Hubpages is banned on Wikipedia

1. 69

   greathubposted 16 years ago

   I was listing my hub on one of the pages of wikipedia when it gave the following error:
   
   The spam filter blocked your page save because it detected a blacklisted hyperlink. If you did not add the link yourself, it most likely was added by another editor before being blacklisted. You will need to remove all instances of the blacklisted link before you can save your edit. If you are attempting a section edit, note that this block may even be due to blacklisted links in other sections. If you need help removing the blacklisted link, post a message at Wikipedia:Help desk.
   Blacklists are maintained both locally and globally. Before proceeding, please review both lists to determine which one (or both) are affecting you. You can request help removing the link, request that the link be removed from the blacklist, or report a possible error on the local or global spam blacklist talk page. If you'd like to request that a specific link be allowed without removing similar links from the blacklist, you can request whitelisting on the local spam whitelist talk page.
   
   The following link has triggered our spam protection filter: http://hubpages.com
   Either that exact link, or a portion of it (typically the root domain name) is currently blacklisted.
   
   
   I was first shocked and then doubled over with laughter.
   
   Hubbers have spammed wikipedia so much that www.hubpages.com is banned on Wikipedia now.
   
   Why don't HubPages administration contact Wikipedia and ask them to block individual hubs that are spammed not the whole websiet hubpages.com.

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   1. 60

      JYOTI KOTHARIposted 16 years agoin reply to this

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      1. 66

         Maddie Ruudposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         People adding their Hubs to Wikipedia in this way is precisely why the domain was banned in the first place.  Wikipedia takes a very strong stance against self-promotion.  You should never add links to your own pages to Wikipedia, or start a Wiki page on yourself any organization with which you are officially affiliated.

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         1. 69

            greathubposted 16 years agoin reply to this

            Ms Maddie
            
            I think I was justified in placing my link to the appropriate page of wikipedia.
            
            Placing the link would have added to the quality of the wikipedia and not just promoted my hub.
            
            I have written two of these links listed above in whcih I wasn't selling anything.

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   2. 69

      darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Are you saying that you're a spammer?

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      1. 69

         greathubposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         No, I am not. Absolutely not.
         
         I HATE spamming!

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         1. 69

            darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

            But you did try to post links to your own hubs.
            
            The ban would be the result of plenty of others like you who have tried the same thing. Even in moderation the results can vary.
            
            Imagine 1000, or even 100 site users converging on Wikipedia and posting links to the same domain? It quickly adds up.
            
            The same happened recently at wis.dm where Lensmasters had been posting links to their lenses in response to questions being posted. Some of the active loyal community saw a trend and then backlash ensued.

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   3. 66

      relacheposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      HubPages is banned due to people like you who not only don't read the Wikipedia guidelines but also completely fail to grasp why the ban exists:  people are NOT supposed to be submitting stuff they've written themselves.

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2. 59

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   lol
   
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubPages
   
   
   I sure am keen to know which of your hubs you were "listing" as a reference on wikipedia.

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   1. 69

      greathubposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      http://hubpages.com/hub/solar-reflector
      
      http://hubpages.com/hub/Concrete-Solar-concentrator

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      AEvansposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      me too!!!

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3. 90

   gamergirlposted 16 years ago

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   1. 69

      greathubposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Why are you acting like a nanny, gamegirl?

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      1. 66

         Maddie Ruudposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         greathub:
         
         I think Charlotte was merely trying to point out a relevant part of my post for you, in case you missed it.
         
         I don't have a response to the "but my link is USEFUL" argument, which I see here on HubPages as well.  From Wikipedia's perspective, you are engaging in self-promotion.  You may not be selling anything, but you are making money from impressions and clicks.  I don't make the rules on Wikipedia, but as the moderator here at HubPages, I can understand why it is they don't want people coming in and link-dropping all over the place.  I think the bit Charlotte quoted above pretty much sums it up.

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         1. 69

            greathubposted 16 years agoin reply to this

            For the first time in my hubbing experience I feel down.
            
            I have never been treated like this by other hubbers and/or hubpages officials.
            
            All I said is that wikipedia has banned hubpages and I got warnings from you and Charlotte that I should not post my links. I should not be promotional.
            
            I never tried to post my link solely for promotional purpose. The link was also meant to enrich Wikipedia's content.
            
            If Wikipedia and I are benefitting from this why shouldn't I go on to submit the link.
            
            I also requested the hubpages officials to collaborate with Wikipedia to allow those links from hubbers that are appropriate and beneficial in enriching the wikipedia's content.
            
            But I got no response at all to this sugestion. Warnings are all I got.
            
            I am really down in the dumps.

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4. 73

   thranaxposted 16 years ago

   LOL

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5. 76

   Uninvited Writerposted 16 years ago

   But, it is Wikipedia's policy, not HubPages

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6. STAFF

   pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

   The reason Hubpages links are not allowed on Wikipedia is because Wikipedia decided that by and large they weren't benefiting them.  It's not a commentary on your particular link, but all the links that all people have tried to make to the HubPages domain (yet another example of the tragedy of the commons).  I also believe that Wikipedia's rules frown upon linking to your own work, regardless of the quality of that work or any perceived or real financial motivation that you might have for doing so.
   
   They do have a process for getting links approved for "banned" domains on a link-by-link basis.  I don't know the details -- you'll have to delve into the inner workings of Wikipedia yourself to figure that out if it's worth it to you.  I'm sure they also have a process for getting a domain unbanned, but the case has to be fairly compelling I suspect (and I don't see how we, the HubPages community, can make any guarantee that our behavior will change).
   
   They have a lot of conventions and processes they follow in order to manage the massive amount of content they have and to control spam and other kinds of abuse.  My knowledge of those processes is limited, but there are a probably a few people in the HubPages community that can offer more insight.

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   1. 69

      greathubposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

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   2. 78

      mroconnellposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      I would add that if you feel HubPages should be unbanned, you can petition for it to be removed as a user of wikipedia.  Wikipedia does not typically "deal" with teams of execs at other websites.  It's all about totally democratized and transparent exchanges of information.
      
      I actually did petition for HubPages to be unbanned and my request was shot down for several fairly solid reasons, but they agreed to whitelist individual pages on a case by case basis, a process which Paul refers to above.
      
      I don't want to be mean about this, but I'd rather not explain the process because it's a good litmus test.  People who spam don't want to take ten minutes to learn how to whitelist their pages.  People who spend hours writing qualified, researched material won't mind spending ten minutes learning how to whitelist their pages.  It's relatively easy to read through the wikipages that discuss it.  Not explaining the whitelisting process on this board is a good way to keep half-hearted spammers from clogging up the system with undeserved whitelist requests.
      
      At heart, wikipedia doesn't like links to domains that allow unverified self-publishing.  The difference between a hub page on soloar concentrators and a peer-reviewed academic publication of a study on solar concentrators is rather epic.
      
      And as a general rule of thumb, never link to your own material or material about you.  Even if it's useful AND self-promotional, it's still self-promotional.  Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

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         soni2006posted 15 years agoin reply to this

         I have heard and learned these things from this post for the first time. Really impressive.

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7. 90

   gamergirlposted 16 years ago

   I do not think you understand.
   
   You may feel that your hub content enriches Wikipedia, and it may or may not be true, but there are other ways for you to enrich Wikipedia than leaving a link to your hub.  If you are trying to add information to a Wikipedia page, why not write some text for it instead?
   
   You can read more about Wikipedia's stance on external links and conflicts of interest here:
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: … f_interest

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8. 67

   aidenofthetowerposted 16 years ago

   I didn't even know you could add your articles (from any site) to Wikipedia. Of course it would work as an external link for relevant titles...Hmmm...interesting
   
   I write for Xomba as well as for Hubpages (and several others). Xomba isn't allowed on digg anymore because too many people have used it excessively. I got a similar message from them...It is sad that these are good ways for traffic, but can get abused and then ruined for everyone!

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   1. 58

      Eric Graudinsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      And there you've summed up the whole problem with the internet.
      
      As soon as any website is seen as being of any possible benefit to internet marketers it gets gamed and spammed unmercifully, and overloaded with crap.
      
      Just look at Craigslist, which is intended for classified advertisements between people in their local area. Every time they do something to try and keep out the spammy internet marketing brigade, someone works out how to get around it, and writes yet another "How to make a fortune on Craigslist" e-book.

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9. 69

   darksideposted 16 years ago

   Whenever mroconnell talks about Wikipedia he impresses the hell out of me.

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10. 59

    Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

    mroconnel -
    
    Thank you.
    
    You are quite right - I can hear the sound of this going over certain heads as we speak

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11. 90

    gamergirlposted 16 years ago

    *applauds my young friend mroconnell*

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12. 72

    rider_tigerposted 15 years ago

    Well, even if you manage to place a link on wikipedia, this is what they say when you insert an external link to the references section:
    Please note that the nofollow HTML attribute is applied to external links in Wikipedia, instructing search engines to ignore these links when computing page ranks. For information on our standards for adding links, please see our External links Guideline.
    However, one thing I have discovered is that this can be a great promotion tool if you have a printed text book. You can find the relevant sections of wikipedia, add some info and use your book as a reference It will never be on the black list because its a printed book, nothing online about it...The people wondering about it can search the internet to buy it.

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13. 80

    sunforgedposted 15 years ago

    OP
    
    lol - ill set you up with a URL redirect to your article through one of my domains if you really felt your info added value. I have wiki links out there that I self submitted, mostly relating to obscure artists that almost only my sites have information on. None leading to hubpages though.
    
    I am serious, since you felt wronged by the hubpages community, ill show you the workaround...
    
    Do you still care. now that you are aware that it has the "nofollow" attribute?
    
    All this sheepy "supposed to" crap sickens me - dont submit your own links to social bookmarking, dont put your own stuff on wiki blah blah blah. Do it all, just do it wise.
    
    It should simply be "dont share crap that nobody would want to read in inappropriate venues" - your article seems like a legitimate resource - unlike the 3000 broken english articles on diet and weight loss that probably created the ban
    
    I dont support spam, especially of worthless products and scams, which seems to be the standard but use every resource at your command

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       Marisa Wrightposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       That would be fine, if people could judge their own work dispassionately.  Take a look at Lulu.com and you'll discover legions of truly awful novels, which the authors fondly believe are good.   There are Hubbers here who think their work is pretty darn good too, whereas they're barely literate (not talking about anyone on this thread, though).
       
       What you're saying is, it's OK to break the rules of sites if you know how to get away with it. Whether you're comfortable with that depends on your own set of ethics.

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14. 80

    sunforgedposted 15 years ago

    What you're saying is, it's OK to break the rules of sites if you know how to get away with it. Whether you're comfortable with that depends on your own set of ethics.
    
    
    Well said!....with the exception of wiki - your talking about the ethics of capitalist companies who offer no returns outside of functionality to their users. I merely suggest taking full advantage of that functionality for ones own capitalist enterprises in return for ones additions to their profit model.
    
    A Model like hubpages is the future...returns for the value you add to their site, anything less should be exploited.
    
    There isnt a single service that Hubpages is banned from that couldnt be superseded by a simple Url redirect.
    
    i guess i was saying that the OP is an exception to the rule..and rather than have a bunch of worthless responses from the TOS junkies casting blame and stating the obvious, Id throw in my pat on the back and say "when there is a will there is a way"
    
    rather than the characteristically unhelpful response below
    
    "HubPages is banned due to people like you who not only don't read the Wikipedia guidelines but also completely fail to grasp why the ban exists:  people are NOT supposed to be submitting stuff they've written themselves."
    
    Ni Hubpages is banned because the internet is filled with millions of poorly informed people attempting to get rich quick following poor advice and never reading to the end of the book. It wasnt people inserting relevant links into articles that causes these type of bans. It was completely nonsensical usually unreadable tripe with a  link to credit report site and similar ilk...no one should have jumped on this guy

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       Marisa Wrightposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Well, I don't think anybody did, really.  They simply gave him the reason.  The only reason anyone "jumped" on him was because he couldn't seem to understand what people were telling him.

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15. 80

    sunforgedposted 15 years ago

    well im done, lmao
    
    the original post was made 14 months ago!
    
    it was reopened by rider_tiger, I wonder how he dug this thread up

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16. 60

    NiceBloggerposted 15 years ago

    HubPages is also banned from several bookmarking sites..i don't really remember all but few important sites don't accept hubpages link...Mixx is one of them..

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17. 49

    badcompany99posted 15 years ago

    I knew the Forum had got a bit boring lately but jeeez digging up 14 month old topics, what next, tales from the Crypt ?

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18. 59

    anime_nanetposted 15 years ago

    Beating on a dead horse.

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19. 74

    Eaglekiwiposted 15 years ago

    See Badco you been banned with the best of them
    
    Welcome to the world wide-web,watch out for the spiders!

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