Is Hubpages Becoming too Cocky and behaving like Google, eBay ?

1. 41

   Sportyposted 14 years ago

   It would appear that hubpages have become too big now as they
   are making a lot of money and have suddenly decided to start behaving like Google and eBay, ignoring the hubbers who are at the base of their success.
   
   I think hubpages should learn a lesson from eBay and stop behaving like Google.
   
   Recently I have had several of my hubs unpublished for no apparent reason and all my emails to them have been responded with stock emails, the sort you would get from Google when you write to them.
   
   I would like to remind hubpages that their success is down to the combined efforts of an army of hubbers whose efforts have made them as successful as they are today.
   
   If you asked me this is slippery road down hill hubpages are embarked on.

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      ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      My understanding is that a reason is given on all unpublished hubs, in line with the terms of service.
      
      Hubpages generally unpublish hubs in order to protect their AdSense account, which in turn protects yours.
      
      95% of the time there is a very good reason for a hub being unpublished. I have had 1 hubpage (out of about 600) unpublished in my entire time here, and that simply required a couple of words to be changed and a photo removed for it to be deemed acceptable.
      
      Seeing as Google are the LIFELINE of this company, I suspect that they will be acting precisely how Google would want them too. Just like you have to do the work that your boss wants you to do.
      
      Seems simple to me.

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      1. 41

         Sportyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         So why can one not get a clear personalized answer from Hubpages, rather than the stock responses they send.

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         1. 0

            Stevennix2001posted 14 years agoin reply to this

            probably because there's thousands of hubpage users, and there's only around under ten staff members, so they may not have time to directly respond to every single e-mail that comes their way.  however, if you want a more personalized response, then my only advice to you is to become a follower of one of the hubpage staff members.  you know, the ones that have that little green icon by their avatars, then if you ever need them to look at your hub, you can always e-mail them to see if they can help.  that's probably the best advice i can tell you.

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            1. 41

               Sportyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               stevennix2001 thank for your answer.
               
               I must say that I have been a hubber for more than 3 years now, and suddenly it is beginning to feel like eBay when they completed ignored the sellers or Google at the end of last year when they banned thousand of accounts.

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            2. 60

               Lifeallstar1posted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Stevennix- my comment was not meant to sound mean. I read it again and it might sound like I'm  calling your advice ridiculous and I do not mean it like that at all. I'm trying to say that if people had to follow staff around that would be ridiculous to have to do, you know? I hope you don't think I was being a biatch!

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                  Stevennix2001posted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  nah, i don't think your a biatch, as your way too beautiful to be one. if anything i was kind of flattered a lovely lady like yourself was responding, or in this case referencing, to one of my posts.   
                  
                  seriously though, I didn't find it offensive at all, as I got what you were saying.  To some degree your right though.  It's the same thing when your trying to contact a company about a problem, and you have to listen to a long winded voice machine where it says..."Press one for yes or two for no." I hate those types of answering services.  However, with the expansion of businesses, and considering how much cheaper and less time consuming for a business to implement automated answering systems, it's kind of becoming expected.  However, your right.  A personal response from a person is always welcomed and preferred.  If that makes any sense.  sorry, i ramble sometimes.  lol.

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         shazwellynposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I agree with Ryan - dont bite the hand that feeds you.  This means Hubpages has to act according to Google's tos!

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   2. 72

      thranaxposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      -Ignoring everything else said in this topic my views*:-
      
      Hubpages is a company to make money no matter how you look at it, that is the core to all companies. Hubpages has a small amount of workers to take care of all of us.
      
      They introduced the Hubpages elite to help shape the community, they picked the best personalities etc to help people out. We (talking for hubpages elite) enjoy helping people and our main job is to function as greeters to make new people feel like there welcome (and hopefully write good content which will up our traffic including a chance to get yourself some.)
      
      Hubpages cant tell any of us hubbers we HAVE to help someone else, if they did then we would be employees. We aren't, we are just like you (often more knowledgeable). It is up to us to try to make more posts to help people in forums etc.
      
      There is many ways to find answers and many of the questions can be answered by searching the forums or looking under the site help, many people are ignorant to the fact a "help" link even exists and ask easy questions that amount to a lot of time for the hub staff, so thus they have some safeguards(elite) in place if other community members will not answer the posts to "ATTEMPT TO SERVE EVERYONE."
      
      Hope that helps,
      
      ~thranax~
      
      *note: these are my views on it, nothing I said has been officially said by Hubpages.

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   3. 76

      sarovaiposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hi sporty, May be some other reasons why you didn't receive the answer. Please find out the reasons posting the problems in forums. Definitely your request will reach the hubpages team.
      
      Secondly comparing hubpages to google and ebay incomparable. Because google and ebay are money making sources. Whereas hubpages is assisting us and themselves to make money.
      
      with my personal experience, I got immediate answer from hubpages.Even google also responded well. But ebay I couldnot able succeed anyway.
      
      Hope hubpages staff's respond on your request and clear your doubt on this issue.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Sporty, so you're saying the "stock emails" gave you no reason why your Hubs were unpublished?   Or did they give you several possible reasons? 
      
      Or could the problem be that the email does give you a reason but you don't know what they mean by it?  In which case, perhaps if you tell us the wording someone will be able to interpret it for you.

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   AMBASSADOR BUTLERposted 14 years ago

   They do give you a clear answer for your unpublished hubs. My 1 unpublished hub that I have written and I am not writting anything else in pertaining to hubs is too short in word count and almost empty. They have a standard for you to meet to publish a hub. That does not mean you can not make money from it. Quality of your article is number 1 and king. As for my 1 unpublished hub it began to get page impressions on September 11, 2010 after only started on hubpages on June 3, 2010. I am also getting page impressions in October. No earnings yet but it is on the way as time goes on. I am very happy and content with my 1 unpublished hub on hubpages. I am able to make money and they also so it is a win/win situation for author and hubpages. Thank you. Go in peace.

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   1. 41

      Sportyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      "Go in peace"????
      
      What exactly is your point? Did you take a minute to read & understand my post?
      
      As you may or may not know I I have over 28 published hubs since 3 years ago.

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      1. 0

         AMBASSADOR BUTLERposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         It is my own personal going away sayings in wishing that you may have peace in your life at all times. I do have peace in my own life and just wish everybody to have peace in their own life. It is all in goodwill for the people on earth. Thank you.

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      prettydarkhorseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      You are funny, smiles..

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3. 60

   Lifeallstar1posted 14 years ago

   I agree with everything said as to why hubpages has to run things a certain way except for the advice to follow one of the staff members. That's ridiculous. Its hubpages job to run things correctly and send a normal response via email or give a number for people to call. You can't run a business like that unless they want to lose people. If they only have ten people that is not this hubbers problem or at least it shouldn't be.

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      Lifeallstar1posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I'd like to add that I had to email hubpages at one time and I received a personalized email by them which I was very happy with. I haven't experienced anything like this but if that is what happened to this hubber then that is not right.  I'm just commenting on what this hubber is saying happened to them.

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      1. 41

         Sportyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Lifeallstar1
         Thank you for understanding.
         
         Surprise surprise somebody who joined on June 2010 has a strong opinion and would like to see the back of me. If we did not hold up the beacon of hubpages at the beginning, he would not have seen the light to join.
         
         I am one of those people in life who likes to err on the side of caution. Not being adventurous or anything like that. I would not do anything to compromise my AdSense account. I value my hubpages membership and my AdSense account (not that I make much each month from).
         If I am complaining, it is because my efforts to reason with hubpages have been like hitting my head against a brick wall.
         It used to be that you would get a personalized email from Hubpages, but not anymore.

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         1. 72

            Sunny Robinsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Well, where do I start.
            
            Lifeallstar, the correct way of doing business when you're expanding SO MUCH is to standardize certain communication when the ratio of staff members to clients has gotten to that point.  I'm guessing the ratio is 1 to every 10,000.  That's a lot, dude.
            
            And it IS the hubber's problem.  A hubber wants to keep their platform, yes? A hubber wants to support that platform that supports their work, yes?  Hubbers are what keeps this whole thing going.  That's where Google differs from Hubpages.  Ten people is giving thousands of people a chance to monetize and write.  Show appreciation for those who are working their butts off.
            
            That's what some Elite hubbers, not actual staff members, are attempting to do.  They help take some of the burden by writing hubtutorials and answering questions.  If a staff member is too overwhelmed, look to the others who may have the answers.  There is also a forum category called extreme make-over or a help section here where you're at.  You can specifically post your problem, the hub you're having a problem with, and you will get answers.  There is a great system set up.
            
            I will also tell you.  A proper, local business being run great .. when they expand so much, I do not think, "It is not my problem if they have problems or are short on staff, etc".  It is.  They are helping the tax economy of the area they reside in.  They are providing services that means something to me.  I go and support them for it.  It's rather cold to sit back and say, "It's not my problem" even though you are a customer!! Too many people do that these days.
            
            Just my thoughts.

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               Lifeallstar1posted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Sunny,  Thanks for your thoughts and views. Like I said, I did not get the email in question. I have not had a problem as I received a detailed letter from hubpages.  I was not left in the dark when I had a question which needed an answer. I'm just commenting on this hubbers issue. I do think ultimately it's up to HP to come up with a system and not me or anyone else. This hubber did write in the help section and we are the only ones that came forth.  I could not help him since I did not unpublish his hub and he wants to know the reason. How can anyone else answer that except for the ones in charge who know so he can fix the problem? I do not see  how posting or asking a helper  would work for this situation.  Are you saying they  would know his issue or could find out why? If so, that is helpful for people to know.  What advice do you have for him?

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                  Sunny Robinsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  Well, the problem I'm having with his post .. sorry, talking over you, sporty.  Let me start again.  The problem I'm having with your post is that I wish there was more information on what your hub was.  I know you said it was for 'no apparent reason'.  What was done with the hub? Too much backlinking? Linking several times to a same domain?  What was it about?
                  
                  Some things have been updated along the way, and there are a lot of threads about how hubbers are going back and re-reading the help section and rules.  I personally pitched a big fit (embarrassing, really) about one of my hubs being flagged as substandard.  One of the staff members personally reviewed it and had removed the flag herself, which I'm grateful for.
                  
                  Another thing that could help.  Sometimes some hubs get unpublished, and it indeed goes through the automated system when that happens.  Then it gets through to a real human staff who reviews it.  Sometimes, that takes a while, and that's why people get the automated e-mail reply when they start inquiring about it.  The real reply comes eventually.

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                     Sunny Robinsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     This is the post where I pitched a fit at: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/54234#post1236564.  Kinda embarrassing to look back over it, but hey, this may help you.

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                        Lifeallstar1posted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        Sunny,  That's nothing to be embarrassed about!  I'm glad you were able to get the help you needed and I think you are right in saying that Sporty will probably get a letter after the automated. That makes a lot of sense because I can't imagine not being able to find out. I received an automated letter and then a personalized but It sounded like sporty never got one unless he didn't give it enough time. I waited a week which to me is   reasonable. Anyway, I'm all for helping others and asking others for help but when the answer has to come from the source at hand then they really need to answer. That was my point. Hope that makes sense.

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                           Sunny Robinsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                           Life, it does make sense.
                           
                           Sporty, get anything worked out yet?

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                           1. 41

                              Sportyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                              No not yet, I am still awaiting an email reply from hubpages.

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                              Sportyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                              So far I got another stock reply from hubpages.

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4. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 14 years ago

   In my humble opinion, HP is a kinder, gentler website.

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5. 75

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   It doesnt seem as if you have put an incredible amount of effort in here to be quite so demanding.
   
   3 years, no profile photo? half your hubs dont have any images? ... I think all your hubs are just clickbank ads?
   
   Nothing wrong with that - but..cmon, would you respond to you? An in depth response would take more time than your entire hub portfolio probably took you.
   
   and since your packed to the hilt with clickbank ads (again no problem with that) you really cant consider this profile as being relevant to an "army of hubbers whose efforts have made them as successful"

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6. 76

   frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

   I have had an issue with one hub. Whilst the HP team didn't respond the minute they received my email, once they'd got to it, they did. I then spent a couple of weeks batting back and forth, bouncing ideas around as to how to sort the problem out.
   
   It turned out that despite it tripping their filter, it had also tripped Googles. The team were more than helpful. Once they realised that they couldn't alter Google's stance, they still offered insight - even though the issue wasn't theirs.
   
   They followed up with something along the lines of 'if you get it sorted, let us know'. Once I had, I did just that, to which the team responded. None were stock emails, they were written by a member of the team.
   
   So I'm not sure what the issue is. I didn't feel ignored, nor treat in a high handed manner. Neither do I hold the opinion that Hubpages has become inflated with it's own 'greatness'.
   
   Further, I received no special treatment, I have to use the same channels as everyone else. For my part, I can't fault the way they handled my problem.
   
   I hope you get sorted.

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