Set a minimum word count for hubs

1. 61

   saleheensblogposted 12 years ago

   If the minimum words for a hub is set 200 HP will get rid of a thousands of sub-standard contents automatically. No hub should be allowed to publish until it has at least 200 words. If possible 300 words. Poems can be the only exception.

   replyreport
   1. 75

      lorlie6posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree that it's rare to find a writer who can say something profound with only a few words.

      replyreport
      1. 66

         Abbasangelposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Poets do... some poetry is really cool and its not that many words (granted alot of themdo exeed 200 words just...)

         replyreport
   2. 60

      rweltonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree.  I just ran across two obvious posts that was just a link to someone's website.  No article at all.  Each of them can be flagged, but an improved standard would be appreciated.
      rlw

      replyreport
   3. 72

      relacheposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      There's already a filter that checks for a minimum word count, because people post about tripping it fairly regularly and not being able to publish due to not enough content.
      
      BTW, how do you propose that poetry and other content be differentiated by an automatic filter?

      replyreport
      1. 68

         lrohnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         My thoughts exactly. I would even take it one step further -- why should there be a different standard?

         replyreport
      2. 70

         darksideposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It would be good if they filtered all the current content just to be sure, and not just unpublish but delete hubs which have been sub-standard.
         
         hubpages.com/hub/archery (and many others that I've discovered while looking up available hub names for content) has been up for a long time.

         replyreport
         1. 67

            xixi12posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            just checked the archery hub, its so funny because the writer also commented on the hub 'he' wrote and used the comment as a link to his proper site. The extents people go to for backlinks. lol

            replyreport
      3. 61

         saleheensblogposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         make much sense. So, my suggestion would be 200 words at least for anything. The current filter lets hubs of only a couple of sentences [less than 50 words] be published that is nothing worth.

         replyreport
      4. 76

         Hauntyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I would make it so that the minimum word count restriction doesn't apply to hubs under the poetry categories.
         
         Or there could be a checkbox, which when checked warns of the artistic features of a hub.

         replyreport
   4. 54

      Glemoh101posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Its better to make it 500 words , 200 words still little!

      replyreport
2. 67

   xixi12posted 12 years ago

   I absolutely agree, i have done some hub hopping and found just some personal pictures that you click to go to other websites and so I had to flag them. I think HP should be done such that if it does not hit 200 words it cant be published. Just my thoughts

   replyreport
3. 82

   Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

   I think it's a good idea but maybe long words can count double?  And maybe clever words get three points?
   
   So a sentence like..
   
   I was quaking with fear
   
   ..would be worth 7 points because quaking is long and quite a clever word.

   replyreport
   1. 60

      John Holdenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      But would quacking with fear rate extra points for being clever and unusual description or minus points for being a mis-spelling?

      replyreport
      1. 91

         Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I'd give it extra points, because it does remind me of that sometimes heard question "I thought I heard a duck?" when someone does something slightly impolite involving the release of gases..
         
         So, "quacking with fear" actually coud make sense?
         
         But, yeah, over all I agree: leave the poetry alone (or ditch it entirely for all I care) but put even a 400 word minimum on hubs.

         replyreport
      2. 82

         Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Quacking with fear is excellent.  That's worth a Hub on its own.
         
         Plus maybe an armageddon scenario involving an Earthquack maybe. 
         
         ...
         
         Seriously, I agree with the too short thing.
         
         But for recipes and poems its a bit more tricky.

         replyreport
         1. 0

            EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I don't think so - you can easily write at least 200 words' worth of blurb to go with your list of ingredients (in fact, it's necessary otherwise people won't know what to do with those ingredients!)
            
            As for poetry, it wouldn't kill people to write a short intro about the poem - how they came to write it, what it's about, why they've given it the title it's got.  They could use the intro to try and work in some decent keywords if they were bothered about that kind of thing.  Sorted.

            replyreport
            1. 61

               saleheensblogposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               agreed

               replyreport
            2. 91

               Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Yes - and that would make the poetry a lot mote interesting for those of us who are not naturally attuned to such efforts.

               replyreport
            3. 70

               simeonvisserposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I'm not sure. In a way I agree but I don't think artists or poets will agree. They want their work of art to be enjoyed without needing further explanation. Anything that they say might influence your experience of it and they don't want that.

               replyreport
               1. 91

                  Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  HP could fix that by allowing adding a capsule that hides its content until the reader clicks to see it. That's dead simple HTML CSS, by the way.
                  
                  The poet could add this normally unseen content and invite people to expand it when they have experienced the raw poem by itself.

                  replyreport
         2. 91

            Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Feel free to take the concept with my compliments

            replyreport
4. 61

   saleheensblogposted 12 years ago

   give your suggestions to improve HP here http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/63131

   replyreport
5. 0

   TopUniverseposted 12 years ago

   It is a good idea and saves lot of time for the staff and importantly it stops those short hubs which primarily aiming for outbound link juice to their domains.

   replyreport
   1. 91

      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      There's a thought, too: disallow outbound links in anything under X characters.

      replyreport
      1. 94

         wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That could be the easiest and most fair solution.  I doubt that people writing short, substandard hubs that are NOT looking for outbound links are doing it intentionally - they may view HP as a blog site, but if so will soon discover their error as no one will follow and scores will not rise.

         replyreport
6. 67

   Moonmaidenposted 12 years ago

   Quantity does not equal quality...just sayin'.

   replyreport
7. 67

   Moonmaidenposted 12 years ago

   I love archery. I read that archery Hub.  What the heck? All it says it 'this is your archery hub.'  Sure isn't my archery hub buddy.  What a waste of a great title.

   replyreport
8. 82

   Midnight Oilposted 12 years ago

   I cannot even get warmed up in 200 to 300 words
   
   Sounds a good idea to set a minimum word count.  Perhaps there should be a separate page / login just to load poetry up on to the site too.

   replyreport
9. 94

   melbelposted 12 years ago

   I don't write poetry so I'm not sure about this, but do poems go in like a poetry category? If so, maybe that category could be exempt from the 200 word rule.
   
   I agree with the rule, though. There have been so many HubPages urls I could use because there is already a hub about it. When this warning shows up, I usually go to the hub to see if my hub will be better than there's (I mean, why write a hub if Princessa said the same thing that I'm going to say, but she's said it a million times better than I ever could?!) Sadly, many of the hubs that have used these prime real estate urls contain few words and are ranked like 47 or something... obviously NOT written by Princessa.

   replyreport
10. 61

    sam24354posted 12 years ago

    What is really sad is when a hub with no words at all gets a high hubscore.  Or when a hub is obviously poorly written and receives a high score

    replyreport
11. 0

    Toby Hansenposted 12 years ago

    Yes, a minimum word count would clean up HP amd get rid of a lot of spam.
    But...
    As a writer of flash or micro fiction (50 - 800ish) words, I would want each -200 word Hub manually checked by The Team to ensure that those who write legit material in under 200 words would not be disadvantaged.

    replyreport
12. 61

    jobisterposted 12 years ago

    I think the settings that are currently in place are plenty. There will always be spammers trying to outsmart the system regardless. It is our community what we can do is flag the hubs that we find to be not reflective of our community. I'm sure hubpages appreciates all the hubs we've flagged.

    replyreport
13. 68

    lrohnerposted 12 years ago

    I don't write poetry, so I have no vested interest here. But I do have an interest in HubPages. Here's my take...
    
    HP is in business to make money. They do that by ensuring that we write articles designed to bring search engine traffic that will (hopefully) click on ads or purchase products. Hence the minimum word count.
    
    I don't know this firsthand, but from what I've read in the forums, poetry brings more internal traffic and does not make money. So I'm really not sure why HP should go out of their way to make accommodations for poetry that's different than from other types of writing.
    
    Just my two cents, for whatever it's worth.

    replyreport
    1. 94

       wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       It keeps the inmates happy, contented and productive?
       
       While I'm not a poetry fan, the same could be said of the forums; while some (makeover for instance) are teaching tools, others (religion) certainly aren't, but are provided anyway.  They help keep the inmates happy, contented and productive.
       
       Unless we are willing to assume that poets and poetry readers do nothing else but write and read poetry, that they never produce monetarily valuable hubs, then they are of value and need to be kept happy, contented and productive.
       
       Or perhaps I'm just disillusioned with the business world.

       replyreport
       1. 68

          lrohnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          
          
          Good point!

          replyreport
14. 95

    Sue Adamsposted 12 years ago

    I think the minimum number of words for a hub should be even more than 200 words. 500/600 words would be better and perhaps there should also be a top limit, like no more trhan 2000 words. And I think that HubPages staff should do a major cleansing job and delete all the crap rubbish on this site or it'll damage HubPages reputation and hurt us all. If I was in charge I wouldn't allow stuff like the archery hub to exist. That's just plain piss taking.
    Just my opinion

    replyreport
    1. 91

       Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Ayup.
       
       So why is it there?  Certainly that qualifies as "low quality" and certainly SOMEBODY must have flagged it as such.

       replyreport
15. 73

    thisisoliposted 12 years ago

    While I think that it is important to keep substandard hubs out, I have seen some beautiful poetry hubs, and fantastic photographic hubs, many of which had less than 200 words.
    
    It might be interesting to see what the backlash would be if Hubpages started removing large numbers of substandard hubs, considering how much of the backlash there was for the disabling of ads on hubs which 'gray-area' broke the Google Adsense TOS.

    replyreport
16. 87

    Howard S.posted 12 years ago

    Disclaimers: 1) I am one of the newest hubbers--unpublished--but reading for 5 months, and 2) as a professional publicity writer, cutting words to be concise is my craft--an unpopular goal for SEO on HP.
    
    My personal minimum will be 300, but it is entirely possible to say something of value in fewer words with careful editing.
    
    Yes, what about an upper limit? There's a hub of 21,000+ and no other capsules from a hubber with huscore 1. The sad thing is that it isn't as verbose as many repetitive hubs in the 2,000 range; it could easily be divided into 20-30 hubs with a capstone.

    replyreport