How Do I Appeal a Rejected Q&A Question?

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   eugbugposted 6 years ago

   I added the question myself. It doesn't make any sense technically and I explained this, but it's one of the "People also ask" type questions that appear in SERPs, relevant to the article's topic. The question does make sense grammatically. The problem is that four reasons are given for rejection.
   Maybe editors could be more specific in their replies rather than just giving a list of reasons? In the meantime I'll post the question again.

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2. 65

   eugbugposted 6 years ago

   Got around this by adding notes to the editor in the question when I reposted.

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   Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years ago

   Instead of putting it in the Q&A section, you could add it as a text capsule in the main article. Put the question as a header to the capsule and then the answer in the body of the capsule. I do that and Google traffic seems to increase as a result.
   
   EDIT: What generic reasons did the editor give for rejecting it?

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      eugbugposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I have done that in some articles and use a text capsule called "FAQs about ...." or something  to that effect. When an editor did a premium edit on a maths article, they added an FAQ module, so I followed suit with the idea on a few more articles. I think however it's somewhat confusing for readers. There's FAQs, Q&As and a comment section. Maybe they could be merged somehow?
      
      The reasons the editor gave were:
      
      The question or answer is not complete or understandable independent of the article.
      The question or answer contains spelling or grammatical errors .
      The question or answer is considered purely personal or not relatable to other readers.
      The question or answer is irrelevant, a duplicate, or includes promotional content.
      
      The question wasn't a duplicate, but a previous question very similar was asked, with just one keyword different. If the editor wasn't technically up to date on the subject matter, they wouldn't have understood the subtle difference.

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         DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

         I think that those reasons are standard.
         I sent an email to Robin, the team, and the person who has done a lot of editing on my article. I do not think it really mattered since it was a weekend and the overanxious editor buried this before anyone even saw it.
         It has been just another reason to turn me off of this program. I am going through and turning it off article by article, which is a shame becuase I do think it is helpful for some readers.

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            jansharesposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            +1

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   Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years ago

   Oh dear. Sounds like an over-enthusiastic new staffer trying to impress a senior editor (and failing miserably)

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5. 65

   eugbugposted 6 years ago

   More vague reasons for rejecting a question:
   
   The question or answer is not complete or understandable independent of the article
   The question or answer contains spelling or grammatical errors
   The question or answer is considered purely personal or not relatable to other readers
   The question or answer is irrelevant, a duplicate, or includes promotional content
   The question asker explicitly says they are under 18
   
   As far as I can see, editors are just technically inept and don't understand when certain common words are used in a non standard way. Also if a question is reposted, I'm told that that question was asked before, so  presumably the URL is reserved or something to that effect. So for the moment I'm going to turn off Q&A. It's too much hassle, and notification emails can't be replied to.

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6. 65

   eugbugposted 6 years ago

   Just got a reply from the team. Apparently we can't ask questions on our own articles. Only other authors/readers can ask them. Is this a new policy? I've made up lots of questions before and never had an issue. This is a pity because I was using "People also ask" from SERPs as the text for questions. I seem to remember HubPages suggesting we use these, but maybe they meant using them as titles for text modules.

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      DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      That sounds new. I think someone at HP is destroying this QandA project on purpose, We should see an announcement that it is being scrapped sometime soon.

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   eugbugposted 6 years ago

   Just received another email to say that they decided to pass them after all because they didn't link to any products. Even more confusing.

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      Jean Bakulaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I am sick and tired of the Q&A, it's a hassle and most of the readers can find the answer if they actually bothered to read the article. I would say it's a failed effort.

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