreport
2. 59

   Ellen Woodposted 12 years ago

   I doubt they will ever do it or even think of doing such things. And in worst case if they have to shut down then, they will provide a download link from where we can get all our articles.

   replyreport
3. 65

   Lauryallanposted 12 years ago

   I'm not really sure if they would give you a download link etc. Afterall if they've shut down they might not really care. Afterall, I anticipate they would only shut down for a really bad reason such as losing money or being sued etc. In this case they might not get the chance to help their writers.
   Teresa has hit the nail on the head again and helped make it clear that you have to protect your own work and keep backups of everything yourself and not rely on HP.
   I write directly into the HP box too sometimes but I normally copy and paste the finished article into word and save it in my HP file on my desktop. You never know what might happen in the future.

   replyreport
4. 68

   ptosisposted 12 years ago

   If they were shut down from a hacking attack - they wouldn't be able to warn you! the easiest kiddie script is the DDoS Denial of Service.
   
   HP does background saves of the individual parts of a hub.
   \___________________________________
   
   I lost my stuff with Google video - they did warn me but I had problems downloading my own stuff back onto my computer and lost the videos.
   
   __________________________________________
   
   Lost plenty of blogs including the newspaper forum for the Honolulu Advertiser. I had put it online because I was sure it was safer there than on my computer where my house might burn down.
   ___________________
   P.S. - I don not trust 'cloud computing!

   replyreport
5. 97

   UnnamedHaraldposted 12 years ago

   If HubPages shutdown on purpose, I would expect they would inform us in a timely manner. If it was hacked and taken down or a disaster happened and our hubs were lost, that's a diferent, if very unlikely, scenario.
   
   Every one of my hubs (even the worst ones) are written offline. Always. No exceptions. They are after all, my property. My philosophy is: use the cloud but don't trust it. Even when I update a hub, I update my offline file first and copy the relevant section. Every hub has its own directory and in that directory I place all files related to that hub: the article file (containing the text, summary, tags and source links), image files, caption files associated with each image and any miscellaneous files. My offline "hub", therefore, is not a copy of my hub page, but I can update and add to it and recreate it if I have to.
   
   PS (who uses postscript anymore?) I use Open Office/Libra Office as my word processor when writing. It's easier than online text entering plus bold, italic, http links, etc, all translate when copying and pasting into hub capsules without effort. I suspect the same is true for other word processors, though I don't know.

   replyreport
6. 65

   maheshpatwalposted 12 years ago

   First of all from my personal experience i dont think hubpages team will ever do that as they have a very good team of professionals. If due to some unavoidable reasons which is beyond their control if they are forced to shut down the site , in that case they might inform the hubbers by putting a notice on Hubpages main page. Personally i keep the word file of all the articles which i publish here in hubpages and i would suggest the same to others to follow.

   replyreport
7. 73

   yeagerinvestmentsposted 12 years ago

   Great point. I write directly to HP and do not save any of my work. I will from now on!

   replyreport
8. 60

   plussizepixieposted 12 years ago

   I am guilty of writing direct on to the pages at HubPages and not saving my work so this is a nudge in the right direction. Thanks for asking the question.

   replyreport
9. 74

   Marisaupaposted 12 years ago

   Allow me to preface my answer with the comment that I do not believe that Hubpages would ever discontinue operation without some reasonable degree of warning to its Hubbers.
   
   That said, it is always wise to keep offline copies of your work.  I noticed that most that answered this question do so in the form of keeping Word or text files of their content on their PC.  This is great, but I personally take it a degree further.  Content, especially as Google algorithms evolve and require constant tweaking, expansion and improvement of our articles, is rarely static.  This often renders our first published version of an article obsolete a few weeks or months down the road.  Trying to use a copy and paste system which requires opening and or dragging and dropping .doc files on our desktop can be very cumbersome indeed.
   
   Personally, I use note taking software to keep offline copies of all of my content, be it on HubPages or elsewhere.  You can use OneNote from Microsoft or another similar product.  In my case I use Evernote for the fact that not only do I have a copy on my PC, but it is also in the cloud, an excellent way to backup and safeguard against catastrophic data loss on your hard drive.  Every time that I update my content or modify it in any way, a simple click of the Web Clipper tool on Evernote and voila... my content is updated in my notebook as editable text.

   replyreport
10. 59

    iefox5posted 12 years ago

    Why would Hubpages shut down the site? It is something won't happen.

    replyreport
11. 60

    floriferousposted 12 years ago

    I'm just surprised anyone would write directly into the HP boxes. It's your content guys ... not HubPages. They are simply giving you a platform.
    
    They don't have to warn their writers in advance. There is a precedence for that answer. Many content farms have shut down in the past decade without warning. Most platforms like this do suggest we keep copies of our work in our personal doc files. They aren't responsible for it. We are.

    replyreport
12. 59

    cheaptoysposted 12 years ago

    im sure they will let you save your work somewhere instead of having the whole site disappear overnight

    replyreport
13. 60

    helloreviewposted 12 years ago

    I hope not! Iv just got started and im loving it : )
    
    Is there anything else i can do to get my hubber rating up? Any help would be great.

    replyreport
14. 61

    JBrumettposted 12 years ago

    I write everything in word before I upload it.  Granted word has been known to erase stuff, I'm still more afraid of Loading Ball Larry (Samsung Memory Commercials) than I am of HP shutting down.  =-P

    replyreport
15. 81

    lex123posted 12 years ago

    I strongly feel that hubpages won't close down one fine day. Why should they do such a thing, when they have worked so hard to make this site going on so excellently, and bringing them profit?  If at all they happen to do it may be for some unavoidable reasons  beyond their limit. If intentionally they do close down I feel that they will give us adequate time to inform us the reason of the closure and advise us to save our work.
    
    For having said that, in any case, it is our duty to save a copy of our own work with us. either as a digital copy or a print out which we can always have with us like a book.

    replyreport
16. 0

    mjkearnposted 12 years ago

    I write all my articles in word first. I find it easier to proof read and read, get word count and set paragraphs. I keep them in files and dated mainly for my own reference but I've seen a lot commenting on work being stolen so I guess at least I have a record.
    
    This was luck and not forward planning as I'm new to this. I just assumed everybody already did this,
    
    MJ.

    replyreport