Why is HubPages considered a "sketchy" website?

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   MarleneBposted 12 years ago

   Why is HubPages considered a "sketchy" website?
   
   I recently read a B2C (Business 2 Community) article that considered HubPages to be a sketchy website. The article also listed Wikipedia and eHow as websites that you should not link your website to or you would suffer the consequence of being downgraded for linking to one of these sketchy websites.

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   Faith Reaperposted 12 years ago

   Wow, hope that is not the case.  Yikes, on the Wikipedia, etc. too.  I did have one incident that really kind of stunned me back a month or so ago, concerning logging into my HP account, and I believe, if I remember correctly, a message from my Internet provider came up, saying "Do you really want to log into this site, as it is risky to do so," or something of that nature.  I thought, what in the world, and it kept giving me that message for a couple of days, and so I finally just said, "yes," the site it okay, so it would allow me to log on.  I don't know why it would be considered "sketchy," but would like to know.

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   1. 78

      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The comment, putting HP in the same boat with biggies like Wikipedia and eHow is what has me wondering why. I don't consider Wikipedia and eHow to be sketchy. And, I certainly don't consider HP to be sketchy. So, I wonder what the basis is.

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3. 87

   sparksterposted 12 years ago

   I'm extremely surprised that this may be the case with Wikipedia considering it's basically an online encyclopaedia which requires citations, verification, etc in order to have content added.  That strikes me as odd.  I'm not surprised about Hubpages because basically just anybody can sign up and post anything they want.

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      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks. I'm starting to see some logic. Wikipedia encourages citations and verifications, but it is not a requirement. People can still post to Wiki, but then their post would have a notice regarding the absence of citations.

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      sparksterposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes that's true, though sometimes though do remove content if they find it to be inaccurate.

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4. 69

   Anti-Valentineposted 12 years ago

   Well look, I know that in the past professors at universities the world over didn't like students citing Wikipedia articles. But I think that attitude is changing. I know for a fact that some students have even been given assignments to create Wikipedia articles on a subject of their choosing.
   
   HubPages and eHow are often branded as content farms, perhaps wrongly -- especially in the case of HubPages. HubPages strives for high quality content, which I think alone makes it different from content farms, which are by definition websites with low quality content.
   
   In the end someone might have heard the website was bad, didn't bother looking in to it in order to form their own opinion, and just went along with so-and-so says it's a sketchy website, and people climb on the bandwagon. You'd be surprised how often this happens.

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   1. 78

      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Oh, good point, Anti-Valentine, good point. We can't believe everything we read on the internet. After reading that article, I was quite curious. I wondered if I was missing something. Couldn't see why HP would be put in the sketchy class. Thanks.

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      Anti-Valentineposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I personally don't think HubPages is a bad website -- or Wikipedia for that matter.  That's my opinion.

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      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'm with you on that, Anti-Valentine.

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      Relationshipcposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree that it is probably just rumored to be sketchy and people are buying into because they haven't experienced it firsthand. I've been online a long time, and HubPages is one of the least sketchy places I know!

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Very interesting points there, Anti-Valentine.  Hmmm, must go for a visit on your corner of HP Town.

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5. 81

   heidithorneposted 12 years ago

   I think some of the brouhaha deals with how Google may rank some content on the site. But let's look at this. HP has an Alexa.com rank of 460. That means it's in the top 500 trafficked websites in the world. It has a Google Page Rank of 6 out of 10 which is pretty good considering it's not an "authority" site (for example NY Times is a 9, WSJ is an 8).
   
   Essentially HP is a site of "sites." This is like saying that WordPress is bad because there are horrific bad WP bloggers. Does anyone say WP is "sketchy?"
   
   I view HP as another "platform" for content distribution, not a site itself.

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Wow, great to know.  Thanks a lot for the great information.

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   2. 78

      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Now, I'm more impressed than ever. I did not realize how highly HP ranked among other websites. But, like you said, it is more of a platform than a regular website.

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   recappers delightposted 12 years ago

   I am going to guess that it's because hubpage authors are not required to show credentials in order to write something, and our articles are not vetted by industry professionals in the area in which we write.  We may indeed be very knowledgeable about our topics, but the vetting process is not intense.  That being said, our google rank is a lot higher than a lot of other social media platforms.

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      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting insight. It is good to be affiliated with a company that is ranked so high. That probably has a little to do with the writers. Right? Thanks so much for your answer.

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