Old Featured Article Unpublished

1. 96

   Melissa A Smithposted 6 years ago

   I've just received an email for the first time telling me one of my older articles is "incomplete or Poorly Structured". I believe this article was previously featured, as almost all of my articles are. It was old and had some issues so that's not really the problem here. What I don't like is this statement "Please note that repeated violations will result in the banning of your account". Really? Threatening to ban me for an article that was previously accepted? How do I know how many more of my articles will all of the sudden be unpublished since the standards have changed? Should I just delete all my old stuff?

   replyreport
   1. 84

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I understand your upset, but I do think it is up to writers to keep up with all of the changes that have been made in the recent past, go back and update their hubs.  Otherwise, the moderators will eventually check up on older hubs and then writers get letters like the one you got.
      
      The merger with Maven, I think, has made the team much stricter that it even was before, which does sometimes create problems.  I haven't looked at your work but if Dr. Mark says it's good, then that's all I need to know.
      
      Probably updating photos, focusing more on your specific topic or changing a title will be enough to do.
      
      I get mad at the moderators sometimes, too, but frankly, in the end I tend to agree with their analysis of my writing and my hubs improve as a result.
      
      What the team is doing is apparently working.  They, and we, are making more money than ever, reads are up and Google isn't mad at us any more.  So, I think it pays to set emotions aside and make the required changes.

      replyreport
2. 97

   DrMark1961posted 6 years ago

   Melissa, I am pretty sure that they just sent you the email that they send everyone in that case, and the "banning the account" has nothing to do with you. HP is probably glad to have your excellent articles on their sites and would not want to lose them.
   To answer you question, I would say either deleting or editing your old articles is a good idea. I deleted quite a few that were not worth saving, and I have tried to do a lot of editing to those that have never been moved to PetHelpful.

   replyreport
   1. 96

      Melissa A Smithposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, it's not worth risking getting banned even though some of my older articles help with traffic. They are welcome to unpublish but the ban threat is unnecessary.

      replyreport
3. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 6 years ago

   It is the frequent number of threads like this one that make me leery of posting new hubs.

   replyreport
   1. 97

      DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      It has nothing to do with new hubs. Her new articles are excellent and fit the guidelines. Older stuff, like some of my hubs that mired on the HP site, are the problem.

      replyreport
      1. 59

         paradigmsearchposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         I was referencing more the genre of the post than the specificity.

         replyreport
         1. 97

            DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah, I know. I too had an angry forum in this genre about one of my hubs two months ago. It took a little help from theraggededge, TimeTraveller2, Marisa Wright, and a few others and I eventually found a lot that could be improved. I submitted (sorry, offerred!) it to HP yesterday and it was moved to a niche site.

            replyreport
            1. 59

               paradigmsearchposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               There's currently a hub I would like to offer HP my own wonderful self, but the concerns I have mentioned elsewhere are still stopping me dead in my tracks. It's not the original offering I'm much worried about, it's the high probability of irreversible extermination from a niche site somewhere down the road. It's happened before, can't seem to bring myself to risk it happening again.

               replyreport
      2. 91

         Jean Bakulaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Exactly. As we had to change sizing on the pictures, I realized I had a huge chunk of hubs that I've basically neglected for many years, they had links and small pictures, RSS feeds, and none of the APA guidelines.
         
         I deleted a few, but a lot had good bones and I am still in the process of rewriting them. Most of my work is evergreen, and worth saving, they are all featured. Don't be too hasty to delete, your copywrite date is there and will protect you from plagiarists.

         replyreport
         1. 85

            gmwilliamsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            I also have to straighten out many of my hubs.

            replyreport
   2. 84

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      No reason to fear posting or updating if you make sure you know the guidelines and follow them.  I've had very few problems and have updated many of my older hubs and continue to post new ones as well.  I have a little formula I use that seems to work for me, and I suspect others do as well.
      
      I use https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer to help me come up with clear, concise searchable titles
      I try to keep capsules relatively short and subtitle them in a way that "tells the story" so that people who just want to browse can easily do so
      I always post at least two related, well edited photos the first one of which is placed beneath the introductory paragraph and has text on it which basically repeats the title
      I add at least one video and one poll
      If I place an ad, I do so properly and generally place it within the text, although I sometimes use an Amazn capsule if I feel people need to see what the product looks like
      My articles always have a clear beginning, middle and end
      All of my articles are at least 1000 words long and some have as many as 2400 words.
      I use my word processing program to create all of this and always do a spell and grammar check prior to posting.
      
      I am a terrible photographer so usually use photos from Pixabay and Morguefile  as well as other sources from which I have permission, which I edit  and size on Picmonkey.   Photos are always a minimum of 1000 pixels.  I credit every single source and never plagiarize photos.
      
      If I get a letter from the team I try to figure out what it is they want me to do, and then I do it.  If I object, I contact them by email and work with the moderator until we both come to an agreement.
      
      Even after doing all of this and getting featured and moved to niche sites, I often find that a hub is not getting many views.  So, I go back and look for problems.  Usually, I find a number of them that I missed!  So, I update. 
      
      All of this is a bit of work, but doing it gets my work  where I want it to be. Every single hub on both of my sites are now on niches except for the very new ones that just got posted.  That adds up to 177 hubs.  Within the next two weeks I'm going to hit 2 million views which isn't a lot for some people but for me is pretty good, especially since my articles are mostly seasonal.
      
      Hope this helps some of you.

      replyreport
4. 91

   aesta1posted 6 years ago

   Weeks ago I changed the small pictures in my hubs and it was not really a problem. In cases where my pictures were all small, look for some on Pixabay or Wikimedia or Shuttershock os just take it out it if you have several anyway. Some of my polls I have to just make it full page and to do this, just move the arrow. Just do it one at a time and you'll get there.

   replyreport
5. 71

   GypsyOwlposted 6 years ago

   Four of mine were flagged this week and the reason was the first module was an Amazon module. I'm guessing they were featured (for a few years) and most recently the 'format specifications' changed or the automated check was updated to include the violation.
   
   To see exactly what is an issue I went to my hub stats page, and scrolled to the bottom, then clicked on Check for Violations. The report had specifics about what I need to fix.
   
   Edited to add. When it says "Disallowed First Capsule" those are the ones I had used an Amazon module (apparently they call it a capsule). To fix them I have put a new text capsule at the beginning (perhaps moved some of the text from the Amazon capsule into the new text capsule) and review them.
   The first one I tried to fix showed me I hadn't put enough words in the Amazon capsule. That is easy enough to fix.
   
   Hope that helps.
   Deb

   replyreport