When did a 'Hub' become an 'Article'?

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   sallybeaposted 5 years ago

   When I get a notification of a new Hub being published I notice that it is now called an Article.  Is this new or have I been inactive for too long?

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      Glenis Rixposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      What’s in a name? I think that, conceptually, the hub is the central website and the content that we contribute radiates from that hub. So contributions were never, strictly speaking hubs - they are pages, or articles, and a component of the hub. Alternatively, your own dedicated home page might be a hub in it’s own right. Think of articles in terms of the spokes of a wheel.

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   2. 88

      lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I remember it being new hubs. But maybe after the niche sites and the whole maven merger, they are no longer called hubs? Hubs are meant to be on Hubpages I reckon.

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   3. 88

      Christy Kirwanposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      We did change most of the messaging from "Hub" to "article" about a year ago because we found that while "Hub" was a fun community term, it was actually causing a lot of needless confusion for new authors who didn't realize our emails and messages were referring to their articles.

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         MizBejabbersposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I think that is a wise idea to use a generic term. When HubPages merged with Squidoo, it was strange seeing some of the articles referred to as "lens" in the comments section.

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            Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Yes Doris, it even looks stranger to outsiders who come through organic traffic. I still see some hubs that were originally from Squidoo with comments saying things such as "I like your lens" – The author never bothered to delete those comments.
            
            They don't realize that Google lowers the ranking with keywords like that. If it's not about eyewear then Google bots get confused.
            
            It's always important to understand that search engines see the comments as part of the content, which is why low quality comments, and comments not related to the subject, need to be removed.

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      2. 94

         sallybeaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for the explanation Christy, I think that it a good idea.

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   Erudite Scholarposted 5 years ago

   A hub is sometimes called an article by HP.They are synonymous.I prefer to call them articles though.When an article is published it becomes a full fledged website.

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   Glenn Stokposted 5 years ago

   Over a year ago I mentioned in one of my HubPages tutorials the need to call them articles. This is important because our major traffic is organic, and they don’t know what a hub is.

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      lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah of course if I am talking about it I always say article unless it's in a HP tutorial or so.

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      sallybeaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with you Glenn as I don't think anyone ever knew what a hub was.  I was just surprised to see that the staff are no longer referring to articles as hubs.  It does make me wonder if the word HubPages might be phased out in the future too.   Perhaps the site will all become one.

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      1. 96

         Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         No Sally, I see no reason why the name would be phased out. The network is still known as the HubPages Network. If any change occurs in the future, we might all be called The Maven. But in my opinion, I think our side of it will continue as "HubPages" even after the merger is completed.
         
         As for how we refer to our content, no one in the outside world knows what a hub is. As Brandon said, I call them hubs only when talking to other Hubbers, or in my tutorials that are meant for other Hubbers. When I talk to other people about my content, I always use the word "articles" so they know what I'm talking about. That includes how I refer to my articles in my hubs – because hubs are read by outside people.

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            Venkatachari Mposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            True. Nobody out of HP knows what do you mean by a "hub". When you say "the article" everybody understands it. I use the word hub only at forums on HubPages. Not in other cases.

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         2. 96

            EricFarmer8xposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            I was thinking about this, and it makes sense. I have not met anybody that recognizes HubPages or hubs, but they read articles online.

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   m-a-w-gposted 5 years ago

   Outside of HP I state article, makes more sense than following it by an explanation each time.

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