Am I The Only One Flagging Low Quality Hubs?

1. 66

   snakebabyposted 13 years ago

   There are two newly discovered hubbers who have only posted raw translations by using online translating tool, what they did was merely copy and paste the results without doing any further modifications. From the comments they replied, you can tell they don't really understand much English. Even though they may have posted some beautiful photos in their hubs, it doesn't hide the awful content. Strange thing is, some hubbers have given nice comments, stating they read their hubs, etc., is it just me who don't understand the English in their hubs? If such hubs can be accepted here, then I'd produce 100 hubs a day without any problems, even Americans would be able to do so without understanding any Chinese. Just go out and find anything in Chinese, then try an online translating tool, then copy and paste the results, here you go, a hub for you!
   
   I've flagged their profiles and few hubs, I hope proper actions would be taken soon. I also hope my dearest hubbers flag low quality hubs instead of commenting on them without even reading anything; don't just comment for the pure purpose of hoping to get higher hub scores, please. I was very much shocked seeing so many nice comments from our hubbers here on awfully low quality hubs.

   replyreport
   1. 0

      EmpressFelicityposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Snakebaby, it's not just you.
      
      Several times when I've been hubhopping, I've come across the most awful hubs (bad English, spun content, too short etc.) and lo and behold there have been one or more comments at the bottom along the lines of "Great hub - nice job!" 
      
      Which forces me to conclude that either these commenters are just hoping for a comment in return, or they're taking the whole social media thing just too far (by "social media thing" I mean the ettiquette that's sprung up around commenting, replying to comments, following, reciprocal following, blah, blah, blah...) 
      
      

      replyreport
      1. 66

         snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Right on, EmpressFelicity! Glad I'm not alone here. It's a super shame to see so many hubbers, including those I thought were serious about writing, simply comment for the wrong purposes. Should any of them have taken the good actions, we would not see those copy and paste hubs here today!

         replyreport
         1. 0

            EmpressFelicityposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Oh, if only it were that simple
            
            I'd think that the majority of people who post crap hubs don't have other hubbers in mind - they want search engine traffic from outside of HubPages.  Or else they're just using HubPages as a means to generate dofollow backlinks (hence the spun hubs).
            
            But having said that, I share your bafflement.  Why tell someone that a hub of theirs is good when it so obviously isn't?  Sorry to say it but there's a lot of butt kissing on HP.  I suppose that, again, the butt kissing is a social media phenomenon - the online equivalent of telling someone that their new dress really suits them when in fact it makes their arse look a mile wide.  A case of real life erupting on the Internet.  Hate it, hate it, hate it!

            replyreport
            1. 66

               snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Hehe, thanks again! Well said!

               replyreport
               1. 61

                  Pollyannalanaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I am glad to see someone post my thoughts. It is so unfair to put so much work into hubs and I don't even do it for pay and you have someone who put about twenty words together, call it a poem and everyone runs and says how wonderful it is and this person or persons stay above you doing nothing! If I was adsense I wouldn't want on their hub!

                  replyreport
                  1. 86

                     Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Well, I can agree with you on a personal note - there is not much poetry I care for at all.  However, while I am pretty sure that an awful lot of "poetry" here is just junk, I don't feel that I am in a position to judge that. I have limited appreciation of meter and have never studied poetry to any degree.
                     
                     So I feel that I just have to let it slide. If they say it is poetry, OK, it is.

                     replyreport
         2. 59

            Mark Ewbieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            On the comments appearing quickly on new rubbish hubs I was taken in by this at first, and let poor hubs through believing they had already been 'judged' by the person who left a comment.  But of course these could be duplicate ID's - a neat physchological way of ensuring a dodgy hub gets given some grace.
            
            So now I judge based on, er, judgement, rather than what someone else claims to have said about a hub.

            replyreport
            1. 88

               IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               That's a very plausible explanation Mark! I could never figure out the hubbers that comment on really poor hubs describing them as great when they obviously aren't.
               Hadn't thought on duplicate accounts!

               replyreport
               1. 86

                  Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Or buddies.  You see a lot of that kind of reciprocal backscratching in social networking, some of it quite blatantly advertised. Just one of the many reasons I detest all that.

                  replyreport
               2. 59

                  Mark Ewbieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks Izzy.  It took a bit of puzzling, especially on the really poor efforts.  I thought how on earth can someone think this is any good, even if they are points grubbing.  Then I realised I was less likely to flag if it had a comment.  The psychology is quite interesting really.

                  replyreport
                  1. 61

                     Randy Godwinposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     I flag crap when I see it, despite the comments!

                     replyreport
   2. 59

      qwarkposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I've never "flagged" a hub.
      What does "flagging" do?
      Qwark

      replyreport
      1. 66

         snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Flagging means you report something to hubpages team, and then they will look into it and take proper actions as needed. "Flag" is available at the bottom of each hub, "Flag this profile" is on the top under everyone's profile. If you click on either one, a window pops out, you can see there are various reasons listed for you to flag, which include abuse, spam, low quality, etc.. So many low quality hubs get away with being punished, because not every hubber here to help, in fact, too many hubbers "encourage" low quality hubs by commenting on them meaninglessly.

         replyreport
         1. 59

            qwarkposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Ok Snake:
            Thanks  :
            Qwark

            replyreport
   3. 61

      vietnamvet68posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      who are you to judge what is Low quality? Everyone has the right to write what they like, if people don't want to read what they wrote, that is ther right. . A little respect will go a long way my friend.
      I see many a hub out there that has been copy and pasted right from the internet by the so called elite here as well as others.Why don't we flag the ones that promote the sex and provocative images.

      replyreport
      1. 66

         snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Are you crazy? Do you really know what you are talking about? Did I (we) say anything about what you could or could not write? Did you even read our posts here? Did you get even the point? I can't believe I would be talking to a hubber in such a tone, but I just couldn't help because of your own tone and misunderstanding. You can flag whatever you believe is inappropriate, no one here said you couldn't, no one said you shouldn't flag sex images, go ahead and do so, we were merely talking about specific cases. When I praise my daughter for something, my son would react that I'm saying he is not good the same thing, don't you think you reacted the same way?
         
         Who didn't respect others' writing? Did we? Where?
         
         Go read these two hubbers' hubs, and tell us if I, we, or you could judge their low quality!!!! If we, as human being, do not judge a hub's quality, who will? A robot, an animal?

         replyreport
      2. 67

         lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I disagree. This site is owned lock, stock and barrel by HubPages. They can choose to publish or not publish any hubs on here at their discretion. When any of us clicks the "Flag" button, a list of things pops up that HubPages does not want to see in published hubs. We just follow their direction. All flagging does is send the hub up to the HubPages team, and they decide what action, if any, will be taken.
         
         If you want total freedom to write what you want, I suggest you write elsewhere.

         replyreport
      3. 88

         RedElfposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         You need to be very clear and careful with such statements. It is very easy to say such things, and NOT name names - that way you can point a finger without actually "accusing" anyone, and when an elite says "Hey, I don't do that," you can reply, "Well, I didn't mean YOU!" If you are going to say such things without the courage to name names and back up your accusations with proof, then perhaps you should not say such things in the first place!
         
         "A little respect will go a long way my friend." INDEED!
         As for copying hubs off the internet, perhaps that should be verified first as well. Right now, I am dealing with no less than four sites that have stolen my articles and posted them, a couple are complete with pictures. Someone who didn't know might think I had copied those posts
         
         I don't see anyone in this thread telling you what you can and cannot write - that is taken care of by the HubPages TOS - and you are totally free to flag any hub YOU find objectionable. As are the rest of us.
         
         I do agree that the social aspect may be carried too far, and it seems clear that some do not read all of the hub as carefully as one should before commenting. Perhaps, though, some feel it is better to say something encouraging in hope the work will improve in time.

         replyreport
         1. 60

            Julie2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Wow, RedElf, I am so sorry to hear that. How can they get away with copying your hub like that and reposting it as there own? That truly sucks.
            
            I know what snakebaby was talking about when referring to copy and past hubs here. I have seen them to, especially when it comes to sharing news articles. Maybe that is acceptable here, I dont know.

            replyreport
            1. 77

               Uninvited Writerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Copying and pasting is not accepted at all. Only small clips with proper attribution would be right.
               
               And if they are copying news articles, especially from AP, these people are setting themselves up for lawsuits.

               replyreport
               1. 60

                  Julie2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Thank you for clearing that up for me. I was hoping it wasn't. That makes me feel better. You're a good teacher.

                  replyreport
      4. 77

         Uninvited Writerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I don't know about others but I flag anything I see that is against the TOS; that includes many things such as overly-provocative images, copy and pasted hubs, spam, and things that have maybe 25 words and one picture. I doubt any of the "elite" copy and paste articles belonging to someone else.

         replyreport
      5. 92

         Rochelle Frankposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Flagging does not mean we are the judge or decision maker-- it is only a question to the staff on something they may find inappropriate for their site.  They don't make a judgment based on the number of flags a hub gets, but rather on their terms of service.
         If your writing is appearing on a site that has a lot of low quality, copied, spammy, adult content, spun, inane, misleading and mistranslated material-- your work is identified with all of the junk surrounding it.
         The HubPages terms are reasonable and help to keep the site highly rated.

         replyreport
      6. 66

         snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Instead of copying an article well written in English, These hubbers copy the translation via an online tool from a blink of click and then paste them here as their own "hubs", should I respect them? I don't think so. Respect them in such cases means disrespectful of hubpages community and that would go a long way!
         
         I've seen hubs from Chinese hubbers that were written in poor English, but I can easily tell they worked on it, not just a translate-copy-paste, and I never flag those hubbers, I even left couple of comments to their hubs with encouraging words. That is called "proper" respect, and they deserve it. They may never improve their English writing, but I will still respect their effort, even follow them. But definitely not those craps!
         
         I'm from China myself, I didn't even speak any English before coming here, not to mention any writing skills. But I've cruised along. I'm still not good at writing and I write very slow (my typing is very fast, though:)), but I've been trying very hard to make sure my writing has minimum or no grammatical errors, and that my writing makes sense and understandable for others.
         
         Those hubbers don't even understand regular English, and never meant to work on them. I know Chinese, I know what the English looks like from an online translating tool. Trust me, they absolutely didn't work on it for even one second! Copy and paste is the only thing they are good at.
         
         Anyone who are interested in a sample translation, please let me know, I can grab a long paragraph of Chinese and send it to you for you to translate it using the online tools yourself, experience it first hand yourself and then read the hubs from those hubbers, and let me (us) know what you think!

         replyreport
      7. 0

         Sophia Angeliqueposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         @VietnamVet. I'm curious about why you feel that people shouldn't flat sub-standard content. If they don't, google will eventually lower the rank of hub pages and then we won't get top ranking and eventually we won't be earning anything.
         
         Why do you feel it's wrong to flag pages that don't measure up to HP's rules, especially when HP has asked us to?
         
         I certainly don't want the quality work I put into my hubs to be judged at a lower standard because some are putting rubbish on.

         replyreport
   4. 59

      Friendlywordposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'm an amature! It's really a just a weekend passtime to me now. But, when I first stumbled upon Hubpages, I really went off! And, I'm scared to ask; what do you think of my hubs?People were telling me they like them. Now, I don't know if they were just pullin my -- for the fun of it. You sound like you can give a accurate analysis of someones' writing. I would love to hear your opinion.
      
      Friendly

      replyreport
      1. 66

         snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for your trust, though I don't think I can give an accurate analysis, your writing is great, so expect no one is pulling your leg. Best!

         replyreport
         1. 60

            lyndreposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            But I think someone is pulling yours.

            replyreport
            1. 66

               snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Hehe, I don't mind, be it as long as nothing is "devilish"

               replyreport
   5. 61

      Brooke Lorrenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I've seen a lot of hubs that I don't like; I usually skip over them.  I'm not going to give them a thumbs up or positive comment.
      
      Maybe I'm just too nice.  I reserve the flagging to things that I find truly distasteful (and not just because I disagree with them).

      replyreport
   6. 60

      lady_love158posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I doubt you're the only one, though I can assure you I don't flag anything! I'm not arrogant enough to decide for others what is low quality. If it really is low quality, then it won't get many views.

      replyreport
      1. 80

         Sufidreamerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Sadly, that attitude does not work. Squidoo was Google slapped, a while back, for allowing too many spammy, empty, or low-quality articles through. For the people on there who put a lot of effort into building informative lenses, that was not a good thing, especially if they used the site to make a living.
         
         Low quality hubs harm us all and need to be removed - By low quality, I mean copied, spun, put through a translator, or without content. I never flag poetry and I never flag something just because I disagree with it - if it is well written, I usually give it the thumbs up.

         replyreport
         1. 75

            JamaGeneeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I heartily agree! Low-quality hubs DO hurt us all. And like you, I never flag hubs just because I don't agree with the author's point of view, but do flag if the writing is low-quality for the reasons you've described.
            
            JamaGenee

            replyreport
2. 77

   Uninvited Writerposted 13 years ago

   I definitely flag them when I come across them.

   replyreport
3. 81

   TahoeDocposted 13 years ago

   I'm new here and will pay more attention for these hubs. I think I wasn't sure about the flagging for poor content (illegal I would have flagged), but will start doing so.
   
   Thanks for the tip.

   replyreport
4. 66

   snakebabyposted 13 years ago

   Thank you, TahoeDoc and Uninvited Writer, glad you are on the lawful team I suppose I could give you guys couple of hubbers: Eastern Rainbow and xunlei. It's just so amusing reading their hubs and their comment replies along with the comments from the HP commentators. I hope hubpages team would do the right thing. If you surf around under Chinese culture related categories, you probably would find more of such hubbers.
   
   Also, the funny thing is one of them joined 13 months ago, and now has over 780 followers. I wonder how they get this many hubbers to follow them? Do these followers read their hubs? That is just amazing!

   replyreport
   1. 60

      Julie2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      snakebaby, are you serious? 780 followers! How? I will go check them out now. Thanks for giving out two names. It makes it easier. Thank you.

      replyreport
5. 85

   rebekahELLEposted 13 years ago

   I've been flagging copied content and poor quality hubs. It's incredible what some people publish and try to get away with..

   replyreport
   1. 66

      snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, rebekahELLE, I wish all the hubbers were the same as us but they are not

      replyreport
6. 69

   Maddie Ruudposted 13 years ago

   We do appreciate all your flagging efforts.  It really helps things come to our attention sooner.  There are so many Hubs published every day, it's difficult to keep up, but we should be getting another moderator on board very soon.  Hopefully that will allow us to respond more quickly to all of your flags.

   replyreport
   1. 66

      snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks a lot Maddie, hearing from you directly really make me (all of us here) feel so much better Thank you very much in advance for making the effort in this area. I will definitely be more patient in the future. Happy new year!

      replyreport
   2. 85

      rebekahELLEposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Maddie, I can't even imagine what it must be like all day, I can see why you take forum breaks at times!

      replyreport
   3. 67

      J Sunhawkposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      If you could flag your boss to give all Hubbers with a score above 50 a free strawberry sundae with walnuts and topped with hot chocolate fudge, that would be nice.

      replyreport
   4. 66

      snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Not sure if I should ask this question: I've seen some people created hubs with little content (worst case nothing meaningful inside the hub) that is filled with many many products. For example, this was written as part of the main content of a hub:
      
      "In this hub - Buy A Bakugan Dragonoid Online - Bakugan Toys for SaleBuy A Bakugan Dragonoid Online - Bakugan Toys for Sale, the Bakugan toys are divided into different capsules i.e., Bakugan Dragonoid, Bakugan Gundalian Invaders, Bakugan Vestroia and Bakugan Battle gear. If you are interested to buy, please feel free to click on the link provided. " and followed by tons of products.
      
      In the end, it gets stuffed with many names of the bakugan toys, nothing else.
      
      Then I checked some hubs written by the same person, though some may not as bad as the example I've given above, they are empty hubs with very little meaningful content, the whole purpose of the hubber is to sell products, he/she doesn't care about anything else.
      
      But such hubs get indexed by google with good enough of rankings, it just doesn't seem to be fair. Should we flag this kind of hubs?

      replyreport
      1. 86

         Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         The PURPOSE is fine, I think, but the execution is awful.
         
         I flag hubs like that, but (as I have complained so often) I have no idea where the line is.
         
         I know there is no perfect method to identify sub-standard. We all operate blind: certainly we can agree on the very worst examples, but somewhere between "obviously bad" and "obviously good" is where a lot of the stuff I see falls.
         
         I let pass things I would never accept for publication at my own site. Should I?  I don't know.

         replyreport
         1. 67

            lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            You do make really good points, PCUnix. I really think we should flag away when we see what we believe to be substandard hubs and let the HP team sort it out. When they're tired of reviewing hubs that shouldn't have been flagged in the first place, I'm sure they'll take the time to educate us a little bit better.
            
            My biggest question is around hubs that seem fine on the face of them, but pass along potentially dangerous information -- or should I say, "misinformation." According to HubPages, there are a ton of sure-fire cures out there for the common cold, cancer, diabetes, etc. Seriously--I've seen some "medical" advice given on here that's pretty darn scary, particularly since there are no obvious disclaimers anywhere.

            replyreport
            1. 59

               Pandoras Boxposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               That's a really good point Irohner. Certainly not exclusive to HP, but gawd alot of the stuff people put out there as good advice is scary. I wish we could flag that crap. But there's nothing you can do but leave a comment and become known as a bitch.
               
               

               replyreport
               1. 67

                  lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Ayup. I seem to be doing quite well in that regard without even commenting.

                  replyreport
            2. 86

               Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Well, I can easily imagine my doing that and having the staff person see yet another batch of flags from that fussy Pcunix clown and just flushing the lot of them because they see me as too critical.
               
               It seems so simple to me: show a list of recent hubs I've flagged and add a column for the reviewer: "Not a problem", "Action taken".  We don't have to know WHAT action, it might be a simple fix for the hubber or it might be removed, temporarily or permanently, but it lets us know that our judgement was right.  On the other side, if it gets marked "Not a problem", we go back and look at it and have a better idea of what IS acceptable.
               
               I don't see what the problem would be. It would be trivial to implement, and could really improve hub hopping.

               replyreport
7. 76

   sofsposted 13 years ago

   I have raised this issue sometime last week.. I have noticed that when I have hubhopped in the last two weeks I found an unusual number of low quality hubs and flagged them ...I guess many of us are doing this.
   Spamming has also increased this last week and I am reporting them too. We can help  HP be the wonderful place if all of us can take responsibility.

   replyreport
8. 60

   saleheensblogposted 13 years ago

   I flag
   I leave a note for the substandard hubber to improve the quality of their hub
   I mail the hubber when I think s/he is missing something and spamming unwillingly
   
   I am a disciple of Robin Hood.

   replyreport
9. 59

   Tumbaposted 13 years ago

   I am really glad that I joined hubpages. People here are so concerned and putting lot of efforts, not only in improving their hubs but helping out others as well. I don't think I would have been getting such an amazing culture anywhere else... !!
   
   I am impressed. Thanks to everyone.
   
   Wish you a very happy new year...

   replyreport
10. 60

    logic,commonsenseposted 13 years ago

    Associated Press

    replyreport
    1. 60

       Julie2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you logic, commensense.

       replyreport
11. 68

    Pearldiverposted 13 years ago

    I totally agree with nearly everyone here and I also do my share of flagging hubs!
    
    In fact I just found an absolute goldmine and managed to flag a total of 90 of them - That's Right Nine Zero hubs that had been published by some hubber under the name snakebaby!!
    
    Have a Happy New Year Everyone!

    replyreport
    1. 60

       Julie2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       OMG, Pearldiver you are terrible! LOL.
       
       Happy New Year to you and yours!

       replyreport
    2. 66

       snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       55555...Happy new year to you too!

       replyreport
12. 61

    Randy Godwinposted 13 years ago

    I go on flagging sprees too!  Usually on the new hubs with obvious copied content and those whose writing seem difficult to comprehend.  Extremely short hubs and spam get flagged too.
    
    NeighborHub Watch, I like to call it!
    
    
    
                          SecuritySnake

    replyreport
    1. 60

       Julie2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       What does the spam content look like? I know this question may sound duh, but I'm serious. I have only been here two months so there is still alot for me to learn from you guys.

       replyreport
       1. 61

          Randy Godwinposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Hubs published with many links to another product or site.  More of an ad than anything else.

          replyreport
          1. 60

             Julie2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

             Oh, I have seen that on profiles.

             replyreport
             1. 92

                Rochelle Frankposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                Profiles are a bit different-- and you are allowed to link to your own stuff there. Spam is when links are placed in forums, and excessively in hubs to advertise or send readers to ad sites.

                replyreport
13. 67

    Charles Jamesposted 13 years ago

    Some days I will hub-hop and flag maybe 10 out of 15. It is that bad!
    
    A piece that is reasonably well written I rate up, even if it has views with which I disagree, or I find it boring because it is about some piece of clothing or goods I have no interest in.
    
    What astonishes me is the people with no hubs and lots of followers. What are they following?

    replyreport
    1. 66

       snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Beats me! Sometimes I wonder whether it would be possible to implement manual approval on all hubs, though this way it may take a long time to have a hub published, it would definitely eliminate a lot of manipulating hubs from being submitted since the people wouldn't bother writing anything probably. Of course, that sounds unpractical, just can't help expressing my dream

       replyreport
14. 80

    Shil1978posted 13 years ago

    I try to "hub hop" as often as I can and I do flag hubs that violate TOS or is low quality. It is very important that hubbers do this, as it is in the best interests of us all to keep HubPages as a reputable writing platform that publishes high-quality content - that's what Google values! 
    
    With the number of hubs being published daily, it would be impossible for HP staff to notice such hubs and take them down, so the "hub hop" feature is one that everyone needs to make use of.

    replyreport
    1. 66

       snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       100% accurate! Quality is what google values, that is why our hubs get indexed quickly and often ranked well. Without quality, who knows if all these would change one day. So please hub hop as much as you can. Doing so helps ourselves in a great deal. How would you feel if you write a quality hub on a topic that someone else did before you in low quality (I mean what I meant above) but always get ranked better simply because they did it first and simply because their content is long (junk English) plus stuffed with many pictures? If you haven't realized how serious this matter is to you, then it's time to wake up and take action and contribute to the community! Many Thanks!

       replyreport
       1. 80

          Shil1978posted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Well said  -  hup hopping isn't very difficult to do either. You can spend as little as 5-10 minutes doing it, but the benefits that it can bring to HubPages as a whole and to individual hubbers is immense. If HubPages is looked more favorably by Google and ranked better than similar writing platforms, you can see what benefits it can bring to all our individual hubs.
          
          Let's make HubPages the most reputable site among all other similar sites - that should be the goal and let's all contribute towards it. If you see substandard / copied / low-quality content - do flag it ASAP. You might not think there's any immediate benefit to your doing so, but the future benefits of this small gesture to us all can be immense!

          replyreport
          1. 59

             Mark Ewbieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             Absolutely agree with this, the high ranking quality thing is very important to my hopes.
             
             Although I would appreciate if people could cut me a little slack if they hop me.  I know what I am trying to say and my readers can figure it out, apart from the stupid ones, so don't get too hung up on grammatical errors or obscene photography.  It's just a hobby - harmless really.
             
             I only link to professional spam sites and quality virus infectors so again - go easy - it's a matter of personal taste.
             
             ...
             
             OK.  Better say I am joking.  Just in case.

             replyreport
             1. 66

                snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                That is true. I only flag those really bad ones, like what I described in the first place. Never meant to make it so serious that we have to nitpick grammars or someone's writing skills - that would be hard, no fun, and unnecessary.

                replyreport
15. 72

    Jeff Berndtposted 13 years ago

    I flag, but very rarely. If I flag a hub, it's astoundingly bad, or spam, or something else that's patently against the rules.
    
    More often, if the hub shows potential but isn't that great, I'll drop the new person (it's always a new person) a friendly email to let them know their hub is pretty short (or whatever) and is in danger of being flagged. I'll include a few ideas on how they can improve their hub, and I make sure to mention that I think the hub is basically good in the first place (and why I think so).
    
    Most of the time, though, if a hub is blah, I just leave it be, neither flagging nor emailing.

    replyreport
16. 77

    Uninvited Writerposted 13 years ago

    I don't believe anyone flags hubs just because they disagree with them. We are talking about low quality and spam...

    replyreport
    1. 66

       snakebabyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       That is absolutely correct!

       replyreport
17. 67

    lrohnerposted 13 years ago

    Yup, UW -- low quality and spam. Although I wish there were guidelines for the medical hubs that require disclaimers. Some of the advice I've seen is potentially fatal. And I'm not talking extreme diets or anything like that.

    replyreport
18. 86

    Pcunixposted 13 years ago

    I'd also like to see Poetry taken out of Hub Hopping.
    
    I have no interest, but more importantly, how can any of it be flagged?  I suppose technically someone could misuse the classification and perhaps that would happen if Poetry were not included, but I just hit Hop again instantly.

    replyreport
19. 88

    IzzyMposted 13 years ago

    I also flag what I consider to be substandard hubs because I want to write on a quality platform.
    If hubstaff agree with me, the hubs I have flagged will be removed, and if not, they won't.
    What's the problem?

    replyreport
    1. 86

       Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       There isn't any. I think some people may worry that their hubs will be judged harshly or that it is a "popularity contest". Of course it is not.

       replyreport
       1. 61

          Druid Dudeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Somebody has to be a judgemental cop...might as well be you.

          replyreport
          1. 86

             Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             Do you not understand that HP NEEDS to be judgmental and that they specifically request our help in that endeavor?

             replyreport
20. 88

    IzzyMposted 13 years ago

    Ahh...now I think I may be seeing the problem.
    
    Forum fall-outs which may or may not have happened on religious/political threads lead some people to believe that others may flag their new hubs.
    
    Well do you know, in all the time I have been here, I have yet to see a hub deserving of flagging from a regular forum poster.
    
    In fact, I probably wouldn't flag a hub from a name I saw day in/day out on the forums, even if they did one day publish a substandard hub.
    
    I'm talking specifically about obvious substandard hubs from complete unknowns, most of whom whose first language isn't English.
    
    There are those who don't know what Hubpages is, or can be, and just see another opportunity to spam.
    This is quite different from what is half-referenced above.

    replyreport
    1. 86

       Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Correct.  If you see those folks in the forum at all, they are up to no good and will get their forum message flagged too.  I can't think that any of the regular and irregular contributors here would ever be at risk.

       replyreport
21. 93

    Dolores Monetposted 13 years ago

    I never used to flag a hub because I thought it was mean. But we, here on HP, are a team and should work together to ensure high quality hubs. I have started to occasionally flag hubs. I've run across hubs that have a title and zero content (flag), hubs that have about 3 sentences (flag), and hubs that were nearly gibberish (flag).
    Quality content will make HP rate higher - good for all of us. Of course I never flag something just because I don't like what they are saying, or think they are idiots. That's none of my business.

    replyreport
    1. 93

       Dolores Monetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I mean that it would be mean to flag a hub.

       replyreport
22. 75

    Buffoonposted 13 years ago

    I'm not very active in the site, but I do flag low quality hubs ... ruthlessly.
    
    The way I understood it, crappy content hurts the site, hence hurts us all. It seems I'm right in my assumption, seeing what other writers said before me.

    replyreport
23. 88

    IzzyMposted 13 years ago

    It's interesting that Hubpages will give us duplicate warnings on our hubs if we copy something from the web, but still allow us to publish providing there are no outgoing links.
    
    Wouldn't it be better if they just automatically filtered all duplicated hubs, and did not allow them to be published until a staff member looked at them?
    
    I've got one quotes hub, others have many. Quotes are by nature, duplicates. But staff can override the duplicate warning in those cases.
    
    Others may be publishing work they have already published elsewhere, but it is still their own work.
    
    But by far the majority of duplicates come from hubbers who can't write their own stuff and have to steal someone else's.
    
    Just tonight, someone posting in the forums had, when I checked, two plagiarised hubs which I flagged, but I bet he already had a duplicate warning, which he probably couldn't read anyway.
    
    We hate our work being stolen. I bet others hate when someone else (again) from Hubpages steals their work. That is giving us a bad reputation!

    replyreport
    1. 86

       Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Good point, although it could make for a lot of staff work.

       replyreport
       1. 88

          IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Not if a filter took care of it.
          
          The only work would be in reinstating those I mentioned above as genuine.

          replyreport
          1. 86

             Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             Right. But that might be a lot of hubs.

             replyreport