I've been here a day and already got flagged as a spam hub?

1. 52

   tatkisonposted 17 years ago

   Hi,
   
   My name is Terry, and I established my first hub about 24 hours ago.  I'm very much into Affiliate sales programs and I wanted to share reviews and such of products I'd bought and use to help people decide where the best programs can be found and what tools to use to maximize your success. 
   
   I simply went thru and posted an introductory text box, and then I used the built in links feature and searched Google for 'Affiliate Programs' and linked six or eight sites that had information on affiliate programs.  I came back a little bit ago to add to my site and it said something about my hub being a 'spam hub' and that I was only running it to garner backlinks to other sites.  That doesn't make much sense to me, since I just started the hub and I used HubPages BUILT IN tool to find appropriate links.  I mean, I didn't even manually enter any of them.  What gives on this?  Isn't that a little quick on the trigger to mark someone negatively within the first 24 hours of their existence?

   replyreport
2. 66

   relacheposted 17 years ago

   There are a LOT of people who are building pages on affiliate programs.  The system is telling you that your topic, content and links are over-represented and not very original when compared to hubs that already exist.
   
   Try building a hub on something more original and unique and see how it turns out.

   replyreport
3. 52

   tatkisonposted 17 years ago

   Well, thanks for the reply, but why couldn't they just say that?  It said explicitly that I built the hub simply to create backlinks, which was absurd since I hadn't even inputted a single link myself.  Oh well, I guess I'll figure things out soon enough.

   replyreport
4. 60

   kimberobbyposted 17 years ago

   Hi,
   
   I have also have had 4 of my Hubs marked as SPAM!!! To be honest it is very upsetting especially when most of those hubs have been up for a while now. Why do I get penalized because others choose to write hubs on the same subject!
   
   Relache is correct I am trying to market affiliate programs! I was invited here to do just that, Sell program and help Hubpages get on the map! Help produce lots of traffic! Which I am trying to do!!  I do apologize if I sound angry, It is very maddening to spend so much time on creating a hub and have you work marked as SPAM!!! Or being accused of BACKLINKING!
   
   I really hope they change that soon because I know of three others that have goone back to Squidoo because of the same problem! I really like the layout and all the great people here at Hubpages! It will be to bad if they loose good people because of something that I do not find to be import to there page!   
   
   Take good care and keep on plugging!  Hopefully They will fix things soon
   
   Robby
   Aka Kimberobby

   replyreport
5. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 17 years ago

   If you are getting flagged as spam there is a quality issue with your Hubs.  It could be a lack of useful content, filled with links to external sites. 
   
   If you think it was marked in error, you can request that your Hub be reveiwed by an editor.

   replyreport
6. 35

   jonikiposted 17 years ago

   My concern is I have 60+ hubs and have not had a single problem until the recent rule change. Now 2 of my hubs have been flagged. One more and my account is banned for hubs I made before the rule change?

   replyreport
   1. 39

      connie laneposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      What rule change?  I can't find those rules and when did they change?  This is going to sound really dumb but I thought SPAM was about junk emails.  So where is the clarification for what is and what is not allowed.

      replyreport
      1. 66

         relacheposted 17 years agoin reply to this

         The August 1st HubPages newsletter/stats update contained the following message from HubPages admin:
         
         "As you know, we decided to remove adult content on the site last week. However, with literally hundreds of Hubs flowing into the site every day, we could use a little help finding those Hubs that don't adhere to our Terms of Use.
         
         If you do find a Hub that does not meet the standards set forth in our Terms of Use, please use the [flag this hub] link to the right of the thumbs up/thumbs down buttons, typically at the bottom of a Hub. Violations include:
             •     Adult - Contains nudity, sexually explicit content, or links to adult/pornography sites
             •     Gambling - Promotes gambling or links to sites that promote or offer gambling for money
             •     Spam - Solely promotes another site, especially when Hub links all point to one site
             •     Low Quality - Empty, nearly empty or could not be useful or interesting to anyone
             •     Deceptively Tagged or Titled - Contains misleading title or tags that don’t match the Hub’s content; includes irrelevant, and excessive tagging
             •     Not Written In English - Primarily written in a language other than English
             •     Other - Violates the HubPages Terms of Use in a way other than those listed above"

         replyreport
7. 35

   jonikiposted 17 years ago

   One more thing...is the flagging done by the system or other hubbers?
   
   The reason I ask is there are a ton of "black hat" marketers out there that would no doubt flag hubs to reduce competition.
   
   You may not believe it but it's a fact. Try AdWords campaigns. You wil get other affiliates clicking your links to drive up your costs and get you out of a top stop.

   replyreport
8. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 17 years ago

   joniki, The system and others can flag hubs to be reviewed, but they will still get a review by an editor at this point.  There may still be a few false positives, but you can also request hubs to be reviewed by one of us.
   
   There is a 3 strikes policy, so if you think you have hubs that are spammy, it's a good idea to clean them up.  At the same time we understand that there is a learning curve here and we are willing to work with people that are improving their Hubs and have a history of making Hubs that are good quality.
   
   I hope this helps.

   replyreport
   1. 59

      darksideposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      What does this '3 strikes policy' entail?
      
      If your hub is flagged 3 times it gets sent to review? If it gets flagged another 2 times after review it's still considered spam? If it gets reviewed 3 times and fails each time what happens then? Hub locked? Hub deleted? Account deleted?

      replyreport
   2. 40

      seanchkposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      I've just logged into my hubpages account for the first time in probably a few weeks.  2 of my hubpages have been marked as spam.   One of them is a page where allI had done is create the name of the page as I was trying the system. 
      
      The problem as I see it is that people are surely building these pages to drive traffic somewhere else, so MOST pages are spam in one form or other, some may just be slightly more informative spam.  At very least they are going to be no more than marketing/sales pages for the product or service the owner wants to promote.
      
      This is the first time I've heard of the 3 strikes policy, I barely have time to rebuild one page let alone the 6 or 7 I have started, all of which will probably be marked as spam as I havent yet put any content into them.
      
      Sean

      replyreport
9. 33

   ukstarposted 17 years ago

   I'm a new boy here, and most of my posts have been replys to other pople that made a request, no linking to anything, just general information. I have two hubs reported and I took them off instantly. I had the same problem with the high and mighty google with their adsense nonsense. They terminated me, multiple reasons given, but when I nailed them down they said it was for clicking on my own links on my websites. Hey, I've made the princely sum of $25 in 5 years, hardly Al Capon status! I nearly went to Ireland to ask them what planet they were on, but what's the point. Anyway had a rant.

   replyreport
10. 43

    termspecposted 17 years ago

    hi there
    
    I have just been flagged a spammer on one of my sites too ...
    
    I have 3 hubs only at this time. two have passed as ok cos they are my own unique content and my own websites..
    
    yet the third has been flagged as spam which is a related product to my main topic but is a clickbank product...but still on the same theme as my first two hubs
    
    so my question is ...whats the deal here....i look at other hubpages and they are blatent spam (just clicked on the supposed related hubs to have a look) whilst mine is original content written in my hand with just one link to a program i am promoting....
    
    can we have a bit of equality here ....or at least a full and proper explanation of what we can and cant do....the term "this is a site desigend to garner back links" is a complete JOKE...all hubpages are designed to garner Back links of one kind or another !!  I have rewritten my page 3 times now ...what do you want ???  i cant work out what you are trying to tell us to do !!!
    
    I have read all of the things i the forum on this subject and your terms and its not very clear wht your intentions are so we still cant work out what you actually want  !!
    
    do you want a totally useless hubpage that has no links....sort of defeats the object a bit !!! 
    
    or are you just after our adsense and amazon profit share !!!  not very ethical !!
    
    I thought we were here to share good content and nice sites of use to people....a nice site that has no use other than to garner adsense and amazon revenue is in my opinion far worse than a nice page with good content leading an affliate link that serves a purpose, as long as its relevant to the original content ..
    
    I really like your site and the ease of use and overall appearance of the sites.....far better than anything around...so please give us some proper guidance on what is and what isnt "in your opinion" a good site
    
    EXPLANATION PLEASE !!!

    replyreport
11. 59

    silverstar8posted 17 years ago

    I too have two hubs marked as spam. I took the links out but one and asked for a review.  If they still come back as spam I will simply delete them... and apologize for breaking the rules... which I didn't know I was doing.

    replyreport
12. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 17 years ago

    Termspec,
    
    Thanks for the post.  There are definately spammy hubs published.  We are working our way through the hubs, working on new technologies to flag spam and hand evaluating hubs as well.  It's going to take some time to get through the backlog.  Please be patient.  Also, we only show the spam flag to the author.  So some hubs may be flagged as spam already.
    
    As part of our terms of service, we require people to do their best to create high quality hubs.  At the same time we understand that everyone has a different opinion on what is good.
    
    A couple of ways to avoid getting flagged as spam is to produce original content that uses multiple capsules like a text, video, image and link capsule.  Link to other high quality sources of information with no more than two or three links to the same site.
    
    There are many high quality hubs, but these exceed the quality guidelines and are great examples of what can be made with HubPages.
    
    http://hubpages.com/hub/St_Regis_Bora_Bora
    http://hubpages.com/hub/Ideas_for_Tattoos
    http://hubpages.com/hub/PC_Tuneup

    replyreport
    1. 66

       relacheposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks, Paul!
       
       BTW folks, I had a hub trip the spam filter too, and it got reviewed by a real person, and now carries a message (that only I see in the header) that says the hub is verified original and good content.  If you have a hub that gets flagged automatically, hang in there and it really will get reviewed.

       replyreport
    2. 74

       jstankeviczposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       The Hub team is very professional and responsive, but it is not a large team. They've earned our patience! Thanks for the nod Paul.

       replyreport
13. 43

    termspecposted 17 years ago

    hi again
    
    Ok so I have edited my hub
    
    http://hubpages.com/hub/GetRidOfLoveHandles
    
    I have looked at all of the ones you suggested i look at and re built my hub,  with my own original text,  (which is more than i can say about some of your so called good examples !!)
    
    I have put nice little pictures in that are relevant to the topic.
    
    the layout is nice,  there are only 2 links in there
    
    so please can someone go and have a  look and if it still aint right give me a clue as to what you REALLY want
    
    I appreciate that you are trying to get the quality good on all of your hubs and i would agree with that, but PLEASE tell us..
    
    1.  can we promote clickbank products or not ?  (if not why not..90% of your other hubs are doing just that !!)
    
    2.  Most of the Hubs I intend to put up are my own products or services and they require links to send people to the appropriate websites for more information so how many links do you consider to spam ?
    
    I am trying to get this right and looking for a little guidance here..
    
    Yours
    
    Geoff

    replyreport
14. 66

    relacheposted 17 years ago

    Geoff,
    
    If you read over the conditions that the Hub admin sent out, you'll see they consider a Hub that sends links to just one web site to be spam.  In essence, your hub isn't so much a useful reference as a commercial.
    
    That might be why your Hub is considered spam.  Now, if it was a page that actually contained info on how to lose love handles (which your hub doesn't actually do), and had references to a variety of good resources, then it might be viewed as a good Hub.
    
    That's just my take on the situation.  Other opinions may vary.

    replyreport
15. 59

    silverstar8posted 17 years ago

    The team really is hard working.. and they do review the hubs.  I know mine have been ... and I am sure they review them all.  Thanks for the work you do.. guys......

    replyreport
16. 43

    termspecposted 17 years ago

    hi
    
    Ok so I re-did my hub and added more content and information etc as you suggest. I also managed to work out how to get the pictures and videos into the body of the page too so now they look ok...
    
    I have also been unflagged as a spammer now which is nice. so thanks guys for that.....
    
    I still do not fully understand how it can be that one site can be classed as a commercial advertising site and get flagged for spam cos it only has one link....its totally illogical...and not what is expected by most website visitors when they visit a website.....in most cases they would only EXPECT to be directed to one item...
    
    from all of the hubapges I have seen 90% of them could be classed as "advertisements"
    
    I understand the need to maintain quality and even to improve quality, that is not my issue..  and I congratultae the owners of hubpages for trying to improve quality. But at the end of the day searchers expect to see "infomercials" as we call them in the UK.  so I dont see the reasons for classing a site as spam cos its an "infomercial "
    
    Ok so thats my moaning done and I will strive to produce quality hubpage "infomercials" that meet with the moderators standards.

    replyreport
17. 61

    Jason Menayanposted 17 years ago

    Please keep in mind that you will only know if your own Hubs have a Spam (or other violation) flag on them. When you are logged into your own account, the notification pane at top will only show for your own Hubs.
    
    You will not see the same for other Hubbers' Hubs. However, a relatively low HubScore is often an indication that something is not right with a Hub, whether it's flagged as spam or has copied content in it.
    
    - Jason

    replyreport
18. 53

    Porkibearposted 17 years ago

    Hi fellow Hubbers,
    
    I joined last week and started creating a few hubs around my personal hobby.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that it was NOT okay to hyperlink several of my keyword phrases to a Clickbank affiliate product.  As Geoff had mentioned, there are quite a few other hubpages which are blatant spam, so I didn't think having 2 or 3 Clickbank links would be a problem.  Needless to say, I had my first two hubs (which includes my main topic hub) get flagged as spam for "siphoning traffic".
    
    After I was notified by Hubpages, I immediately removed all of my links and requested a review of my pages.  So far, they are still marked as spam...yet, all of the information/content I've posted has been original content.  I even posted an embedded Youtube video which I had filmed on my own!  My content also has no mention of selling any kind of product.  It is information that someone who is interested in my topic would appreciate finding on the web.
    
    So it comes to this:  How long should I be waiting for a response from Hubpages support team before I need to email them again for a hands-on review?  I want to be patient, but I agree with some of the people on this post that the terms of "spam" are a bit inconsistent.
    
    Any response would be appreciated...thanks!

    replyreport
19. 61

    Jason Menayanposted 17 years ago

    Porkibear -
    
    Are all of your Hubs being flagged as spam? If not, are there differences between those that are being flagged, and those that are not?
    
    - # of links to a single domain
    - length & genuine utility of content
    - originality of content
    
    - Jason

    replyreport
20. 67

    Moonmaidenposted 17 years ago

    This is the first I am hearing about this 3 strikes policy. I immediately see a problem with this.  A person with 500 hubs might get canned for 3 strikes out of 500 hubs, just like someone with 3 hubs can get 3 flags. It seems like if you were productive enough on hubpages you'd get 3 spam flags eventually, and then 'poof' no more account after all your hard work.

    replyreport
    1. 53

       Porkibearposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       I completely agree with this.  Maybe the moderators can switch over to a "percentile" measurement of total hubs for any individual member, rather than 3 strikes.  For instance, if they set the percentile at 60%, then a Hubber's total percentile of "spam flagged" hubs can't exceed 40% of the total number of hubs they create.  They can also add an "absolute" guideline, where no individual Hubber can exceed "X" number of flagged spam hubs (let's say arbitrarily 20 hubs maximum).  Just an idea...

       replyreport
21. 53

    Porkibearposted 17 years ago

    Hmm, ok...let me clarify really quickly:
    
    My first two hubpages got flagged pretty quickly because I had 2-3 afilliate links going to the same afilliate page in each hubpage.  Understandable, there.  So after I got flagged, I removed all links to ANY affiliate product, and requested a review.
    
    I believe my content IS original, and is useful to people who are interested in my topic.  I spent HOURS writing articles on the subject, and they are supplemented with photos and videos (which I had recorded on my own).
    
    I guess my question is:  When am I going to have those flags removed?  Like I said, I have no problems being patient (I'm pretty sure they are tied down trying to filter through *real* spam hubpages.  In my opinion, my two out of (now) 5 hubpages are absolutely GREAT content!

    replyreport
    1. STAFF

       Paul Edmondsonposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       If you have cleaned up your Hubs, you can resubmit them to be reviewed.  If they look good, we will remove the spam flag.  Just go to your Hub and submit it to be reviewed.
       
       Moonmaiden - If you have a history of good Hubs, you'll be fine.  You may get a Hub flagged from time to time, but your account will never get wiped out after a long history of being good (unless you do something where we are required by law to remove it).
       
       The intention of the program is to let spammers know that we have zero tolerance for it.  If it gets wiped out quickly, our hope is that they will reform or go away for the benefit of others.

       replyreport
22. 61

    Jason Menayanposted 17 years ago

    There are many Hubbers who have published hundreds of Hubs who have not had a single violation.
    
    That said, we are not going to ban a user who had good intentions but was simply ignorant of what constitutes spam. We offer a couple of opportunities for users to rectify their Hubs and represent them to us for review. We understand that the first go-around, there might be a number of Hubs that are not "up to spec".
    
    However, if the user ignores our emails and flags and continues to publish spammy Hubs, we will ban them. The same goes for users who clear the moderation tool once, and then go back in and "sneak" a bunch of spammy links into those Hubs.
    
    Hubbers who pay attention and mind the rules should have nothing to worry about.
    
    - Jason

    replyreport
23. 53

    Porkibearposted 17 years ago

    Cool, thanks for the clarification.
    
    I've already submitted the request for re-evaluation, but it's been a few days (maybe 3-4 days?).  So, I really just need to know if my two hubs which were flagged are "up to spec".
    
    Thanks again!

    replyreport
    1. 61

       Jason Menayanposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       We usually review resubmitted Hubs in much less than 24 hrs. Note that we do not email you if the flag has been lifted. You have to go to check the Hub itself to see if the flag has been removed.
       
       And please keep in mind the fastest way to have a Hub reevaluated is to use the "Request a Review of this Hub" link in the [learn more] box at the top of your Hub. Simply making changes and republishing will not notify us that you want us to have another look.
       
       - Jason

       replyreport
24. 59

    darksideposted 17 years ago

    I think that people without any hubs to their name shouldn't be able to down vote a hub.

    replyreport
    1. 66

       relacheposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       I think people who don't even have a single hub should have to get their forum posts approved before they show up here too.

       replyreport
25. 61

    Jason Menayanposted 17 years ago

    darkside & seanchk -
    
    We have a 3-strike policy that is enforced against Hubbers that truly abuse the system - those that ignore warnings and republish with no changes, those that continue to publish Hubs with violations when they've been notified about what constitutes a violation, and those that go back in and revert fixes after we've cleared their Hub (hoping we won't notice - but we do!).
    
    Hubbers who make a sincere effort to improve their Hubs with violations - and the vast majority of those getting notifications do - are in no danger of getting their accounts banned. The same goes for Hubbers who belatedly learn that more than 3 of their Hubs published a long time ago are in violation of our Terms of Use. Most of them take the time to get their Hubs "up to spec".
    
    That said, those that have demonstrated themselves to be "incorrigible" are banned - all of their Hubs are unpublished, and they are not allowed to publish any Hubs again.
    
    - Jason

    replyreport