How Do I Remove Articles from PetHeplful without Losing Follow Links

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   agilitymachposted 5 years ago

   I have 37 articles on PetHpful that are undergoing editing....AGAIN. This happens a lot. I'm expected to go into each article, read it, fix the mistakes the editors put into my articles, and repost the articles. I have other writing projects (book, book trailer) pending for my agent, and I don't have time to monitor what is essentially a hobby writing site for me.
   
   I would rather have my articles removed from PetHelpful than have to constantly monitor edits. I write a lot about dog agility, and the editors are not dog agility experts. They unknowingly edit in factual errors a lot. So do my book editors. There, though, I fix the edits before publication, and I don't have to go back in every six months and fix more editor-inspired factual mistakes that make me look like I don't know my topic.
   
   So, how do I go about removing my articles from PetHellpful BUT keep the follow links so my fans (I have a fairly good fan base on Facebook) can still follow my links there to find my articles. The articles have already gone from HubPages to PetHelpful. Now I'd like the link to take them back to HubPages where they may sit happily and be left alone in factual accuracy. I'd also like my articles to go back to HubPages in the form they were before this recent round of edits. Is that possible?
   
   Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
   
   (BTW, my articles draw people to PetHelpful. They get very few readers from being on PetHelpful, although I realize I may lose some Google traffic by going back to HubPages. I'm good with that. My email account is overflowing with HubPges editing emails just today.  Who has time for this? HubPages is a hobby.not a job!)
   
   Thanks for any advice!!
   
   agilitymach

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      Misfit Chickposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      HP has been edit-happy for a while, now. Yeah, they still edit HP articles and not just the 'specialty' sites. I have simply been ignoring them for the past couple years; and letting my articles fall into 'non featured' disarray. A lot of people have stopped writing for hubpages for this reason.
      
      If you already have a large following on FB or social media - it might be a great idea for you to move your articles into an online blog. That is what I'm going to do even without the huge following, ha! Once they are moved, they are mine to control and not edit after they are done.
      
      Now all I need to do is figure out how to delete an article. That's what I came in here looking for.
      
      Good luck.

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   Beth Eaglescliffeposted 5 years ago

   You could email the team through the the Help button (top right) and ask them to move all your articles back to HubPages.
   
   However, that may not solve the issue of editors changing things, so you would still need to keep an eye on them both (your articles and the editors!)

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      agilitymachposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      They edit articles on HubPages too?  I got 23 emails today from HubPges. Twenty three!  I just went into my highest traffic article, and right at the top was an edited in mistake. Another article has ugly Wikipedia Commons images put into it. Seriously?  How do I stop this?
      
      If I unpublish my articles, will the links out in cyberspace still work? I'm getting really angry.

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         Beth Eaglescliffeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Twenty-three! No wonder you're annoyed. I don't think there's a way around this problem. HP have the upper hand if you want to stay on their site.
         
         If you un-publish an article it won't appear in search results, but as far as I know a link with the page's URL would still work even if it's unpublished. So what you do next will depend on how much traffic you get from search engines versus traffic from direct links.

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            agilitymachposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            I'm glad to hear the articles links will still work. This is most certainly the route I will have to take. I don't have time to wade and fix edits on all of my articles on network sites. I'd rather they were unpublished so I can fix them over time. Having them out there with factual errors is embarrassing and bad for my reputation in the sport. I can later republish the ones that have the best traffic. The others can remain unpublished for people who have the links and readers of my FB page.
            
            Thanks for your help.

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            Beth Eaglescliffeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Update: My earlier comment about links working when an article is unpublished is incorrect. Robin from HP staff says that articles are removed from the internet if they are unpublished and so even direct links will no longer work.

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   Nell Roseposted 5 years ago

   It drives me totally insane! I appreciate maybe one edit for any of my mistakes. But looking at my edits I found each one edited at least 4 times! So you are telling me that they edit the edit because the editor got it wrong? Why?

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      agilitymachposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I have to edit the edits. They are factual errors, usually, although I have found edited-in grammar mistakes. I care less about those. The factual errors are huge, though. I looked at two articles today. I found one rather large factual error at the very top of the page, and they had added an unattractive Wikimedia photo as my cover photo to the second article. I had to remove both. I also found other issues that had to be changed and returned to their original state.
      
      It's crazy. They have to know that good writers are busy writing....not editing their old work. It's been edited by HubPages already. Let's move on. I understand Google changes and "looks" for different things, but editing my articles over and over again will run writers off.
      
      I'm glad to hear I'm not the only person annoyed with the constant editing of the articles.

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4. 93

   EricDockettposted 5 years ago

   Did the emails say your article are going to be edited, or that they have already had edits made to them?
   
   PetHelpful recently underwent an update to improve the freshness of the site. Editors addressed every article on the site and made small improvements, which gave each article an updated date. I thought they were done with this weeks ago, but it's possible this process is still ongoing.
   
   In most cases the changes they make are extremely minor, such as adding/removing punctuation. This is done so the site itself is fresher and hopefully we all get more traffic. From what I can see some of the other sites benefitted from this, but I've not noticed an improvement to PetHelpful yet. 
   
   While I agree that the editorial process is very frustrating, and it is alarming to get all of those emails, if that's what you are seeing it's really not a big deal. Have you checked to see what changes were actually made?
   
   However, if they are making significant overhauls to the same article and introducing errors every few months I would have a big problem with that too. I'd reach out to the Robin and/or the editing team and see if some kind of understanding could be reached. Moving your article off the niche site definitely doesn't help HubPages.
   
   You'd be cutting off your own nose as well. You will likely get almost zero traffic from search, and even traffic you get from social media would not be as valuable due to lower CPM. I wouldn't definitely try to work it out with HubPages before taking such a drastic step.
   
   It's all up to you of course. Just trying to offer some possible solutions and things to think about. Good luck!

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      samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      As @EricDockett said, we are still going through every article on PetHelpful and making minor edits to "refresh" the site. Most of those emails you are getting should be notifications that a particular article has gone through the queue.
      
      If there are glaring errors, you can email us at team@hubpages.com with examples and we can figure out the right way to approach this.
      
      Now, if you'd rather just revert edits, we can move your content back to HubPages so you may do so. Just email us at the same address above! It is true that it will cut traffic significantly, though.

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         agilitymachposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         '
         
         These are glaring factual errors and ugly Wikimedia photos added. I really don't care about traffic. I don't make much here anymore and am now focused on my books and traditional publishing.
         
         An example of one error out of the two articles I looked at yesterday--and I don't remember the exact wording--but an editor added a whole thought to my article under the cover photo on my article on how dogs see color and why it matters for dog sports like agility. The new, inaccurate thought said that the original purpose of the color on dog agility equipment was to make it brighter and more pleasing, but that people should consider how the dogs views color too. Ummmm. Anyone who knows the history of dog agility knows that's NOT the original purpose of "color" on dog agility equipment. The paint choices and how and why agility equipment is painted has a long and interesting history, but it's not because I think its "purty." No, I don't expect the editor to know that, but I also don't expect such a thought to be edited in front and center (literally) on my article. Statements like that make me look like a yahoo who has no clue about agility. I shudder to think what the other 37 edited articles look like.
         
         I don't mind punctuation (although they've put punctuation errors in too) nor grammar edits. I'm a former journalist and current author. I'm used to being edited. I DO mind when an editor changes my ideas, adds their own, and changes my voice.
         
         The other error from yesterday had to do with the cover photo of the second article I checked. (I only checked two.) The editor chose an ugly Wikimedia photo and replaced my utterly beautiful photograph with it. Then, he or she put a summary of the article under the photo. It used words and phrases I did not include in my article. I have no idea where this person came up with them. The article was on epi-genetics and how it affects puppies.I  wrote the article in a simple voice, as my audience aren't science majors. The summary was written like a science journal on epi-genetics. I barely understood it. Where did that even come from? Not me. The idea for my article was to translate the concept of epi-genetics into simple English for my readers. The silly, overly academic summary was completely against the entire voice of the article. Plus an ugly photo added. Why?
         
         If every article contains such issues, I look like an idiot to my readers who know well the sport of dog agility. The editors here do not. Sure, they made some good edits for punctuation and a very few good ones for grammar, but they are maring my reputation as an expert in my field.
         
         Like I said, I'm not whining about a grammar or punctuation. I'm upset about the editor putting words into my mouth and under my byline. When I work with my editors for my novels, they suggest edits and I--by myself- make the changes. They don't just decide to make my article say something I did not, and know better than to, say.
         
         I believe I will contact HubPages and ask that my articles be removed and returned to the HubPages site in their unedited forms where they can rest in peace and integrity. And how can I keep further articles from automatically being considered for niche sites where they will be edited? Pretty much everything I've written is on a niche site, with the exception of some of my really early stuff here and some umpublished things.
         
         I do appreciate you taking the time to answer. I hope this explains my frustration better. I'm glad I can return to HubPages and avoid further inaccurate edits.

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            samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Hi there,
            
            Once an author's articles are transferred back to HubPages, we can make a note on their profile so that none of their articles go through the Network Site curation process.
            
            We have received your email and our team will be reaching out to you shortly!

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               agilitymachposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you very much.

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      Solarasposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      LOL Eric - smaller grammatical errors.  How about an article went from 430+ views a day down to 80.  I went to see what had happened, and the term I had optimized it for had been edited out.  It appeared in the title, first paragraph, and then once more in an 800 word article. It is ridiculous. I put back in the words I was optimizing for and now its up to 140 views, but I doubt it will ever get back where it was.
      
      You cannot add an Amazon ad, and you can't have keywords, because people do not understand the term moderation.

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         EricDockettposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         That's alarming. There are many alarming things in this thread.

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            agilitymachposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah. That is alarming. And frustrating for the writer. I'd think HP could mark profiles for "no edits" for writers who they know have a good track record. Once our stuff is edited and approved for a site, that's it. No edits. If changes in format need to be made, they can contact us to do it ourselves or risk having our stuff removed. If we don't get to it, it's removed.

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               OldRosesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               After a couple of horrendous edits similar to your experience, I requested that editors not be allowed to edit my hubs.  Apparently a notation was made, because no one has touched my hubs since.  Additionally, when Dengarden was being updated, the team gave me the option of updating my own hubs rather than the editors.  I updated them myself.  I appreciate that the HP team is sensitive to experts like myself whose reputations can be utterly ruined by editorial errors.

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   Robinposted 5 years ago

   I've just sent you an email.    There isn't a way to opt-out of editing on HubPages.  It's incredibly important that authors and/or editors update and improve articles on a regular basis—online content is very different than print.  Think of it like a garden that needs constant tending.  If you don't water and till the soil, it will die. 
   
   Barbara, can you send me the link to the article you are referring to that lost traffic because of a title change?  Thanks!

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      agilitymachposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      A good analog. I don't have time to "tend the garden" or supervise the work of others in the garden. I will leave about three articles on PetHelpful and remove my other 34 or so. I just don't have time to review old content. All they need is a retirement ome where they can rest to grow wild.
      
      When I get time, I will contact the staff and let them know which few articles can remain on PetHelpful. The rest will need to be moved. I will also ask to have my profile marked so that no new articles are sent to niche sites. If my writing career returns to more heavily involve online writing, then I will consider other options. But for now, I just don't have the time.
      
      Thanks for the help.

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   Robinposted 5 years ago

   I’m sorry to hear that, but I understand. I want to clarify an incorrect comment made above, if you unpublish your articles, they can’t be seen by anyone but you. Of course, you could publish the articles somewhere else, but unpublishing them on HubPages removes them from the internet and your followers won’t see them even with a direct link.  Let me know if I can do anything to help you.

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      agilitymachposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Good to know. I did unpublish one last night that was edited  and on PetHelpful, but it had very old information in it. It needed to go. Thanks for the clarification.

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