Recommended for you in the middle of articles?

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   Shesabutterflyposted 3 years ago

   Are they suppose to be in the middle of articles, or is this a bug? I only see this on a handful of niche sites.
   
   They are also appearing in the comments/Q&A which I find less distracting, but some of these are popping up in the middle of content making it appear like the author is recommending the articles for further reading to go with what is currently being discussed (at least in the cases that the subjects are similar or the section is placed in an empty space below a heading/bullet point).
   
   Here are a few examples
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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      erorantesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Good morning miss Shesabutterfly.  When, I open google articles; I see an interruption with add in the middle of an article. The sponsors are allow in the articles. Hub pages have a nice valance amount of add. I see a few articles with sponsors. It is normal. Stay well.

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         Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         erorantus, I think you got a little of what Shesabutterfly had in mind?                                     As far as I can understand, Google can place ads at the top, middle, and buttom of articles. But that's not what Shesa...is complaining about if I'm correct. She said that right in the middle of her long article, recommendation to read another story appear. That would seem odd. Because Google want readers to stay long on our articles. That's pay view.                                             If I recomended further reading at the end of an article, that's okay. Both Google and HubPages like that. I hope it help matter. Thanks.

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         Shesabutterflyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not talking about ads. Recommend for you are niche site articles being recommend by HP/Maven within the middle of articles. This is new. They do not appear on every article or even every niche site.
         
         They already have a related section at the bottom of articles, if readers ever get that far. If they want to add more that's fine, but this layout simply doesn't work. I don't want readers thinking I'm wanting them to leave my page for another for further reading when I haven't even read most if not all the articles being recommended.
         
         In previous layouts they were located in the margin or at the bottom as a pop up. Both of which likely did not bring in views since they have been discontinued. The only reason this would work is because readers think authors are actually recommending these articles for further reading. The placement is misleading.

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            Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Shesabutterfly, I understood you clearly. I'm with you in that. I hope that it makes sense now to erorantus. Have a nice weekend.

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   2. STAFF

      HubPagesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Hi there. This is a new component (not a bug) that we are rolling out on Owlcation, PetHelpful, and TurboFuture as a test. It is designed to help keep people on the network sites for longer, which should mean more clicks for authors.
      
      In-content recommendations are engineered to appear in the middle of the article, but depending on the length of the article, they may appear in different locations; this is why they sometimes appear in the comments (the comments are counted as part of the article in terms of engineering).
      
      Kindly,
      Haley

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         eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         They do break up the flow of text however Haley. In my case it's smack bang in the middle of a series of lines of a mathematical derivation. Is there any way they can at least be between modules rather than splitting them?

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         1. STAFF

            HubPagesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            We're aware of this issue and have passed it along to our engineering team. They are going to look into a fix, but it may be a while until anything materializes on that front. We wish we could be more specific, but we don't want to make promises we can't keep.
            
            The move to a different platform has not been without its growing pains! Please know that, along with reinstating commenting, this is a point of focus for us.
            
            Kindly,
            Haley

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         Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Haley, why just Oulcation, PetHelpful, and TuborFufure?                                       Why not roll out the engineering tests to the other niche sites, and even discover.com/?                                   Is what's good for the goose no longer good for the gender? Fair is fair period

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         1. STAFF

            HubPagesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Before unrolling this change across all sites, it's preferable to test it on a small number of sites first to see how they're affected. Part of the thinking behind that is to identify any issues as they appear and work to solve them before implementing the change more broadly.
            
            For example, in this case, we hope to have the layout issue resolved before adding the recommended content module to other sites. Thank you for your patience.
            
            Best,
            Haley

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               eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               That seems like a reasonable approach.
               Thanks Haley.

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               1. STAFF

                  HubPagesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  Thank you for your understanding. We will keep you posted on any updates!

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               Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

               Haley, that is well understood. Thanks.

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   Titiaposted 3 years ago

   Just took a look at some of my own articles. I did see the 'recommended' on one, but way below in the comments, but not within the articles. So I guess it must be a bug.
   
   edit: then I took a look at one of your articles and there it was, right in the middle of the article. It really doesn't make sense and I find it rather stupid to suggest that we, the author, would recommend other articles halfway our own.

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   1. 98

      Shesabutterflyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I initially only saw them on Owlcation & Pethelpful. It took awhile to find one on Delishably (I'm assuming because most articles there are much shorter). I did not see any on Dengarden or Letterpile, which are the only other niche sites I looked at.
      
      I agree! This one in particular does not make me very happy. I have not read or tried any of these, (the articles recommended change so even if I had read these, there is no telling if I would have read the next set that pop up for someone else) and the placement makes it look like I am recommending them to readers. I know they are on the same niche, but not all niche articles are of the same quality.
      
      I really hope it is a bug or it gets moved to a different place where it does not look like I am personally recommending these articles. I would really like readers to read the whole article before jumping off somewhere else.
      
      

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         Titiaposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Apparently nobody else seems to be interested in this?

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      eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I see they put them in the middle of my mathematical derivation. That's sacrilegious! Any new line/paragraph seems to be fair game for sticking in an ad. I'm going to have to force this out somehow.

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         Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Ha ha?

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         Shesabutterflyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         You think this is here to stay versus a bug? Possibly a new feature only being rolled out on Owlcation & Pethelpful to see how it performs? I was really hoping this was some kind of bug. I do not know how I would force it out of my articles I saw it on. The line breaks are necessary and I can't change the layout in those sections.
         
         I tried changing a few things as I noticed the layout looks terrible on Owlcation due to bullet lists not showing up, and it looks even worse now. Ugh.

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            eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            I think I tried shift-enters before to force a new line (rather than just enters for a new paragraph.) I can't remember whether that worked. The "recommended for you" thing seems to be a fixed placement that always turns up in exactly the same spot no matter how often the page is re-loaded. I think ads appear in more random locations.

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               Shesabutterflyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               I was able to move it after doing a shift enter for my bulleted list and now the recommend for you shows after the list rather than before.

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                  eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  Two shift enters to create a blank line seems to work if you need a space between lines.

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   Miebakagh57posted 3 years ago

   Allow me to check the issue on one of my LetterPile articles and report back.

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   1. 98

      Shesabutterflyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not seeing them on Letterpile. I only have 1 article there though. I did read a few longer articles to try and find some examples, but didn't see any.
      
      The one I posted from Delishably is gone, but they still appear on the articles in my first example. I wonder if this might only be a consistent thing on Owlcation & Pethelpful? I can't find them on any other niche sites, but I didn't check them all.

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      Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Shesa, it seems that network issue on myside or the LetterPile niche site is not responding. So I'm unable to check.                                                Thank you for informing us further. Apparently, it most be a temporary glitch or a bug that is now resolved. That was just me questing.

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4. 95

   Rupert Taylorposted 3 years ago

   So "we don't want to make promises we can't keep." Like reinstating the comments function in the second quarter?

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   1. STAFF

      HubPagesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, exactly like that We know that's a negative experience, so moving forward, we'll refrain from making timeline promises that we can't deliver on. We know that the other edge of that sword is coming across as vague, but it feels like the better side of a "can't do right" situation.

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         Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Haley, thank you. That's well noted.

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         EricDockettposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I understand not wanting to make promises, but I also think it is important for HP to keep the community updated on projects that are on the horizon. Otherwise, HP feels stagnant, and it feels like there are no plans for the future. Personally, I find it extremely motivating when an HP staff member comes into the forums and lets us know about things going on behind the scenes.
         
         I think a lot of people didn't and probably still don't understand how these recommended modules actually help us. Having staff explain it is very helpful and it stops people from freaking out.
         
         So, please consider this constructive and friendly criticism: Please talk to the community more and tell is what is going on. (Not you personally, but someone.) Even when Samantha was here it seemed like she was more concerned with the social side rather than the business side
         
         Intelligent people understand that deadlines aren't always met. I think it is far worse to be kept in the dark with no sense of where HubPages is headed.

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      Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      He eh eh! Rupert, when did you become a lawyer!?

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   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   Let's hope Maven give HP all the support they need and not just be dictatorial Overlords.

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      Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      yes, it would still be a hope and no action.

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