Unresponsive editors and unwanted changes

1. 92

   TeriSilverposted 3 years ago

   Twice over this past week, I had to make a couple of repairs to editor changes on an article about grass planting in Ohio (published in 2015).  The main one was the changing of a photo which -- instead of showing a lush green lawn of Kentucky bluegrass -- became a picture of shoes over grass that had brown and yellow spots.  Not a good choice for this piece.  I contacted the editor twice but got no response and no action on it, so I changed it myself.
   
   Early this week, the article had undergone some edits -- most were OK (adding tthose dreaded Oxford commas) but there was an edited section where needed were words missing and some words added with no space between them.
   
   I ask again that before editors (dramatically) change a piece or photo, they contact the writer directly.  You've all told me there would be sufficient conversation but that's not the case.  Again, I did respond to the editor notification -- respectfully, of course -- but got no reponse back.  I removed the editor's picture and added one that I believe is more more appropriate to the article -- similar to what I had in the first place.  t

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   1. 83

      bravewarriorposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I've welcomed most of the edits that have been made to my articles. However, yesterday I was advised of edits to one of my highest performing articles, a review of Serta cooling mattress topper, which is on DenGarden. They removed all of my humor, which contained most of my personal experience, such as what led to me looking for a cooling option in the first place.
      
      I replied to the email that I'm not happy with them removing the personality from my article, as that's what I think has ranked it highly and has been a viable answer to consumers looking for a solution to back pain and night sweats because it was written by a real person with real experience.
      
      That said, I've decided to leave their changes in place for a few weeks to see if viewership increases. An experiment on my part.
      
      They did not, however, replace any of my photos. Perhaps because they are my own. Not sure. But I'm keeping a close watch on the activity surrounding that article.
      
      This is the first time major edits has been done to any of my articles. All the rest have pretty much only been punctuation.
      
      We'll see!
      
      BTW, I haven't had a response to my dismay either.

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   2. 92

      Kenna McHughposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I've had simple edits, not major stuff, so I keep them. Though, one time I had a major edit about a year ago. The editor was in communication with me about the edit. Not about techie stuff, but just letting me know when it would be done. When I got it back, I had to fix two minor grammar errors.

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   3. 68

      OldRosesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I've had problems in the past with editors making changes to my hubs either because they were not familiar with horticultural terms or they wanted to use "better" photos.  I have always reverted the changes and then emailed the editors to let them know why, especially photos because they have a tendency to confuse plants and substitute better photos of the wrong plants.

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2. 95

   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   I change editor's alterations regularly without contacting them. I never run into any problems. Most of the time edits are beneficial because they're grammar or punctuation corrections. If a passage was re-written in a way that I would never say or write it, I would revert it. sometimes they change title photos to ones that are horrible, so I change them back.

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