Staff: Removed Question, Why?

1. 76

   MyWebsposted 14 years ago

   Edweirdo asked me a question, a request to make a hub about a service I use in conjunction with HubPages. He wanted me to explain how it is setup and used since he could neither locate anything good on HubPages, through Google and the services own help section left him with more questions than answers in his words. Since he seen I used it, he asked me to write about it. Makes sense to me.
   
   So why was the question rather quickly removed? I can only guess that it was one of three reasons.
   
   1) Because he specifically mentions my username within the question, targeting the request at me.
   
   #2 & #3 I'll keep to myself pending a response.
   
   I was going to site email him to ask if he had changed his mind and removed the question, but that wasn't possible. I had planned to answer it with a hub per his request, then I noticed in his activity stream where it said:
   Edweirdo asked this question of you Please write a hub about myfreecopyright.com... [removed by moderator]
   
   As I thought I could answer his request with a well written hub, I would like to know why his question was removed?

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   1. 0

      Norah Caseyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Ideally, questions directed at you should be sent over email. We are working on ways to clarify the question/answer process so that this is less confusing. If you know who asked the question, please feel free to email that person directly. In the future, if you have issues with a moderation decision HubPages has made, don't hesitate to email us directly. While we don't often review every forum thread directed at us, we can't miss emails at team@hubpages.com

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      1. 76

         MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Hmm This question I did receive via an email notification, so I think you must mean a new feature or something else here.
         
         I do know who asked the question, but it seems he has disabled site emails from other users which is another reason I posted this here, hoping he would take notice.
         
         I much prefer posting here and waiting hours instead of several days at best if not  weeks or even a month for an email  response.

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         1. 0

            Norah Caseyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            if there have been emails that have taken days or weeks to respond to, I apologize for that, however our current response time is under 24 hours.

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         2. 73

            AEvansposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            MyWebs, if you do not recieve a response from HP within 24-48 hours try e-mailing them again there normal response time is only 24 hours. I have not ever waited days or months for any response as long as I have been here. Also check to see if your mail is being bounced back to you, could be that you may have made a small error in the e-mail address which can cause a very long delay. Just an idea

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   2. 85

      Edweirdoposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      MyWebs,
      
      I just happened to stumble across this thread and was surprised to hear that my question to you had been deleted! That's news to me!
      
      I simply didn't realize that the use of the ".com" in the text of the question was a No-No. In hindsight it makes perfect sense, though...
      
      It would have been nice if HP had alerted me that it had been deleted so that I could have had the chance to repost a corrected version...
      
      
      But anyway, I posted it as a question so that anyone else who was interested could also hub about myfreecopyright...
      
      And I didn't use email for the request because - no offense to you - I generally don't like to share my email address online! I disabled the "Contact" button on my profile for that reason...
      
      I wish HP had an internal messaging system - I would certainly have used that instead if it was available!
      
      
      
      Hopefully you're still interested in writing a hub about this topic - I'm still interested in reading it

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2. 78

   KCC Big Countryposted 14 years ago

   These types of questions that only HP Staff can answer should be sent to them in an email rather than posting them to the forum.

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   1. 76

      MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I would have done that if I typically got a response back in a timely matter. I prefer not to wait up to a month or longer for a response though.
      
      Trust me I would have preferred a private email to this so I could be more open.

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      1. 78

         KCC Big Countryposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I have never heard of anyone not getting a timely response from the HP staff.  What email did you use?

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         1. 76

            MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            team[at]hubpages[dot]com

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            1. 78

               KCC Big Countryposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               That should work.  Wait and see what happens.

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               1. 76

                  MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  I have no plans currently to email them. This was the choice I made and I'll stick to it for now.

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3. 74

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   If something you write is snatched off the forum without explanation, it is completely appropriate to make is publicly known. So other community members can make a decision about whether the community they participate in is administrated judiciously. This should be ones attitude in all aspects of community life - online and off.
   
   You know, I just found out that every gallon of gas is taxed 57 cents! here in nY ..would love to know how I and my fellow citizens are benefiting from this tax

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   1. 76

      MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      This was a question, not a forum post, that was removed.
      
      If it was because he mentioned my username and thus targeted the question mostly at me, then others could benefit from knowing this isn't allowed. I sure don't remember seeing this in any rule.
      
      I really don't think anything was done here that was questionable. It was either my username thing, or they think I did something here I'm innocent of. Hopefully it's not the third option in my mind because that is a bit questionable.

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4. 74

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   Why should such info have to take place behind closed doors?
   
   If HP has a problem with any aspect of a post or in relation to external sites, this should be made clear to all of us so we can benefit from the knowledge.

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5. 78

   KCC Big Countryposted 14 years ago

   I don't really care one way or another. I just felt he'd get a quicker response and specific details via email rather than waiting for a staffer to run across it in the forums especially on the weekend, but knock your socks off.

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6. 74

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   Im talking in general..i could care less either way either. It seems its in relation to myfreecopyright.com which is basically a useless service but somehow is getting lots of references on hp lately.
   
   And agree - friday 930ish PST isnt likely to be a time that paid workers will be scanning the forum.
   
   But in principle and theory - any issues like these should always be shared with all community members
   
   so send the email - but always take a moment to let others know about any perceived injustice

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   1. 76

      MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      In my opinion having an independent trusted third party  that automatically proves date of publication and makes a digital thumbprint, hash, of the content is worth the few minutes it takes to use the free service. There is a legal term that applies here called: non-repudiation. HubPages doesn't make it publicly visible when a hub was published. Date of publication is a factor in a copyright dispute. If this service discourage infringement and makes a DMCA fight easier, which I think it does and would, then why not use it? But hey you have every right to your own opinion, even if it is wrong.
      
      I sure did not mean to imply either that something underhanded was the cause here.

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   2. 0

      Norah Caseyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Just a general observation here: staff at HubPages work on a very flexible schedule. I'm more of the evening person, as you may have noticed (it is pretty late right now in San Francisco.) It is hard to say when we will be working, so don't make any assumptions on that count. I don't think any of us work regularly at 8 am.
      
      Forum threads are notoriously easy for us to miss. We often receive emails from users complaining that "such and such issue has already been discussed in such and such thread." We review hundreds of hubs a day, plus hundreds of flagged forum posts/questions a day, so it is hard to stumble upon a thread such as this sometimes.
      
      While I agree that perceived injustices should be shared with the community, not all perceptions are accurate. In this case, there was a link in the question that was flagged by a community member as it being overly-promotional. This is the same policy we operate with the forums, but we are more lenient with questions because they are slightly confusing. As I stated earlier, we are in the process of making questions more clear for users. The user wasn't penalized for the question, but we did take it down.

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      1. 76

         MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for answering my question. I never felt this was an injustice, I just wanted clarification on the matter. Mostly because I suspected the reason was something else that wasn't the cause it seems.
         
         I never considered that it was because HP automatically hyper-linked the .com to be the cause.

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7. 78

   KCC Big Countryposted 14 years ago

   I'm sorry it was perceived as something that my comments meant it was nobody's business and should be forbidden from being shared.  That was not my intention.  It was simply a matter of practicality. 
   
   I'll go back to playing cards and let the rest of you answer forum posts.

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   1. 74

      sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      nah, ill go back to my Blue Moons and Bonfires, im pretty sure I misread everyone intentions
      
      Hope you win!

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8. 74

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   and Mywebs - forum/question whatever, if it was published and now its not - an explanation is always warranted.

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9. 74

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   Trusted third party, by whom?
   
   Have you used such service in the act of fighting a copyright dispute? (If not, then how do you know?)
   
   Can i use such service to copyright a previously unregistered piece of data that I do not own (yes I can)
   
   Will their "hash" "digital fingerprint" hold up in a court of law? I dont know ..do you?
   
   Perhaps "useless" was a little strong ..but I will still stick to not worthy of much attention.
   
   perhaps I should add Im supportive of individual copyright but not supportive of the current DMCA

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   1. 76

      MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      The word "Trusted" could be disputed. Perhaps a better phrase would just be: 'independent third party '. I believe that in a copyright dispute having someone from outside of hubpages to verify date of publication would carry more weight than just hubpages saying I published on such and such date as hubpages does have a vested interest in our content that this service does not have. This is what I meant by trusted third party even if this is not the proper usage of this term.
      
      I think of using this service as a proactive measure to discourage thieves. I have not had to use it in a dispute, so this aspect does seem to be working so far. Would being able to provide a link to Wordpress.org or Google.com to easily prove date of first publication help and save time? Surely it would in my opinion.
      
      Sure you could do this, but if it was my content I could prove I registered it first so I would win in a DMCA dispute. First thing I do after I hit publish is go register the hub with this service within a few minutes.
      
      I don't know the answer to this question for sure. My best guess is that it would since it is automatically created by a machine. The hash does provide a digital fingerprint that is unique to your content. The downside is each comment and change of a RSS feed's content causes your hub to differ from the original fingerprint. Besides that they also store the full text of your hub which I'm sure could be used as evidence.
      
      To each his own. Anything to save time fighting thieves is welcome by me. Or even better: something that discourages stealing in the first place is worth a lot to me, which seems to be working so far. If and when my content is stolen I will put this service to the test to see how helpful it really is.

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         Edweirdoposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         And it's just this kind of info, told in a straight-forward manner by a writer who uses the service, that motivated me to ask you to write this kind of stuff into a hub
         
         That way every other hubber who might also want to check out the service would have a resource available, since there currently isn't one...

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10. 78

    Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

    I just surprised people that the q and a so seriously...

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11. 58

    spiritualityposted 14 years ago

    I think this is a serious issue. I've just found out a hub of mine got deleted without warning or explanation as well.

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    1. 76

       MyWebsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       You can contact staff by emailing them here:
       http://hubpages.com/contact_us/
       or
       team[at]hubpages[dot]com (change as needed)
       or
       Start your own thread. Since the issue in this thread has been resolved staff may be less likely to notice your post here. I suggest starting your post title with "Staff" to attract their attention.

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12. 61

    Lynda Garyposted 14 years ago

    All bickering aside re how to contact HP, what is meant by "trusted," and all the other nonsense, I want to know when you (MyWebs) are going to publish your hub / answer to the pulled question?  It has my interest sparked and THATS what I want to read about ... not yet another quarrel in the forums...

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