Shutdown

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   L.M. Hoslerposted 3 months ago

   When is Hub Pages shutting down?  I get so much junk e-mail that I missed the e-mail.  Just wondering how much time I have to remove my articles.

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      Kenna McHughposted 3 months agoin reply to this

      Here's the post:
      
      https://hubpages.com/community/forum/36 … f-hubpages

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         L.M. Hoslerposted 3 months agoin reply to this

         Thank you. I looked on the blog but didn't know where else to look.

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      bravewarriorposted 3 months agoin reply to this

      No new content or edits will be accepted as of 11/19/2025.
      Earnings program will be discontinued on 1/15/2026. Final earnings will be calculated and distribute over the next month or two after the program has been discontinued.
      Access to your existing account will remain active until the end of February 2026. (You can leave your content up for HP users to read.)

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         L.M. Hoslerposted 3 months agoin reply to this

         Thanks for the information.  I guess that's why I couldn't edit anything. But I am just copying everything for later use.

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            Shesabutterflyposted 3 months agoin reply to this

            Content remaining on the niche sites you wouldn't be able to edit whether HP was shutting down or not. All the niche sites belong to TAG and not HP. You haven't been earning anything from those articles either.
            
            https://hubpages.com/community/forum/36 … d-discover
            
            https://hubpages.com/community/forum/36 … ages-sites
            
            Those are the official announcements for when we lost access to the niche sites.
            
            I'd email Haley Davis or team HubPages and request that all of your niche site articles be moved to Discover. You will not be able to delete them otherwise.

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               L.M. Hoslerposted 3 months agoin reply to this

               Thanks for that information. I haven't been on here much lately. No wonder I wasn't making anything.

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                  Kenna McHughposted 3 months agoin reply to this

                  It's challenging the way TAG/HP has handled their "takeover." You can email Team@hubpages.com. They should release your articles to you. Sorry, this happened to you. Unfortunately, you are not the only one who's been negatively affected by their flagrant stealing.

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                     L.M. Hoslerposted 3 months agoin reply to this

                     I emailed them and they replied and said my articles would be moved to Discover. I have been removing most of them anyway.

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                        Kenna McHughposted 3 months agoin reply to this

                        Glad to hear they're being moved to Discover. I am removing articles every day. I can't wait until it's done.

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                           L.M. Hoslerposted 3 months agoin reply to this

                           I have been busy moving or saving them. It seemed that HubPages was dying.

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         Susan May Gudgeposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

         And yet today, Feb 2026, I read my email and it is from HUB congratulating me for 10 years with hub and hopes I will write more new content and 10th anniversary is tin etc etc standard form 10th anniversary email LMAO...Thought maybe they changed their mind about closing but heh guess not...bye bye cruel world of publishers...
         Bye writers...was fun while it lasted and was great knowing about you all...peace

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            theraggededgeposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

            They haven't cancelled the automatically generated emails. It's one more sign of inefficiency.

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               PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

               I think I would use the word "neglect". After they editing blitz failed, it was game over.
               
               Like you say, Bev, there's a lot of auto-generated stuff that hasn't been switched off yet. However, there's a pattern of hubbers seeing stuff as significant which is just being churned out by the machine. There's been virtually no staff involvement since the editors were dispensed with.
               
               Some people never really grasped that the hub and hubber scores were auto-generated in a pretty arbitrary way by an algorithm, which never ceased to amaze me.

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                  theraggededgeposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

                  Same with the 'surveys'. No one read or acted upon them.

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                     PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

                     Yes, they were a leftover from another age. Certainly after Samantha, the community manager, was exited.
                     
                     Yet, still they went out.
                     
                     The stuff where there was a human hand involved, like the monthly newsletter, had to stop.
                     
                     The filtering for Discover continued after the editors left, because that was done automatically too. That was also something that some erroneously believed was done by people. But you'd need hundred if not thousands to go through the sheer volume of material.
                     
                     I remember in the days of "hub-hopping" being shocked how much crap was submitted for publication, 99% of it being crap (spam, spun, or just really poor quality)
                     
                     They could do Discover without editors. Just not the specially selected material for the topic websites, which was only a tiny percentage anyway.

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                     Kenna McHughposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

                     Bev,
                     
                     So true. HP tried to make money the easy way. It doesn't work.

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                        Ken Burgessposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

                        At the time HP was targeted by Maven (the Arena Group) HP was getting 37 million monthly page views.
                        
                        They acquired several other publishing platforms around the same time.
                        
                        Was it corporate greed alone... or were there other factors involved?
                        
                        HP previously struggled with Google's algorithm updates, which penalized many user-generated content sites.
                        
                        A 14 year old video which touches on Google's efforts (shutting down the competition?):
                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUgeXi7yYYo
                        
                        There are a lot of interesting links in its body.
                        
                        The control of information...
                        
                        By 2011, Google had achieved a dominant lead in the U.S. search market, with over 65% of search queries.
                        
                        In 2024 Google maintained over 90% of the worldwide market share (starting at 91.47% in January 2024).  This despite significant effort by competitors Microsoft Bing and, to a lesser extent, Yahoo, to regain or redirect people to use their search, trying to capitalize on user frustration with Google's not so subtle algorithmic bias.
                        
                        I remember when Yahoo... not Google... was the dominant search and email engine.  It wasn't until the late 2000s people shifted over to Google, and it didn't begin seriously changing how information was accessed (or ignored) until 2011... shifting that into overdrive after 2016.
                        
                        If not for X (Twitter) being purchased by Musk... and becoming the 'Wild West' for opinions and not-approved-for-mass-consumption information... I wonder how sanitized the internet (Google search, Facebook, etc.) would be today?
                        
                        Anyways... strange so many years went by with HP if not daily... at least weekly, part of my life.  My kids were barely potty trained when I stumbled into HP... and now they are adults.
                        
                        Its time to move on to other things... enjoy the new opportunities that will open up, as this one closes.

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                           PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

                           Yes, it was Google that effectively killed the site. HP was dependent on search engine traffic, which turned out to be a fatal flaw, given that Google gradually lost all neutrality in the quest for increased profits.
                           
                           HP never made money and relied on investors. That's why Paul Edmondson had to switch to the Maven model. He explained it all in interviews at the time (still there on YouTube last time I looked) and I've no reason to doubt him.
                           
                           There wasn't really a Maven "takeover" in the way that many here seem to think. Paul maintained a leadership role at both Maven and TAG. HP could no longer be run as an independent company without investment.
                           
                           It's sad what happened but I don't think Paul and the other two HP founders had much choice. HP lasted longer than its rivals but it couldn't go on forever.
                           
                           And then along came AI to finish the job, although it was a case of kicking a corpse by this point.

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                           Kenna McHughposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

                           Anytime someone gives up — succumbs to defeatism — they are compelled to justify their losses by making excuses. Like a marriage on bad terms, each partner points fingers without considering their own responsibility for giving up.
                           
                           When one of America's greatest baseball players, Babe Ruth, asked why he kept hitting home runs, and he said, "Because I want to."
                           
                           TAG/HP lost its willingness to make HP work. We can blame Google, a lot of people do. Or blame AI, which is currently trending as the best excuse.
                           
                           There's definitely a market for valid information because of the current lack. 
                           
                           Someone is going to figure out this Internet mess and work hard to create a genuinely valid source of information that people can respect and use in life.

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                           ryanpugsposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

                           "Was it corporate greed alone... or were there other factors involved?"
                           
                           Maven was a listed company which meant long serving hubpages employees could benefit from their stock options / sweat equity by selling their shares on the open market.

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            L.M. Hoslerposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

            I don't know why they would think we would add new content if we aren't getting paid. I think I saw that unless you had earned in the last six months you would lose any earnings. So that let's me out.

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               CYong74posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

               I think it is just another case of the auto-function never being removed.

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   Msmillarposted 3 months ago

   So theirs no way to put a Canonical, 301 forwarding or a message to my readers now? This is bologna! All my SEO goes down the toilet! Hubpages, you should be ashamed of yourselves, taking so much from people that gave you their all!

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      Solarasposted 3 months agoin reply to this

      Well, not all of your SEO is going down the toilet.  It is being repurposed for TAG's sites and their income. They are recreating/spinning our articles and using our old URLs and our Pinterest links and any other inbound links are redirected to their copies of our work.

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         Ladymermaidposted 7 weeks agoin reply to this

         I can only hope that tactic will come back to bite them.

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         Kenna McHughposted 7 weeks agoin reply to this

         Yup! It's criminal.

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   Pcunixposted 4 weeks ago

   Sure taking their time getting payments out!

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      bravewarriorposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

      The announcement said earnings cease as of Feb 15, 2026 and payments will be disbursed a month or two after.

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   MyWebsposted 3 weeks ago

   I'm surprised HP lasted as long as it did. I stopped actively writing on here many, many years ago. This used to be a great place to write in the beginning. I even got paid out a few times for my many hours of effort. RIP HP

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   Solarasposted 3 weeks ago

   Well, goodbye everybody.  Sad to see everything go. I will miss checking in at the forums to see what's up here and on the Internet.  See you all on the other side.

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   theraggededgeposted 3 weeks ago

   Bye bye xxx

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   littlethingposted 2 weeks ago

   Bye All, best of luck out there

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