HP/TAG mining content from Discover

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Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks ago
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that HP has started the process of mining articles from Discover. The new Owlcation articles have the same title as the ones on Discover (in most cases) and the URLs are identical as well. The only difference is the beginning. For example, owlcation/humanities/facts-about-malcolm-x verse discover.hubpages/politics/facts-about-malcolm-x.

They are rewriting our articles and in some cases with the help of AI. This is an editor's note at the bottom of one of the Owlcation articles they blatantly re-wrote from Discover. "Editor's Note: While we may use AI to assist with research, compilation, and organization of the content on Owlcation, every article is reviewed and curated by real editors and informed by human insight and discretion from our editorial team."

They have copied one of Paul's and now one of mine. The one I just complained about losing all my views from. Am I wrong to believe in foul-play now? This is too much of a coincidence to believe otherwise. This is also one of two articles of mine that suddenly had ChatGPT views.
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  WriterJanisposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Doesn't that mean if you're currently moved to Owlcation that you'll no longer get paid for the views?
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  They are not moving the original article to Owlcation. They are creating derivative works from our content. I can only assume to regain earnings lost by allowing us to take our content to Discover in the first place. Rather than offer to pay us as they have for those previously on AxleAddict (per a forum post by Jerry Fisher https://hubpages.com/community/forum/36 … m-hp-today ), they are choosing this route instead. No doubt these articles will quickly out rank our Discover articles in SERPS.
  
  Completely within the realm of their TOS if we keep our content on HubPages Discover. I was letting people know in case they wanted to remove their content. I will be doing so, I'm just making sure I have all my ducks in a row first.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Excuse me, but they have no right to do this as it appears to infer copyright infringement. I'm a little confused as to how this is within the realm of their TOS. In addition, these actions appear to negate the emails we received a few months ago, advising us of the option to move our content from certain niche sites to Discover and the reasons why. Am I missing something? Is Owlcation an exception?
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  The Terms of Use doesn't allow me to copy and paste the contents (that's something they did not extend to us writers, is it?), but here's a screenshot:
  
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  As Bev has posted, as long as our content is on HP/Discover we have granted them the ability to create other works directly from our original content.
  
  However, we can remove our content from HP and then they will need to remove the work they created and put on niche sites (so far only Owlcation, but I do not believe that is where they are stopping). We will retain all copyrights including those to derivative works which means they will no longer be able to create articles from our work.
  
  The only way to stop this, is to remove our content from HP unfortunately. Now I need to figure out who to contact once I remove all my articles from HP. I'll be notifying them of copyright infringement and to remove their derivative work.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes. I also can no longer find a listing in the statistics field of my HP articles that tells me which articles have been copied. Not a good sign. I guess I need to remove content.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Wow! I did not notice that last night. They also removed the Q&A from our articles/profile pages. Although that might have happened earlier in the year?
  
  I only noticed because the article they created from mine has a FAQ section, yet my Discover articles no longer have them. They were there in the beginning of 2025 prior to moving my articles to Discover. I know I used them when editing my article for my own site. Confirmed via the wayback machine.
  
  I'm very glad I have already posted this particular article years ago on my own website. As well as have multiple copies of my article edits saved over the years.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  WOW.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  The never advised or informed the authors of this. The email they sent to use regarding moving our content from certain niche sites to Discover was, in part, to avoid this. If they are now infringing copyrights via Discover without notification or advisement in addition to other covert changes, theft and plagiarism, that is a huge, legal faux pas on their part, and is actionable. My guess is they are testing the waters.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I don't think they're "testing the waters", I think they're taking everything they want before they close down HP.com/Discover.
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  Eric Cauncaposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes. I agree with you. I also think about that. They also planning something about HP or Discover.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  How can I share this thread with someone outside HP/TAG?
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Just send them the link. You don't have to be a member.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I agree with Paul. I do not think they are testing the waters. They know exactly what they are doing.
  
  The TOS are at the bottom of every page. Beyond that, they are under no obligation to notify us of changes. These specific terms/addendums have been around since at least 2021/2022.
  
  I'm trying to refrain from saying too much more beyond what TAG is actively doing on Owlcation, however you're more than welcome to join the email group Andrea is trying to create.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Thank you. I look forward to learning more about the email group. As long as Arena does not commit any form of theft/plagiarism, their TOS will in all probability hold up, so to speak. This is in accordance with what my attorney advised.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Genna? I know that this may not be directly related to what is happening, but something else that is very peculiar has been going on with TAG. For nearly a year, now and then whenever I attempt to save my changes on an article after editing it, the changes do not save. Sometimes I can salvage them by using the "recover draft" feature, but not always. I've lost valuable text from my articles because of it. I've complained about this same problem on a number of occasions to the HubPages Team, and they tell me that they're working to fix it. However, they never do, and now they're not even responding to my complaints about it. It's not just this one problem, but a number of other anomalies that I have been encountering, which are things that never used to happen back in 2016 when I first joined HubPages as a writer. Why do you think they're being negligent in this manner? Some people on this forum believe that HubPages is getting ready to fold as evidenced by their actions. A lot of these types of problems were going on with Infobarrel before they vanished altogether from the Internet.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  By the way, I neglected to mention that I left HP in 2020, and did not return until late 2023. During that time, I never received any emails or notifications regarding Arena’s takeover, changes in TOS, and so forth. One of my fellow creative writers who no longer contributes content to HP advised that Hubpages, “Has lost its soul.” I could not agree more.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I neglected to mention that I left HP in 2020, and did not return until late 2023. During that time, I never received any emails or notifications regarding Arena’s takeover, changes in TOS, and so forth. One of my fellow creative writers who no longer contributes content to HP advised, "Hubpages has lost its soul.” I could not agree more. Are they getting ready to fold? It certainly seems evident by their actions and inactions that this is the case.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  "Are they getting ready to fold?"
  
  I'm not sure why this question needs asking, as they've been pretty clear in the official announcements.
  
  The announcement two months ago starts with "Thank you for being a part of HubPages over the years," which implies an ending.
  
  Then it later states: "...we have made the strategic decision to pivot away from the user-generated content model used by our HubPages system."
  
  They're no longer interested in user-generated content (the users are us and the content is our writing). That's why there are no longer any editors here at HP.
  
  They can be criticized for many things, but I don't think there was much ambiguity in that announcement.
  
  We're done.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I think they are waiting for legal advice before handling the recent issues.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  I wish that Lisa Winter would chime in and say something in this discussion forum about what is going on with HubPages. At least she should give us some reassurance that HubPages is not turning into another Infobarrel.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  I recognize the name. She used to be in charge of editors, right? Back in the days when we used to have editors.
  
  I don't believe this is an editing issue.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Lisa Winter was the one who informed us 10 months ago that any of our articles on the vertical sites that would cease to exist were being moved over to DiscoverHubPages. Her HubPages channel still exists. However, when you go over to where it shows who the members of the HubPages Team are, her profile is not there. In fact, there are only four people currently listed as being on the HubPages Team (Matt Wells, Luke Castille, Amanda Reyes, and Mike Elliott). I vaguely recall there once being at least 25 people running the HubPages website. The fact alone that they have downsized sets alarms off in my head.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes, there’s just a skeleton crew of a few operations people nowadays. All the editorial staff are gone.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  What is most bizarre about it is that even though there are only four people currently listed as being on the HubPages Team, the "About Us" section of the HubPages website is still claiming that they still have 25 staff members.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Paul? I've already backed up all 315 of my HubPages articles to a flash drive in case that one dreaded day ever arrives that I try to click into HubPages and there's nothing there except a message stating that the website cannot be found or no longer exists. I'm not taking any chances in allowing for my articles to go to waste.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes, that's sensible, I did it even before the official announcement. It's been clear which way the wind's blowing for some time.
  
  When they brought in a bunch of editors and tried to turn things around, it was effectively a last throw of the dice. It became evident that was failing some time back.
  
  I haven't any good ideas for what to do with my articles, though.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I'm sorry, but my attorney advised me that this cannot apply to authors who have especially and legally copyrighted their work. For example, the bulk of my work that is published was copyrighted before Arena's purchase and takeover of HP. Nor did I ever receive an email or notification of Arena's absurd TOS. If they infringe these rights, they will be sued...and they will lose. Has anyone here actually copyrighted their own work?
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Genna - Did your attorney advise you to personally and publicly engage with the company that you're considering taking legal action against? That's almost always a big no-no.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Hi Paul. IF they do this regarding my work, which has yet to be determined, then I would delete/close my account and file a lawsuit. And my initial engagement with HP was long before Arena ever came into the picture. Regarding TOS, whatever they assert does not mean they have the actual legal right to do this regarding authors who have copyrighted their work.
  
  Once again, the email they sent to us a few months back did not infer that Arena planned to do this with content which was moved to Discover. I know a couple of creative writers who were also careful to copyright their own work. They have since deleted their HP accounts upon receipt of that email.
  
  I am still curious regarding who, here, has copyrighted their own work. In addition, if one does delete an article from HP, does this mean it would automatically protect said publication since Arena already has a copy of it and/or begun to "mine" its content?
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  From what I understand about American copyright law is that once you create an article or any type of publication, it is automatically copyrighted. It may be different in other nations.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  You are correct, but filing/registering a copyright provides the author with additional legal protections.
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  lobobrandonposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  You should submit a DMCA request to Google to have that link removed from its search results. If you delete your article, the AI-generated article may be considered the "original" source. You might want to add your article to the Wayback Machine if you want to use it as proof with another authority: https://web.archive.org/
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  viryaboposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Good advice.
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Excellent point.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  TAG/HP are able to delete our articles at any point they wish. So, even if the articles are similar enough to qualify as plagiarism in Google's eyes (which I believe is far from clear) that still won't work, as TAG can just get rid of your work.
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  Ken Burgessposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  With AIs growing capabilities and major publishers already using AI to generate (or steal and modify) content (IE - SI) being able to make decent income from the likes of HubPages in the future will be a challenge.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Well we didn't think our work would be stolen by the very platform it's published on. I've never heard anything like it.
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  CYong74posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Thanks for the heads-up. I took a look at Owlcation and the newest one about Yokai is mine. They changed some of the entries but what remains is largely similar.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Ced, oh my goodness. I can't believe this is happening, such an offense in the writer/editor/publisher world.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  No honour among thieves.
  
  I was just talking to my other half. Trying to decide whether to wait and see or to give up the $50-$75 a month, which is nothing given previous earnings. I feel so angry about this, especially after all Matt's reassurances that 'HubPages is here to stay'.
  
  Have deleted two non-performing articles to see if my saved (in an app) versions disappear. If they do, I need to get them all copied and saved - again.
  
  If I do delete them all, at least it simplifies my taxes.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I agree. The energy I have invested in this platform and the return I have received lately are heartbreaking. Now, TAG is stealing our work. TOS? It's covert and underhanded.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I see Matt's LinkedIn profile shows he's been operations Mgr of TAG instead of HP since 2018. Who here thinks HP is a slush pile from which to choose material to rewrite for profit? idk
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I think it’s time a private email list among us is formed, those who frequent in the forums.
  
  I think we might need to have some talks.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I'd love to take some kind of action without having to remove my content, but I don't see how that is possible.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I have some thoughts, but I think it would be best to put it together in an email chain.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I'm open to that. I do not know many e-mails though. I did open my account back up to be contacted by other's if that's helpful.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I have too.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I’ll put my email here for now and people can respond. I’ll use the contact button to try to reach out to people who seem active/helpful. I do think there are some things we can do.
  
  AndreaLawrenceWriting@gmail.com.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  You can contact me through my profile. I agree, we need to step up and take action.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Perhaps the first step would be to contact someone at TAG via an email 'signed' by all of us who are concerned? Start a bit of push-back.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Agree!
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  100%, I think we need to contact HP before we get lost in the weeds. It’s possible this has been a misunderstanding, or that they’re unaware of what some people are doing in their company.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  They should know by now, or, at least, Matt should know.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I agree. Who knows what is happening on the other side of things. A flurry of actions to figure things out or… nothing.
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  Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Really? And that's worrisome. Hubpages is now set to steal our articles? Shameful.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  My work is being accessed often by Google's Copilot - maybe for rewriting.
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  SerenityHaloposted 3 days agoin reply to this
  I now have had my work spun. They took my 6 Deaths in Romeo and Juliet article.
  
  What a crazy time. At one point I was a featured author on Owlcation, and now someone I don’t know is rehashing my work without permission.
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  Miebakagh57posted 3 days agoin reply to this
  Its pure plagiarism.
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  chef-de-jourposted 3 days agoin reply to this
  I have now deleted all of my 450+ articles - 13 years worth. I also signed the petition recently put forward by Mr Falk and others. Time to go solo! Gadzooks, what a relief to be 'free' of TAG's tentacles?
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  theraggededgeposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  I deleted all mine but left one as a sort of placeholder - no idea why I felt it necessary. It might be worth it to see how traffic fluctuates. Hoping they won't steal it
  
  Will receive my last payout at the end of the month.
  
  Edit: It's telling, is it not, that Matt responded to a question on stuck stats but has not replied on this thread. Nothing to say, obviously.
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  chef-de-jourposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Yes, I think Matt Wells acts as a kind of handyman for TAG, a spambuster, a glitchfixer. Purely technical remit.
  
  I hope they leave your last remaining article alone too! But they're greedy for text on the cheap - who knows what they'll steal?
  
  Can't envisage HP ever coming back as a viable site again. We had it good for a few unbelievable years but TAG and online evolution did for it. Hwyl fawr.
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  theraggededgeposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Llawer o gwtsh x
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  PaulGoodman67posted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Yes, I believe that Samantha Cubbison was the last staff member responsible for addressing community concerns. They abolished her post.
  
  The editors dealt with specific writing and editing concerns before they were let go.
  
  Matt is the operations manager, which I interpret as he deals solely with the day-to-day running of the site, essentially the practical issues.
  
  I assume that the site is kept going by TAG for two main reasons:
  
  1. SEO purposes, particularly the links.
  
  2. Mining successful articles written by hubbers.
  
  While we're free to move our articles elsewhere and in many ways, it's not a bad idea, I think AI means that all online writing is devalued. Other companies and individuals can now raid our work very easily.
  
  It's akin to when music was digitized and made easy to duplicate (CDs became easy to write, MP3s could be copied or downloaded). Albums went from being worth dollars to cents very quickly.
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  Solarasposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  It is also still earning them money. They make 2-4 times the CPM they report to us, and they get 20-30x the impressions, depending on the article length and how long readers can tolerate the ads.
  
  So if you make $50 per month, they make $1600.00. Conservatively.
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  SerenityHaloposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  It is wild all the things happening. I am likely in the minority on this, but I figured if they counterfeited my work it gives me room to complain and make a fuss.
  
  I do want to remind people some of us are communicating through email to stay in touch. If interested in our discussions about HP, life, and the likes, please do email me:
  
  AndreaLawrenceWriting@gmail.com.
  
  I’m keeping this message short and sweet, but I will say the email thread we have going rocks.
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  Solarasposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  What can he say after all of his false platitudes. He and Lisa Winter were either badly misled or badly misleading. In any case, I am sure they have contracts that prevent them from disparaging the site, management and their practices.
  
  I would not want to come home with this bête noire on my back every evening, but change is difficult, and perhaps the pay is good. Until it isn't. If this is how the organization works, you can count on being screwed by the monster yourself one day. There actually is no honor among thieves.
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  Solarasposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  It is vile and shameful.
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Venkatachari Mposted 5 weeks ago
Yes, I am also confused. Shesha's first post says they are rewriting the articles and placing them on Owlcation or AxleAddict. The next observation states that the original article is on Discover, and we hope to be allowed to move our content to Discover.
So, when the article is already on Discover, what is the point in hoping that we be allowed?
I have moved all my articles to Discover as per HP's previous notices.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  The articles are on two sites; the original is on Discover (after being moved from the network site), while a copied/rewritten version appears on Owlcation. That version will not generate any income for the writer.
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  WriterJanisposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I've been confused, but this seems to clear things up. Thank you.
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theraggededgeposted 5 weeks ago
We could issue them with DMCAs. But then I suppose they would hit us with the Terms of Use.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  They would have to remove their content when we remove our originals from Discover. I don't see us having any recourse prior to that though.
  
  My problem is I don't know where to send such an email. My last email to team@hubpages took a week. I don't want my content garnering them traffic while I wait for them to respond and remove the infringing content.
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Eric Cauncaposted 5 weeks ago
The copied one rank # 1 on Google, while mine, the original one, ranks # 2.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  That's awful, Eric. Maybe you can get the stolen one deindexed from Google?
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  Ken Burgessposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Search Engines... AIs... will be trafficked toward the preferred article...
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  More likely the search engine will favor Google’s AI, and other forms of AI will be deindexed. AI slop isn’t what people want to read, so it’s falling out of favor.
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  Ken Burgessposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes, we even see it in the forums, people now constantly quote ChatGPT and its links as if it were gospel.
  
  I think that was what was most surprising to me about these AI aids so far... that people who are far more active on here writing articles than I am were so quick to jump to it and start using it... even for their arguments in the forums...
  
  That tells me if hard working writers that have the experience and ability to research and develop their own perspectives are so willing to switch to ChatGPT... then the world will be dependent on AI quicker and with far less resistance than anyone imagined.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  If anyone uses ChatGPT to make their points in a forum, I think they’ve effectively given up.
  
  I can’t take someone seriously who does that. I scroll past AI answers in things. It looks like bots to me or bad advertising.
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PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks ago
It's appalling but not surprising.

The truth is that AI can take any article from anywhere and rewrite it. The traditional copyright laws no longer help us because AI rewords and does it in seconds for next to nothing.

If an article is online and in the public domain, AI has access to it.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I think the point is that TAG people think they have the moral right to do this. It's not AI's fault, it's theirs.
  
  And who are these so-called writers attaching their by-line to hubbers' work?
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I see it as about legal rights. I doubt that they're much concerned about the morality.
  
  There's no question it's bad but whether it can be stopped and how much it's happening elsewhere too, I don't know for certain...
  
  I admire Elton John's campaign against AI stealing musician's work, but again, I worry about whether it will have the desired effect... Governments seem to have decided that they're going to make lots of money from AI and don't want to restrict it in any way.
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  CYong74posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yup. My stolen Yokai hub now has thr byline for some big timer with how-many-years of writing experience. But he seems clueless about ethics, if he's a real person at all.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I am really upset this happened to you. The article you wrote clearly requires a specific knowledge and interest. I think it is sick that they’re taking articles from Discover with this much specificity and acting like someone else did the work. That and yours is in the doom and gloom of Discover ads while the other one isn’t.
  
  I do think the person is real after looking at their LinkedIn and Substack.
  
  I personally don’t think any of us should take this lightly and should pushback.
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  Eric Cauncaposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Imagine, it took a month for me to finish some articles.
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  CYong74posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Thank you for commiserating. Imagine my horror when I launched Owlcation and saw my header staring at me.
  
  And they caught me at an awful time. I'm in the middle of house shifting, literally surrounded by boxes and bags, when I saw this.
  
  Yes, I agree. Something should be done. Its absurd that TAG invites us to move our stuff back to Discover only for them to be copied this way.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I am sorry this happened and at a bad time.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  That may be true, but this is a bit different than an AI model scraping articles and producing search results.
  
  HP/TAG made an intentional decision to use AI to profit off of other people's work. That's not right. If I remove my content, they no longer have the authority to create content based off my work. Despite AI, we still own the copyright to our original work. The use of AI did not change the new article much if at all. The ideas, the content, formatting, Q&A, are all ideas taken from my original work.
  
  That's comparable to saying I can use AI to rewrite Stephen King novels and then turn around and sell them under my name with no repercussions. He printed them, the content is out there, and AI has access.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  You're right to not take my legal opinion seriously, I'm not a copyright lawyer. You should get proper advice if you believe you're correct.
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  Ken Burgessposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I am sure in order to publish your articles on HP... and keep them here, over the years of changes, you have given over considerable authority as to what can be done regarding any works still remaining on HP.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I am aware of what rights I gave HP/TAG while my content resides here.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  It’s exploitation of their writers work. They’ve dumped us out of Owlcation among other niche sites. Now it appears they’re rewriting the same articles we wrote using AI, or just rewriting them in general to profit from the same ideas and cut us out.
  
  Either someone new was hired and is very bad at their job with these counterfeit articles or TAG has lowered its standards to an ugly degree.
  
  I don’t think we should be glib about it. I think we should be starting some conversations with people who can help and put a stop to this—for this particular platform.
  
  They’re stealing from the writers who helped them build this platform. It’s wild. It’s bad behavior. It’s unethical.
  
  We’re also not supposed to use AI for our writing, so if they’re using it and then having human editors fix it… that’s not good enough.
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  Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I completely agree with you. What hubpages did is intentional, then to plagialism our works. No new editor would have had done that. Is Pauld Edmonton, a new man?
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I am hoping this has all been a misunderstanding, and somehow things can be resolved. I know that’s super optimistic, but I’m trying not to assume the worst possible scenario(s). At least, today I’m trying to be hopeful that with communication something can be improved or explained.
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  Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I completely agree with you. What hubpages did is intentional, then to plagialism our works. No new editor would have had done that. Is Paul Edmonton, a new man?
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  Ken Burgessposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Exactly, I am sure this is not the only place where this is occurring, it is most likely across all publishing platforms used, feeding them to AI to do a quick update and rewrite.
  
  Like Disney is doing with all their content... remaking Little Mermaid and Snow White to conform to today's politics and perspectives.
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psycheskinnerposted 5 weeks ago
It has seemed obvious to me, albeit challenging to prove, that they have used our content to select successful articles they can reproduce on staff like a dumber, more exploitative version of what AI does. Even deleting my articles won't stop them from exploring that historic data.
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Rupert Taylorposted 5 weeks ago
I recall a few months ago that when Paul Edmondson was appointed CEO of TAG that euphoria (too strong a word perhaps?) spread through the ranks. He was going to restore HubPages to its former glory was the hope.

If things are going down as described above, and TAG is borrowing (stealing is such an ugly word) our articles then that seems to mark a major betrayal.

It would be nice if someone with authority would join this thread and offer a full and clear explanation. (No messing about with management-speak with intent to obscure meaning.) Then, we can all decide whether we want to participate or not.

Is there anybody there?
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  CYong74posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Maybe P.Edmondson is behind this. After all, who knows the platform better than him?
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  Eric Cauncaposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Is wordpress.com good?
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  CYong74posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Wordpress is a content management platform. By itself, it doesn't earn. You will need to pay for your own domain and successfully apply for an ad service like Adsense to earn.
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  Eric Cauncaposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  How about blogger.com?
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  eugbugposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I have a blog that was published in December 2023, with 200 science and engineering articles. So far I've made 54 cent. Granted, Google hasn't indexed it yet for some reason.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  You are more tech savvy than me and might have done this already, however, I had to manually submit my url's from my squarespace site. Despite Google crawling the pages for whatever reason they would not index them. I did the same over at Bing.
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  eugbugposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Bing eventually indexed it. I submitted the site using Google's Search Console and it has a sitemap that should provide information. I eventually managed to contact someone in Google support and they're getting me to try different things to sort the issue.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  You'll get them indexed at some point, that issue is almost always temporary, in my experience.
  
  The problem is getting good positions in the SERPs and setting up an ad system that provides reasonable remuneration.
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  CYong74posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  To be honest, if revenue is the long term intention, you need to get your own domain. Using hosted domains like blogger can have some revenue but unless your content is very good, it's hard to rank because these sites are full of rubbish.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Does it cost me anything to join blooger.com as a writer? Or is it free to join like HubPages is?
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  Kenna McHughposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  HubPages is not free. It's revenue sharing.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Is blogger.com a revenue-sharing platform like HubPages or is there some kind of monthly fee you pay like Medium?
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  theraggededgeposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  No, it's just a free blogging platform owned by Google. It doesn't pay anything. You'd have to monetise it yourself but it's really not worth the effort. Blogger is very noughties.
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  Eric Cauncaposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Have you tried it? Do you think it performs well?
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  theraggededgeposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  I had a self-hosted Wordpress site for 15 years. It just about broke even until Hostagator doubled my fees. Just posting articles will earn nothing, apart from possibly a bit of Amazon - you need to offer some sort of product or service. These sites can take a long time to get sufficient traffic.
  
  The day of the blog site is more or less over now the competition for clicks is so hot.
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  Eric Cauncaposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Have you ever used Hostinger as a host provider?
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  Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Does wordpress.com paid freelance writers?
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  No. You would have to generate your own income. It's just a blogging and website platform.
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  Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  How Bev?
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Start a different thread, Miebakagh. But, in short, It's the same as any other blogging platform... you offer something; a service, product, subscription, whatever.
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  Miebakagh57posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Thanks Bev, thank you.
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  viryaboposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes, you are right, who knows!
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Paul E stopped being CEO of HupPages many years ago and took a salaried corporate management role. I'm sure he has some nostalgic feelings for the company he helped set up but I don't believe he's been directly involved for many years.
  
  He's aways been a tech businessman, not the cavalry rushing to save a prized possession. He explained at the time of the merger the problems with HP operating as a private company and why it had to become part of Maven, later TAG. People seem to skip all that bit and focus on when he was in the role of CEO of an independent HP.
  
  Nobody of authority has been involved in this forum for many years. Matt is an operations manager, that role typically involves overseeing the day-to-day running of a site. The editors (when they existed here) were, as their name suggests, concerned with editing.
  
  I'm just suggesting that you might be setting your hopes too high, Rupert. They may not believe it to be in their interests to engage with us. It looks like they're cannibalizing what's left before closing everything down. No need to maintain a relationship if that's the scenario.
  
  Also, legally, it's usually best to say nothing rather than engage when there's any threat of legal action.
  
  The hubbers who are threatening HP in the forums with legal action are not doing themselves any favors. No lawyer would advise that it's a good idea to get embroiled or make public your feelings or intentions in that situation.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I believe a class-action lawsuit would be a practical approach. It would set a precedent for other platforms and publishers considering the same approach.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I think that, while someone has an open account here, they have no recourse to legal action as they are limited by the Terms of Use. The ToU are clear beyond all doubt that the administrators of the platform can do what they like with our work. It's the price we pay.
  
  However if TAG uses work after the account is closed then they are violating copyright law.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  What's the source for that legal opinion, Bev?
  
  I'm wary of unqualified interpretations of US copyright law and the ToS.
  
  I'm not trying to single you out. I'm generally seeing a lot of legal opinions on here that seem untrustworthy. Everyone sees themselves as legal experts, apparently.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I'm no legal expert but am simply using logic: use the platform and you have abide by the Terms of Use. Leave the platform and those Terms of Use no longer apply.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I see, well, each day here gets more disheartening.
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  viryaboposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  It does, doesn't it
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  Genna Eastposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I believe that the issue with TOS which I tried to explain earlier is the fact that authors such as myself had the bulk of their work copyrighted years before Arena took over as this provides additional levels of legal protection. I can’t believe that Arena would just infringe on those rights in terms of plagiarism, etc. (TOS cannot legitimize plagiarism.) It does, however, make more “sense” (for want of a better word) in terms of how they market said content. As for myself, I would not process any legal action against them unless they did attempt to steal it.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Hopefully, we aren’t in the worst case scenario. It’s possible that what happened is someone new was hired and made some bad decisions about selecting Discover content and copying it in a very questionable manner.
  
  It’s possible if/when we get a hold of Matt or HP staff that this issue can be resolved and they won’t plagiarize or go through loopholes to steal content and cut original writers out. I don’t think any of us are making large enough earnings that it puts HP at risk. If they were trying to reroute content to increase their earnings, I don’t think it would be significant for their pocketbooks.
  
  It’s reasonable that all of this would create alarm. I’m hopeful this was all a misunderstanding… time will tell.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Rupert? Do you think that this same AI thing is happening with articles on the Medium writing platform?
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  Miebakagh57posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  TAG isn't 'borrowing' and content. From which writer(s)? To borrow, you've got to ask permission. So stealing is the thing.
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Drew Agravanteposted 5 weeks ago
So that's why my traffic suddenly plunged. I just saw a few of my articles transferred to Discover on google search as part of Hobbylark too. What's happening?
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  They should be on Discover if you want to retain income and control. However, if you read through this thread you will see what is happening right now. It's not good.
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Genna Eastposted 5 weeks ago
My attorney files all of my copyrights for me. HP/Arena/TAG does not have my permission to infringe upon those copyrights in any way. Any such actions on their part will result in a lawsuit. Period.
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  Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Glad to noted that.
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eugbugposted 5 weeks ago
Post this forum post on their socials and embarrass them.
They're bragging about how wonderful they are at the moment.
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  theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  This is an excellent idea. Whoever does it must be prepared to be banned though.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I don't think getting banned is necessarily a big issue, as I suspect that this site won't exist soon.
  
  It's quite possible that they'll delete the social media posts and block you on social media.
  
  But who knows, they've left this thread going so far.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Sounds like a good idea I'll do it.
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Kyler J Falkposted 5 weeks ago
We could create a change.org petition to get some visibility on the issue.

Give it a pithy title, a tastefully sensational description, and share that widely across social media mediums. Promote it here to get the initial rush of signatures, and hope that it catches someone's eye.

TAG's actions are disgusting, and they deserve to be held accountable for systematically dismantling our writing space.
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  Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Kyler, I like that idea. Perhaps, we should start another thread on this.
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  Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I agree. And why should they take us for a ride?
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theraggededgeposted 5 weeks ago
We need to keep this thread on topic. Ask about other platforms on a different thread, pls.
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psycheskinnerposted 5 weeks ago
It gave me the push to start permanently deleting my 205 hubs as I transfer them to my own site. Time to get off the Titanic,
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  PaulGoodman67posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes. We don't know exactly what's happening but it looks like they're grabbing what they can before HP.com/Discover is closed down.
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  CYong74posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  The same for me. I sat on it for months and my punishment is to have one of my favorite works openly stolen.
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psycheskinnerposted 5 weeks ago
I posted a warning on the AbsoluteWrite forum to try to alert some hubbers who haven't been active for a while that their content isn't safe here.
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Rupert Taylorposted 5 weeks ago
Jason - I have no idea about Medium. I left there a year ago.

So far, I've no evidence that any of my articles (I had hundreds on Owlcation) have been ripped off. And, only one or two instances have been quoted in this thread.

I too would be livid if TAG stole my work, but it hasn't happened (yet?). We should wait until we hear something definitive from TAG, although it's troubling that the serious accusations levelled here have been greeted, so far, by silence. Perhaps, I'm naive to hope that someone chimes in.

So, I counsel that, at this stage, threatening legal action may be premature.
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  SerenityHaloposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I agree with you. Thank you for your careful approach.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I've checked a couple of my more heavy-hitting articles to see if any of them been plagiarized to the Owlcation site, and I haven't found any. Therefore, this could be an isolated incident. If that's the case, then you and Rupert are probably right. Until I hear anything further about it, I'm going to lay low.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  I posted about four. There are a total of 23 new articles on Owlcation dating back to May 29th 2025. The most recent one was posted 15mins ago. 8 under Stem, 12 under Humanities, and 3 within Academia.
  
  More than half of them I can match up with articles on Discover. Either by the end of the url or exact title. A handful of them I remember from when our content was on Owlcation, which is the reason these articles caught my attention in the first place.
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Eric Cauncaposted 5 weeks ago
I always make an effort to check all article titles on HP before publishing my articles just to avoid choosing titles similar to my co-authors’ work, so I don’t compete with them in Google SEO rankings. However, the HP itself ends up competing against my articles and theirs are all copied.
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Eric Cauncaposted 5 weeks ago
I'm slowly moving my longer articles to Blogger, mostly the ones with way too many words. For now, I’ve been splitting pieces like my "Top 20 lists" in two, the first 10 move to Blogger, the rest stay on HubPages. Later, I will move them to my own sites.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  I've considered moving my articles to blogger.com. I just don't know if it costs anything for me to do so.
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viryaboposted 5 weeks ago
When/if they finally switch off the lights, which can be anytime from now, what happens to all our earnings across accounts?

I'm having a really bad feeling about this!!
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  Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  "9. Account Closure, Inactivity, and Uncollected Payments
  1. In the event that the Earnings Program is terminated by TAG and/or TAG elects to cease your participation in the Earnings Program, then except in the event of breach by you, TAG will make payment of an Earned Balance in your Earnings Account that is greater than Ten Dollars ($10) within approximately ninety (90) days after the end of the calendar month in which the Earnings Program has stopped running. Any Earned Balance lesser than this payment threshold will be deemed to be forfeited by you (and you hereby waive any claim relating to the forfeiture of such amounts and disclaim any and all interest in such funds)"
  
  Per TAG's TOS addendum. https://thearenagroup.net/author-submis … -addendum/
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  viryaboposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this
  Thank you for this.
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Chidimma Eunice Eneyeposted 4 weeks ago
How would I know if my article is being copied? I noticed a spike in views and ran over here to celebrate, only to see this disturbing news. Has anyone else noticed increased viewership?
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  Shesabutterflyposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  My views have dropped off a cliff. Down to single digits some days.
  
  All new content is featured on the homepage of Owlcation. If you know what categories your content was in, you could search under the subcategory. The newest articles will be at the top of those sections as well.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  My views increased but income fell to practically nothing at the same time.
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Rupert Taylorposted 4 weeks ago
Views down. Revenue down. Article scores that used to be in the mid-90s now down in the 50s. And, just to pile on, my personal hub score is down 20 points.

On the plus side ... there isn't one.
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  Glenis Rixposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Too right! My personal score was always nearly 100- it is now 62. Earnings only one cent each day- and sometimes not even that., Appalling lack of stakeholder care by the business owners.
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Glenis Rixposted 4 weeks ago
Links to Owlcation articles have been added to several of my articles. I have deleted all the links and will continue to monitor for any further links that might be added.

I am planning to gradually remove all of my articles but it will be a lengthy process to copy and paste -I foolishly wrote articles straight into Hubpages as opposed to adopting a sensible policy than writing them in Word and then copying to Hubpages.

My account is currently earning almost nothing. Feel like closing the account and writing off $36 owed to me. But is this what they want us to do as part of a strategy? I imagine that cumulative amount that Hubpages owes to account holders is quite a lot and they never had to pay out most of it because writers can’t reach the threshold for payments.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Have the links been added recently? I was under the impression editors no longer worked on articles left on Discover.
  
  I have also begun to delete my bottom performing articles. The ones I didn't have saved in Word I took screenshots or saved web pages. I have copies of my article's in author/edit view and live on Discover.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Editors are still working on my articles, more frequently now in the last few days.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Interesting. I sent an email to the team about some photos that are misidentified, and they never corrected them. That was back in early May.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  I assume the mining is continuing.
  
  I'm still toying with what to do. I'm wary of setting up my own site for a couple of reasons. One is that my content is so varied, and having a single theme/topic is best. Secondly, I'm just not convinced I'll have much success, based on previous experience. It could cost me more time and money than I make.
  
  Why are you moving your worst-performing articles, rather than your best?
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  Shesabutterflyposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  I'm deleting the worst performing from HP in the hopes they will not take them for Owlcation or any other niche site they may be wanting to take content for in the future. I would need to make too many individual websites if I want to take all my content.
  
  I have already posted my most profitable articles on my own website while they are still here. I have switched platforms 3 times since 2021. I'm hoping this will be my last switch. If this doesn't work out, I might have to throw in the towel.
  
  You are right it has not been profitable. However, I realized what I was doing wrong from 2021-2023 so I'm hopeful by making some necessary changes I can maybe turn a profit. At the very least, keep people/companies like HP from trying to earn from my content without my consent.
  
  Their duplicate article on Owlcation has already surpassed mine in the SERPs and is the one referenced in the Google AI overview. I'm still at a crossroads with what I want to do with that particular article. It is already on my site, but I'm wanting to make sure I have enough evidence if I want to get TAG to remove their copy from Owlcation.
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eugbugposted 4 weeks ago
I presume we can promote our own sites on our articles, now that staff have lost interest in the site and won't notice? I've just posted a link on the highest traffic article to my science blog.
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  Chidimma Eunice Eneyeposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  I added a link to another site in one of my articles, and it wasn't snipped. I suppose you can do that now that editors aren't as closely monitoring the articles as they used to.
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  eugbugposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Links are No Follow I think, but might get some direct traffic or further follows/shares of the blog (which Google has still not indexed since it was first published in December 2023. There was a customer support agent from Google giving me troubleshooting I could try, but when they ran out of options, they stopped responding to emails).
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  When HubPages stops paying us for clicks on the advertisements on our articles, then it's really time to abandon ship and find another writing platform.
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  Miebakagh57posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Thank you. I've not written any new stuff for 2 years for hubpages.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  I believe one of your articles has been copied tonight. I don't actually click into the articles on Owlcation so I can't say how comparative it is, but the title is exactly the same.
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  eugbugposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  The text is completely different though.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Still likely using your old url. Too bad we can't do anything about that. However they compiled the information for their version, it ranks higher than your Discover one.
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  eugbugposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Mine doesn't even rank unless I put the full title into a search.
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Zackary Gonczposted 4 weeks ago
Paul, you can put different topic sections on a site. I used to do that on mine. That helps alleviate the single theme/topic thing. Plus, on an independent site, I find a lot of the traffic is going to be SEO based, appearing in google searches etc, or a big aggregator site that can direct traffic your way, in which case it will filter you into a theme/topic/section on their site. Google doesn't direct traffic to blogs and wordpress sites as much as it used to though. And with AI answering questions now on search engines there are a lot less clicks on actual articles in general. Its really pick your poison no matter what you do honestly.
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Eric Cauncaposted 4 weeks ago
I’ve found at least 5 of my articles have been counterfeited.
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  Kenna McHughposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this
  Eric, have you contacted HP/TAG about this?
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Solarasposted 4 weeks ago
To those looking for alternatives...

Blogger is dead. Google has not bothered to offer updates to its site layouts in a decade.

A WordPress site will give you the most options for monetizing a new website. Having said that, it is slow-go getting views to a new site. Time for the site to gain momentum requires patience. The content needs to be unique and, I think, if it has solid information that goes against the general consensus, it is less likely to be stolen by AI.

You will need to find backlinks for users to find your content. Pinterest still gives decent backlinks to new articles, but those Pins have to mature too.

I find that a lot of the consensus information is written by people who know nothing; they just rewrite articles until the false information becomes sacrosanct. Each iteration on those topics means authors are reluctant to go against the consensus, and it just gets repeated ad nauseam, even though it is sketchy info at best. Perhaps, sharing good, factual articles on sites like Reddit, where relevant, can earn backlinks. It certainly can get a conversation started.

What TAG is doing now was predicted in spring 2024. They had already spent effort in trying to cut out the authors on Pethelpful with their "Reviews" articles and "News" articles. And while these low-quality posts were detrimental to the site as a whole, no one at TAG cared. They were interested in quick, short-term money makers, even if they ultimately would sink the site. Just as the piggy number of ads, earnings of which we do/did not participate in, were destroying views, by making the sites unnavigable.

AI will have its place, with an increasing share of respect from users, but I think there will still be room for well-informed articles that offer a realistic perspective on issues where people have a real need for information. I find myself searching and searching for information, and Google gives me off-topic articles. There has to be another adjustment coming soon. Whether it is better AI or a new search engine, I can't say. But change is the nature of technology. I am not giving up on the possibility of new sites gaining traction - it is just going to take time and negative cash flow for the first few years.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Solaras? What's your opinion about the MEDIUM writing platform? Is it possible to make money on that platform or is it going in the same direction as HubPages?
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Solarasposted 3 weeks ago
If you have a lot of articles on how to be successful on Medium, you may do a well there.

Medium requires full time writing, reading and clapping for authors to gain traction, which sounds awful to me. They have some good writers, or did, but I think Substack has the momentum now with many legit journalists writing there.

It's tough out there. Google did its job when they declared war on content farms, and I think that has extended to blogs at large, not just Blogger. It is very hard to go it alone when you have to earn a living.

I think it's best if old niche authors band together and join their articles on new wordpress sites to create competition for the niche sites tag is rebuilding behind their backs. Those sites could find ways to link together as well.

If this site goes away, I think there is a Facebook hp page, but I don't know who administers it, it could be a place to meet back up.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Does Substack require for me to have a Google Adsense account to be able to monetize articles on that same writing platform?
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  PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Substack is subscription-based like Medium. It doesn’t require Adsense but it’s a challenge to attract enough paid subscribers to make it worthwhile.
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  Chidimma Eunice Eneyeposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Does Substack work for fiction writers? I've been trying to find a site where I can earn from writing fiction. I'm currently writing on Wattpad and Tumblr but monetizing is nearly impossible on those sites.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Chidimma? I'd also be interested in something like that, even though I mainly post articles on the Internet. I'm a science-fiction writer.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Paul? I found a revenue-sharing writing platform that has a similar set-up as HubPages, except that you don't have to meet a minimum $50 threshold to finally get paid for articles you publish on that site. It's called NewsBreak. Have you ever heard of it? If you have, what is your impression of it? Good or bad? Is it something that I should try out? Let me know.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  I've never tried it, though I've been aware of it for some time. This is what I gathered from others (mainly Medium writers who also did Newsbreak)...
  
  It was popular with writers some years back. When it first started, writers seemed to be earning a reasonable amount of money. However, News Break cut the payments drastically once they'd become established.
  
  I never joined because so many writers seemed disillusioned with the site by the time I was considering it.
  
  People still write there. I don't think it's a big earner anymore, though.
  
  If you go to Medium, you can search for people's experiences.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  In other words, it also has the HubPages curse.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  I did come across one person on Medium who published an article about NewsBreak last autumn, and he seemed highly impressed with them. Here's the link to his article.>>>>https://medium.com/writers-hub-pub/these-4-writing-platforms-pay-you-just-like-medium-com-6b747ef89d21
  
  I guess it highly depends on what I write about. I'm not fully sold on the Medium writing platform, but this gentleman seems to believe that it's a goldmine for writers to prosper.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  There are multiple articles on News Break: https://medium.com/search?q=news+break
  
  I don't see NB as a good site myself. The fact that they allow AI submissions confirms it's a trashy site. But you can make your own mind up. Nobody's going to pay you hundreds of dollars for copying and pasting Chat GPT, in my experience.
  
  That Medium link you posted above looks like clickbait to me. There are a lot of articles on Medium about how many thousands you can make from writing, most of which are best ignored. There are also some genuine personal experiences, though.
  
  Bear in mind that NB used to be okay a few years ago (so I'm told) but went downhill.
  
  There will be others who know more about News Break than me.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Anything that involves AI does set alarms off in my head. Therefore, NewsBreak is likely a dried-up well as HubPages is gradually becoming. I'll review those other articles on Medium you pointed out. Nowadays the Internet is becoming a place where you have to be super creative to make any substantial amount of money. The big opportunities simply cannot be found all in one place as they could have been five or ten years ago.
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  Solarasposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  NewsBreak is where Pethelpful news and now parade pets make their money. They have a feed of cutesy articles on heart-melting, hysterical TikTok and Instagram videos. I have the newsbreak feed, and I see parade pets there every day (it used to be PetHelpful which must now be destined for the dustbin). I don't know how it pays for individuals, but it can be previously published work. You just have to publish the entire article there if it was published first elsewhere.
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  Solarasposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  The individual feed on NewsBreak is supposed to be local to the user. These days local means planet Earth.
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Eric Cauncaposted 3 weeks ago
Some of my articles are now showing a 404 error. On Google, they still appear as published under Owlcation/NS and not under Discover, but when I try to open them, instead of redirecting to Discover, I get a 404 error page.
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  eugbugposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  You mean backlinks you made in the past to the Owlcation versions? Not all of those backlinks were redirected.
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  Eric Cauncaposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  No, on Google. I tried to search my articles on Google. The "Discover versions" don’t appear in the results, instead, the old Owlcation shows up. When I click on them, they end up to a 404 error page.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Interesting Eric. I didn't see that on my browser. I use duckduckgo.
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  eugbugposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes, I've actually seen that happen too. It's presumably something to do with Google not clearing out its index, but if TAG haven't removed the URLs, I guess they'll still turn up in SERPs. So maybe intentional, but I thought dead links weren't a good thing for sites.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  I don't know what Eric is referring to, and I obviously can't speak in absolutes as I've never checked all links.
  
  However, no content moved to Discover that has been reproduced on Owlcation should have redirects currently, because they are using our old URLs. All those previous redirects will now go to the Owlcation version.
  
  I've confirmed as such with my own links that I know for a fact use to redirect to Discover and now they go back to Owlcation for TAG's benefit.
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  Eric Cauncaposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Before, when I searched for my articles on Google, the old Owlcation links would appear, but clicking them would redirect me to the Discover version. Now, those same links still show up, but instead of redirecting, they end up on a 404 error page.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  I'm curious if you were searching for articles they haven't reproduced yet? I wonder if they stopped the redirect because they have plans to repost on the URL in the near future.
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  Eric Cauncaposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes, I was searching for articles they haven’t reproduced yet. That’s what I was thinking too. It’s like they’re counterfeiting them all over again.
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PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks ago
It appears to be a work in progress.

Once the process is complete, I think that may be it for us.

This is the longest endgame ever. I always envisaged it would be more sudden, like Squidoo.
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PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks ago
When MP3s came along, recorded music became virtually worthless overnight, as it was now effortless to copy.

The old music industry pretty much collapsed overnight.

A similar thing is underway with writing.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  The traditional publishing industry involving the Big Five will likely collapse in the not-too-distant future. Traditional publishing houses keep buying one another out, and the number of them have shrunk noticeably in recent years. An author named Michelle Schusterman gets very defensive on her YouTube channel about traditional publishing houses and how she believes that they will exist forever. But how does she not know that self-publishing houses may try to buy them all out in the not-to-distant future? Once that happens, traditional publishing houses won't exist. It's a sad thing because traditional publishing houses give the little guy an opportunity to get a book published, whereas self-publishing houses cater more to people who are financially established and already have a fanbase to buy their books like some of these famous YouTubers. Then again, a number of people who used to deal with traditional publishing houses and literary agents complain about how lately they always seem to look for excuses to reject someone's manuscript.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Traditional publishing collapsed nearly fifteen years ago when ebooks came in. Most of the money in publishing evaporated at that point. My friend’s literary agent had nervous breakdown.
  
  This current technology wave is more about online writing and AI replacing search engines and how-to/info websites.
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  Chidimma Eunice Eneyeposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  However, AI gathers information from published articles and websites. If people stop writing and publishing, the information from AI will become obsolete. There will always be a need for human writers, but these search engines need to make it worthwhile for authors to keep on publishing.
  
  P.S. Since there aren't any editors on Hubpages anymore, can I publish my stories here and drive traffic to it? Since there are ads on discover, perhaps that will help me make payout faster?
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  Kenna McHughposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Try whatever you want. There is the Learning Center, which has guidelines, but other writers and I are in a mystery with HP: we have no idea what they plan, no future, nada.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  Yes, that could be a potential issue with AI.
  
  Unfortunately, here at HP it was the evergreen articles that made us money. Those are doomed.
  
  But it’s difficult to see no human involvement in, say, news articles. That said, anything published will immediately will get ransacked by AI and regurgitated. It’s still bad for writers trying to earn. It devalues writing.
  
  My friend who wrote for local news publications here in Florida can no longer make a living. He spent many years doing fine but now the money’s suddenly gone.
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  Chidimma Eunice Eneyeposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  That is horrible! It's insane that there aren't enough jobs available, and they're still creating bots to take the available jobs away from people.
  
  @Kenna, thank you for your encouragement. I posted a story under the appropriate tag, so I hope it gets moved to Discover. That way, I can try to drive traffic to it and at least earn from the ad placements. It's ultimately the same as opening a new blog since AI has rendered SEO almost invalid.
  
  Even if you open your own website, you must drive traffic to it yourself.
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  Kenna McHughposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  You're welcome. Good luck.
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  eugbugposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  You can try putting your own ads on the site too I guess. I'm promoting my blog on the only article that has a couple of tens of daily views (which used to get nearly 2000 views per day).
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  PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  I think driving traffic to a moribund website can only ever supply minimal and short-term benefits.
  
  My plan is to move articles that get a reasonable amount of social media traffic to my own site. But I'm struggling to feel motivated.
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  Solarasposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  I get that, and it is time consuming to update it and try to make it more relevant to new search engine terms.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this
  I know the feeling.
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Eric Cauncaposted 3 weeks ago
I published a post on WordPress. I was surprised that people reacting and liking it and I'm happy about that. I thought people can only read my writings after Google indexed it. Now I’m curious—how can I browse and read posts from other members there? Thank you.
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Eric Cauncaposted 13 days ago
Hi. Do you a form for filing a DMCA takedown? Thanks.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 12 days agoin reply to this
  This is the form that was previously on our HubPages account page.
  
  I am writing to you to avail myself of my rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This letter is a Notice of Infringement as authorized in §512 of the U.S. Copyright Law.
  
  1. The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on:
  
  2. The URLs where my copyrighted work is being infringed upon include:
  
  3. My contact information is as follows:
  
  4. I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
  
  5. I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
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  Genna Eastposted 11 days agoin reply to this
  Thank you for posting this informative and supportive comment for our fellow authors, Cholee.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 11 days agoin reply to this
  Yes!!!
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  PaulGoodman67posted 12 days agoin reply to this
  Eric - The DMCA doesn't take anything down, just persuades Google (if successful) to ignore the article in question on the grounds that it's a later copy.
  
  I wouldn't hold out much promise with DMCAs for a variety of reasons, including that our original articles can be removed at any time by HP.
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  theraggededgeposted 12 days agoin reply to this
  That's not correct. A DMCA is nothing to do with Google unless it's one of their sites/properties. You can file a DMCA with a website owner or, better, the site's hosting company. The page should be removed from the Web. Hosting sites don't want to be involved in legal action and will usually remove the page when a DMCA is filed.
  
  If that's not possible - some hosts will simply ignore a DMCA, then you can request that Google and/or other search engines remove the offending page from search results. That means the site won't get taken down but traffic to it will, hopefully, be reduced. Just do a search for how to deindex a page due to copyright theft.
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  Kenna McHughposted 12 days agoin reply to this
  Do it, Eric. The is recourse and several of us are being proactive.
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PaulGoodman67posted 12 days ago
Fair point, DMCA initially goes to online service providers. If and when that fails, you then try to get something deindexed.

Following that, assuming success, you’d likely get your articles unpublished and banned from HP, I would guess.

It seems to me like you’re doomed whatever happens.
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  Kenna McHughposted 12 days agoin reply to this
  Paul, please keep your guesswork to yourself. It doesn't help matters at all.
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  theraggededgeposted 12 days agoin reply to this
  "Following that, assuming success, you’d likely get your articles unpublished and banned from HP, I would guess."
  
  No, you wouldn't. I used DMCAs for years until the tsunami of article theft became too much and I became p!$$ed off with the whole nonsense.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 9 days agoin reply to this
  Bev - I meant if you are DMCA-ing TAG for using your material to produce similar articles at TAG.
  
  My belief was that "TAG mining" was the topic of this thread?
  
  Obviously, people used DMCAs in years gone by against plagiarizing sites, but that was back when we used to get proper traffic.
  
  Many people wasted time and over-used DMCAs, in my opinion, but there was some logic to employing them in the rare situation where you were usurped in the top 10 Google rankings.
  
  They're not much use against TAG, however, for the reasons I gave.
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  theraggededgeposted 9 days agoin reply to this
  Ok, I thought Eric was just asking generally.
  
  The only way to find out is to try it, I suppose. After all, there's not much to lose.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 9 days agoin reply to this
  Maybe Eric was.
  
  In general, I wouldn't bother with a DMCA unless you're hemorrhaging a fair amount of Google traffic. There's not much to be gained by filling out the form otherwise.
  
  The vast majority of my articles get virtually no traffic and none of them reach the Google top 10 nowadays. My average article gets 1.5 views/day which is a joke.
  
  So DMCAs aren't even on my radar nowadays.
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  Kenna McHughposted 9 days agoin reply to this
  You might as well leave them alone. If they were doing well, TAG would usurp them and take their URLs.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 9 days agoin reply to this
  Paul, you may not have articles currently in the top 10, but others do or at least did. Eric and I both had high ranking articles (on the first page) prior to staff at Owlcation taking our content.
  
  Now they outrank us and take all our traffic. I was still seeing traffic prior to them mining my content and taking my old URL.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 9 days agoin reply to this
  Yes, TAG are using various SEO methods to gain advantage over mined articles. That’s what I thought this thread was about!
  
  But Bev believes Eric is talking about something different and she may be right.
  
  I’ve already explained why a DMCA won’t be effective against TAG in my opinion.
  
  But Eric may want to file one against another site, who knows?
  
  There’s a lot of cross talking going on… I’m not sure why I got involved! Hehe!
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  Kenna McHughposted 9 days agoin reply to this
  The issue is that TAG steals top HubPages articles.
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  Miebakagh57posted 9 days agoin reply to this
  And that's absolutely wrong in all aspect. Would TAG take it easy if one of us writers spin the stolen articles they mind?
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  theraggededgeposted 9 days agoin reply to this
  There's nothing stopping you from doing that if you have your own site or blog. Rewrite, add your own references and you have a good chance of ranking higher than the TAG article. 'Writers' have been doing it for years.
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  Kenna McHughposted 8 days agoin reply to this
  True, Bev, unfortunately, it's tainted the internet.
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  theraggededgeposted 8 days agoin reply to this
  It has, but you know, beat them at their own game and all that.
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  Kenna McHughposted 8 days agoin reply to this
  Yeah, as best I (we) can.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 8 days agoin reply to this
  I know I probably shouldn't bring this up, but I'm dying of curiosity about it. If we all were to click the ads on one another's articles aggressively without doing so on our own articles to jack up our monetization amounts, you think that HP/TAG would notice us doing it? Or worse yet, would Google notice us doing it? I'm not trying to encourage anyone to do anything crazy, but it still raises my curiosity of what would happen ultimately if we were to go down that road.
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  theraggededgeposted 8 days agoin reply to this
  It's not about clicks, it's about impressions, i.e. views. The longer someone stays on a page, the more impressions are recorded because the viewer has seen more ads.
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  Miebakagh57posted 7 days agoin reply to this
  Thank you, Bev.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 7 days agoin reply to this
  Except, of course, whenever a Hubber reads their own articles, right? I know that a Hubber is not supposed to click the ads on his or her own articles, or at least that's what I once read in the HubPages rules and terms of service.
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  theraggededgeposted 7 days agoin reply to this
  That was Adsense.
  
  However, going back to your original question... when you read someone's article it helps them. There's no need to click on ads.
  
  And, yes, your views on your own articles are counted but I think only one a day. Someone else may be able to clarify.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 7 days agoin reply to this
  Thank you for the info, Bev.
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  Solarasposted 7 days agoin reply to this
  Regardless, we would not reap the benefits. Those are reserved for the takers.
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viryaboposted 11 days ago
Can someone please tell me what to do to sort this out?
I got this message from Google after transferring one of my articles to my blog. I have already deleted the article from my account.
See image:
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  eugbugposted 11 days agoin reply to this
  Ah, the mysteries of Search Console! I've been trying to make sense of all this for a year and a half for a 250 article blog that Google still hasn't indexed. Apparently some of these warnings are nothing to worry about. You could trying posting on the Google Blogger forum.
  
  https://support.google.com/blogger/community
  
  This is run by volunteers.
  
  I also discovered after over a year, from delving down through menus, that you can actually contact Google themselves here:
  
  https://support.google.com/websearch/co … earch_dsa?
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  viryaboposted 11 days agoin reply to this
  Thank you for the links. Very helpful.
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  Miebakagh57posted 11 days agoin reply to this
  Thank you. The links are a study.
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Miebakagh57posted 8 days ago
But HP/TAG is doing this with greed.
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Venkatachari Mposted 7 days ago
I noticed that many of the views on my Blogger websites are by AI. I was happy that the total views for June were 25,000plus. However, my AdSense report showed that the actual views were only 16,000 plus.
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  Chidimma Eunice Eneyeposted 6 days agoin reply to this
  Do they pay for the AI views?
  I feel like the views from AI should count since it's taking information from your article.
  
  Also, how much success do you get from blogger? I've seen discouraging reviews about it. I'd like to hear firsthand from someone who uses it.
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  Kenna McHughposted 6 days agoin reply to this
  Reach out to TAG/HP and ask them.
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  Chidimma Eunice Eneyeposted 6 days agoin reply to this
  Are you referring to the AI views on our articles on HP? I've noticed an increase in views on my articles, but the pay is still one cent or less per day. Is this part of the thievery everyone has been complaining about?
  
  At this rate, I'll never make pay out.
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  Miebakagh57posted 6 days agoin reply to this
  Must assurdly yes.
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  eugbugposted 6 days agoin reply to this
  I haven't got any views form Google in the year and a half since I started my blog. Still can't figure out why it hasn't been indexed by Google. Support agents keep cutting and pasting reasons why something mightn't be wrong, but the can't seem to give me any specific help. Bing have indexed it.
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  Chidimma Eunice Eneyeposted 6 days agoin reply to this
  I'm sorry... Google hasn't indexed articles from its own blogging site? Blogger is owned by Google. I'd think they'd prioritize and push traffic to it, if for no other reason than to attract users.
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  eugbugposted 6 days agoin reply to this
  No, blogs are treated just like any other website.
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Thomas Swanposted 4 days ago
Ah I see they have copied one of mine now (thank you to the person who gave me the heads up!).

They have copied the title and structured the article the same, but they changed the bulk of the article so they don't get DMCA'ed.

I guess they want to replace my work and beat it in rankings, which should be easy now I'm on Discover, which is in the toilet for views. A bit of a nasty move from them.

Where is my cheque for providing the inspiration and showing them something that works? Don't editors get paid for pitching ideas? Seems like that's the work I've done for them here.
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  Solarasposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Yes, that's the work you have done for them. However, management takes a dim view of your idea that you should be paid anymore than you already have been paid. Free loaders like you and me, getting trailing commissions, ones that were promised and part of the original platform, are resented now.
  
  TAG and Paul are at war with the authors. They are taking the spoils, the booty. They are redirecting backlinks to whatever they like on their platforms, which is why we get fewer and fewer views. And they have cut the CPM rates in half. It could only be worse if they sent drones to kill us on our way to the grocery store or recycling center.
  
  Here, in the end days of independent websites by the billions, it is every entity for itself. They are building a "HUB" of their platforms, interconnected, and Discover is the wasteland.
  
  Like cuckoos and cowbirds, they have laid their eggs on our nests (links to their stupid articles on their keeper sites) and as their young mature, they push our children from the nest; splat on the ground below. No doubt they hope we will exhaust ourselves, trying to update and save our articles. Only to be feeding the cuckoo articles more content and back links. It's no accident that Pinterest is pointing to their articles now and not ours. I find I can't change those links now, all these years later.
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Kyler J Falkposted 4 days ago
Just for everyone who hasn't been made aware already, we have a petition on Change.org to shed some light on these concerns that HP/TAG are not commenting on.

If you could take a minute to sign, that'd be spectacular: https://www.change.org/Protect_Authors_ … and_Policy

It would seem HP/TAG intend to flush us down the digital toilet, but the least we can do is attempt to document and expose their practices.

If anyone would like to reach out to a broader audience and have their story included in the petition, contact me via my profile telling me your story. Write as if to a crowd you'd like to be made aware of the situation.
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Kenna McHughposted 4 days ago
Thomas, I am so sorry this happened to you. If I were Joey Campbell and had scruples, I'd be embarrassed. He brags on LinkedIn, but it's hot air. He's a lazy writer/editor. It's a disgrace. Some of us are working on getting this known to the broader writing industry.
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Kyler J Falkposted 2 days ago
For anyone who isn't involved in the ongoing investigation of the situation occurring off of the site, here is the reason why content can/will be stolen. You can find it within the site data, though not publicly visible here: https://thearenagroup.net/terms-of-use/

The relevant section is titled “Your License to HubPages.” Here’s the key excerpt:

“By posting, uploading, or otherwise submitting content to the HubPages Services, you grant HubPages (and its successors, assigns, licensees, and affiliates, including without limitation The Arena Group) a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform your Content in connection with the HubPages Services and HubPages’s (and its successors’, assigns’, licensees’, and affiliates’, including without limitation The Arena Group’s) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the HubPages Services (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.”

After TAG's acquisition of HubPages, this was very quietly included in our Terms of Service that were not present prior to their acquisition. Should anyone wish to fight TAG on these matters, it's going to be a very long, arduous process. If case studies are anything to go off of, courts don't really take these things seriously when arbitration clauses are involved. TAG has a strict arbitration clause.
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  Jodahposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Wow, I had no idea this had been changed. I was of the opinion that anything we posted here remained the property of the author, but this obviously isn’t the case and Arena has covered themselves to use our work however they please.
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  Kyler J Falkposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  I've discovered it's been the longstanding practice of TAG, and they've faced public criticism for it for quite some time.
  
  In HubPages' case, this appears to have been a silent maneuver that I'm sure they expected to remain under the radar for quite some time. Sneaky, shyster corporate policies.
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  theraggededgeposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Someone pointed it out at the time of acquisition and there was a short discussion about it. I also posted a screenshot from HubPages' own Terms of Use at the beginning of this thread.
  
  It's why I knew there wasn't any chance of fighting it and it's why I've removed my articles. I would suggest that if you aren't earning much now that you all do the same lest your work is stolen from you.
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  Kenna McHughposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Legalwise is a waste of time. The unethical behavior and lazy writers/editors will cause TAG's reputation to decline even further.
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  Solarasposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  I don't see why they can't steal it anyway. With AI, I doubt anyone is concerned about copyrights. The people with money already stole everything, so why would they want to be held to account now. Maybe they downloaded and sorted articles by views long before our woes.
  
  All anyone can do is create truthful content that goes against the conventional wisdom on the Internet. AI does not really know how to deal with that.
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  DrMark1961posted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Yes, that is true, and woe to us living in the age of AI. I just wanted to get a stat on the number of pets drowned in the US each year and AI spat out a number. I traced it back to one source that copied something from some pet insurance site that said "so if there are 50 million pets in the US there are at least 5000 a year that die in drowning" A totally bogus number that AI now qoutes as fact.
  I am sure there are a lof more out there, and our truthful articles are buried.
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  Solarasposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  I won't give up on the truth. This is a blip in the internet. Will it take over all websites? I hope not. And I hope people will want more than one source for info. Right now the internet and ai have very limited responses they tell everyone go to the Dr, / vet immediately. There might be other legitimate answers not covered by ai or WebMD
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 12 hours agoin reply to this
  Come to think of it, DrMark1961, I was doing some legal research on the Internet, and AI provided me with information that I could not verify in any of the websites that came up in my Google search. If I were a brain surgeon, I'd never want to have to rely on medical information from AI itself.
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  DrMark1961posted 10 hours agoin reply to this
  Woe to the brain surgeons and any poor illegal that commits a crime and has to count on one of those newfangled AI lawyers! I found another one today, and none of them are serious enough to kill a pet but they are bad enough to seriously misinform someone who believes them.
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  Miebakagh57posted 7 hours agoin reply to this
  AI is actually stupid.
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  eugbugposted 73 minutes agoin reply to this
  Well it can make mistakes. Spot the error here when I asked it to do some calculations. It apologised and got it right the second time when I told it that it had made a mistake.
  
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  Genna Eastposted 47 hours agoin reply to this
  I agree, John. But TOS cannot legitimize copyright infringements which includes so-called "derivatives" that are actually paraphrasing. In addition, it's not what their TOS states, it's what it doesn't state by omission.
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  Jodahposted 47 hours agoin reply to this
  Very concerning, Genna.
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  Miebakagh57posted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Too bad.
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PaulGoodman67posted 2 days ago
It’s much bigger than most seem to realize.

Anyone can find an article they like, get AI to rewrite it, then do some humanizing editing.

That includes us.

The internet will be flooded very soon. It’s already started.

Our disadvantages are the “link juice” that TAG wields and their ownership of the original url.

The mining thing can be done by anyone. It’s not specific to TAG, although it’s easier for them to understand what articles are doing well because of stats access.

If you move your articles, they can still be mined by TAG, me, or anyone else, if they’re in the public domain.

The world has changed.
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  Kenna McHughposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  The world is constantly changing and will continue to change.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 2 days agoin reply to this
  That sounds flip. Humans have been making art, music, and writing for thousands of years. AI and other technologies are taking over, certainly the areas where money can be made… irrelevance looks like the likely fate for many creative people and other workers.
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  Kenna McHughposted 2 days agoin reply to this
  Creative unions have established laws to protect artists from AI thievery.
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  Genna Eastposted 47 hours agoin reply to this
  Kudos, Kenna. Thank goodness artists have "taken up arms" in various ways rather than just complaining and lecturing with the inference that there is nothing we can do but let AI organizations roll over us like a steam-roller. This takes character and the initiative needed to protect artists.
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  Kenna McHughposted 43 hours agoin reply to this
  Yes. So true.
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  PaulGoodman67posted 43 hours agoin reply to this
  Yes, it would be great to hear more about the new laws that Kenna says have been passed!
  
  The way that the big techno groups, Google, Musk, etc. work is that they stall for time. The multiple anti-trust actions against Google, for instance, have been going on for many years without resolution. By the time anything happens, the technology will have moved on.
  
  The only change that might work is new legislation. But it would have to be international in scope. There's no desire for it so far, as governments are wary of tempering AI.
  
  Having worked in a business library, I'm very wary of random people saying that this or that breaches the current copyright and contract laws. It's complicated stuff that requires a legal education and experience.
  
  I think you're the only one who has employed a copyright attorney to look at the legal situation, Genna, which must have cost you a lot of money. Perhaps you could make the findings of the attorney available to other hubbers?
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  Kenna McHughposted 42 hours agoin reply to this
  The WGA and SAG/AFTRA have laws available on their websites, Paul. Anyone can take a look. Equity, I am not sure, but they probably follow these two giants.
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  Genna Eastposted 21 hours agoin reply to this
  Thank you, Kenna. I've started to do some online research regarding recent court decisions involving AI organizations that appear to have resulted in establishing certain legal precedents prohibiting these entities from violating certain aspects of various copyright laws, “pirating,” “paraphrasing,” “copying verbatim.”
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  Kenna McHughposted 19 hours agoin reply to this
  You're welcome, Genna. There will be more legal decisions as we move forward.
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  Miebakagh57posted 7 hours agoin reply to this
  That is great.
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  Genna Eastposted 22 hours agoin reply to this
  Paul, I have already stated in various comments what my attorney who files my copyrights advised me, personally. If authors have specific questions regarding their publications, what they could do to protect content, TAG's actions and inactions, TOS, etc., then they should contact their attorney. But I will make one suggestion: Any author who writes non-fiction articles on various online platforms should at least familarize themselves with copyright laws including potential infringement regarding paraphrasing. The reasons why are obvious. I'll leave it at that.
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Solarasposted 2 days ago
Here is a heart-wrenching blast from the past. And for those of you trying to start or maintain your own thing, some insight. It might or might not be passé info. https://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/hu … g-writers/
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  Miebakagh57posted 2 days agoin reply to this
  But HP no longer put AdSense to work.
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  Solarasposted 35 hours agoin reply to this
  True. When TAG took over HP they started Banner bidding, which pays much better than Google AdSense. We no longer are reaping those rewards. We make half of what Google is offering, which is a fraction of what banner bidding can provide.
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Rupert Taylorposted 38 hours ago
I have developed a really cunning way of ensuring that TAGPages doesn't steal my articles.

I write about topics that nobody is searching for. In this way, my views are very low and this means that HubTAG is not interested in lifting them because it won't make any money from them. This strategy has been working spectacularly well in recent months.

You may hold your applause.
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  TheShadowSpecterposted 12 hours agoin reply to this
  I think the copycats on Owlcation are shying away from stealing my more controversial articles. They want to keep their clean-cut image, even though they're violating the rights of the writers on this writing platform. It's like one big hypocrisy with them.
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greenmindposted 33 hours ago
For what it's worth, I asked "Team HubPages" by email if articles that have been unpublished were available to be mined/scraped for their new unethical versions of our work. Their answer: No, unpublished articles are not used. I have copied, downloaded and unpublished almost all of mine, but not deleted them.
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  Kenna McHughposted 31 hours agoin reply to this
  Greenmind, this is good to know. I am compiling data on this situation. Can you forward that email to me? kennamc@earthlink.net.
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  theraggededgeposted 24 hours agoin reply to this
  Which is an admission that they *are* doing it with live articles
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Miebakagh57posted 30 hours ago
Good and great to note too.
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