Hub flagged as both overly promotional and substandard!!!

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   BenjaminBposted 13 years ago

   I find it hilarious that Hubpages pushes the concept of helping new Hubbers yet my Hub which has had very good reception by the community has been flagged for being both overly promotional and substandard.
   
   I had 5 social bookmarking links,and 2 other links to free tools absolutely related to the topic (one link was an affiliate link but led to the free download).
   
   As for substandard,the biggest joke of all. I have received many emails and comments on the Hub thanking me for breaking things down into simplistic easy to understand terms unlike the majority of similar Hubs that assume in their terminology that people should already know the basic principles of certain things.
   
   I took every link out of it and will say now without a doubt if they still won't publish it that I will never make an effort to tutor any new Hubbers in any way shape or form ever again. They will just have to do like I did when I started and keep another window open at all times to constantly look up terminology that other Hubbers fail to explain properly for beginners.
   
   If this is a direct result of someone hating on me and flagging it,then thank yourself because you just hurt the newer Hubbers that may have gained from it if it does not get republished.

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      mejormediaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Deleted
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         Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         And it appears as if you jumped the gun too soon. Oh well.
         
         @Ben,
         
         The overly promotional is having more than 2 links to the same domain. Fix it and relax.
         
         As for the substandard, I've not clue with regards to it, because you've not stated how long the hub is?
         
         If the hub is too short, then it would be flagged as substandard, which is happening to many hubbers and not just you.

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            BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Didn't have more than two links to one domain Cagsil,as a matter of fact there were no more than 1 link pointing to any 1 domain. It's a meaty Hub chock full of info.

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            BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            2151 words to be exact Cagsil.

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               Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Well, if it had only one link to any single domain and had more than 2000 words, then it would make no sense.
               
               I'm not sure what the moderator was looking at in your case. It would be best to deal with them, directly.
               
               Wish I could have been more help. Sorry.

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                  BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Thats cool Cagsil,I'm just forming my own ranting tyrade

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            mejormediaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I'll be OK. Just moved my articles to sites with better than a 60% Adsense rotation and where Hubscores don't matter!

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         BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Actually mejormedia it has a Hub score of 91 and in the couple weeks since I published it has been by best traffic Hub and most commented on ever. It definitely has me riled up some. It didn't break any over promotional rules by the links so I just don't get it. Like I said I'll just not be concerned about helping anymore if what I thought was some great work and benefit to new Hubbers gets completely refused.

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            mejormediaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Benjamin, my comment wasn't about Hubscores, per se, it was about the risk of having *good* articles flagged for subjective reasons.

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               BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               It might be a recurring theme mejormedia,we shall see.

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               Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               It's interesting to compare the time of your joining HP with the time of your first post.

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                  BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Aficionado I joined Hubpages under a different account name at first then decided to cancel that account and start over if that's what you are referring to

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                     mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Benjamin, I think Aficionada was referring to Mejormedia in that post, as she quoted mejormedia above it.

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                        BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        Okay lol.

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                        Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        
                        
                        Yes, that is correct.  Mejormedia's first post occurred three minutes after s/he joined.  And...
                        
                        
                        That was posted three minutes after the time of joining.  The author information showed 0 Followers, 0 Hubs.  It's clearly a second account for someone, but they were/are hiding their identity.  Or else it was a total lie.

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                           mejormediaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           An explanation...
                           I withdrew all of my original articles from Hubpages and cancelled my original account. I created the new account so I could comment on the forum. My "content farm" career is over, but I'll keep reading forums, etc. to see how people are reacting to Google's actions.
                           
                           Very disappointed that HubPages deleted my first post. Of course, I can't say what it was.

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                              Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                              
                              I thought you were the one who had deleted it. No matter.

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   Hestia DeVotoposted 13 years ago

   Benjamin,
   
   Have you checked your hub against how HubPages defines "substandard?"  http://hubpages.com/faq/#substandard
   
   Most often when I hear someone complain they got moderated for this, their Hub turns out to be too short, or is just personal content (more like a blog).  The personal content angle seems to be the more popular cull these days.
   
   And have you contacted admin if you don't understand exactly why it got moderated?  I've seen Maddie (she heads up the moderation team) frequently post to threads encouraging people to contact admin if they'd like more info about what's up with their hubs.

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   BenjaminBposted 13 years ago

   As for substandard the only thing I can figure is that it's being seen as unoriginal somehow. It does cover the basic concepts that can be found in literally 100's of thousands other articles online,but it is written originally with no exact duplicate content used and with a more basic point of view directed at the absolute beginner,something that in many niches is lacking online.

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   Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

   From the Help Center:
   
   "My Hub was moderated as overly promotional; what does that mean?
   
   Purely promotional offers and Hubs designed only to promote other sites or businesses are not allowed. In particular, the following actions are likely to get your Hubs identified as overly promotional:
   
   •linking repeatedly to the same site within a Hub or across many Hubs
   •including links to a page that contains largely the same content as your Hub
   •linking to products or services unrelated to a Hub's content
   •including more than 2 links to any one domain
   •short "teasers" with links to "read more" at another site
   •including promotional links on content that is unoriginal (i.e. not exclusive to HubPages); promotional links can only be included on content that is exclusive to HubPages
   •linking to the same domain in the body of the text AND in an RSS feed
   
   Please note that promotional links are links that you have any interest in promoting (your blog, your Website, affiliate offers, etc.). Links to well-known Web resources which you don't have any personal interest in (like Wikipedia, news sites, encyclopedias, open directories, etc.) are exempt from this limitation."
   
   "My Hub was moderated as substandard; what does that mean?
   
   Substandard simply means that the quality of the Hub does not live up to HubPages standards. Below are some common reasons that a Hub may be moderated as substandard:
   
   •"Test" or otherwise unfinished Hubs
   •Very little content
   •Poorly-written content that is difficult to read or understand to the average reader
   •Unoriginal or purely personal content (i.e. meaningless to someone who doesn't know you)
   •Contributes nothing new in a heavily saturated topic
   •Many broken links or links to low-quality sites
   •Links with deceptive or inaccurate link text
   •Promotes or links to dubious products or offers
   •Missing videos
   •Use of photos that are heavily pixelated or contain prominent watermarks
   •Is copied from an article directory, press release, news, encyclopedia, or shopping site, or contains content that is already widely distributed on the web
   
   Remember that you can always spend some time improving your Hub to meet HubPages standards, and submit it for republication."
   
   --------------
   BenjaminB, is it possible that you have many links to the same site spread out across your other Hubs?  That would qualify as being overly promotional.
   
   And the "substandard" criteria do include this: "Contributes nothing new in a heavily saturated subject."  Maybe the flagger did not notice that you did a better job of explaining the content than other sites did.
   
   It is definitely worth contacting the staff to ask for specifics about this.  I feel certain they prefer to have productive, helpful Hubbers than cranky, disgruntled ones.  Usually a simple question directed to them is all it takes to clarify things.

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      BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Aficianado look above and that answers most of what you said. I know the policies and as for the links it did not break any rules at all. In fact none of the links I had on there appear on any other Hubs I have period.

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         lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I've seen a couple of posts recently where this type of thing was overturned and the reason was "new moderators." I'm sure HP has beefed up their moderating team, and maybe your hub got caught up in that? Email the team. That's the only real feedback you'll get.

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            BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah I have to wait a bit and see if taking out every link and deleting a couple sections will work Ironher,if I mailed them now I might get kicked off the site,lol.

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               Jason Menayanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I'm not a moderator but they did their job correctly.
               
               It looks like the entire Hub is copied from another site (flixya). If that site copied you instead, then you should report it to flixya to have it taken down, and then contact team@hubpages.com.

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                  BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  They absolutely did copy it from me then Jason. thanks for telling me that. Off to lynch Flixya.

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                  BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Would you happen to have a link you could mail me Jason as to where the article is posted? Might save me a ton of time,thnx.

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                     mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Copy and paste a section of your Hub's text into the Google search box and then search. You will no doubt find both the Hubpages site and the Flixya site form the first two results of the search. Click on the Flixya one to go to your copied Hub.

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                        Happy Hubberposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        Thanks to you suggestion, I just went through all of my hubs and pasted the first paragraph into a google search.  I found three that had been copied.  One was Flixya and the user had already been deleted.  The other two were not so easy.  One was a blog with no contact information, the best I could do was post a comment linking back to my article and demanding the page be taken down.  The other took a lot of searching but I finally found the email address for the site owner and sent an email requesting they remove my content.  We'll see if they actually comply.
                        
                        Thanks for the tip.

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                           mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           You are very welcome. I am seriously looking at HubDefender now, as a good way of keeping on top of this problem. The cost is ever so low, and well worth it.

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                     Jason Menayanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     http://www.flixya.com/blog/2815297/How- … d-Websites
                     (mistyhorizon2003's advice works, too)
                     
                     You should report a DMCA violation and they should take it down shortly. Then, contact team@ and tell them your Hub was copied, and it has since been taken down.
                     
                     The plagiarizing author didn't even change the final paragraph saying it's you--shameless!

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                        BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        Thanks Jason,good tip misty

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                           mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           You are welcome. I hope you can now sort this out quickly, (I am sure Flyxia will react promptly once you inform them). Just don't forget to notify the hub team when it is sorted so they can republish your hub with an exemption to any penalties incurred due to the duplication
                           
                           Good job you posted here, otherwise you might never have known

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                        ThomasEposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        They have already suspended the... person.

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            This is good advice. It happened to me recently, and out of two criticisms sited, one was overruled as it was made by a trainee moderator incorrectly, and the other criticism consisted of a couple of very small pictures that had watermarks on them, (it was one of my early hubs when I knew no better). As soon as I deleted the watermarked pictures my hub was republished without a problem.

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               BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Hmm water marked pictures. I have one on there from one of the picture sites with proper credit. Not sure if it's got a watermark though as I am not wise in the way of photos.

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                  mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  The watermark will be visible on the picture to anyone that looks at it if that helps
                  
                  For example
                  
                  

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                     BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     What if I don't have water mark googles?

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                        mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        'Googles' ????

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                           BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           LOL I type with 2 fingers and when I'm upset they go like crazy

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         Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         
         
         I know that this is very upsetting to you.  That's perfectly understandable, and you make it perfectly clear.  I hope that you can understand that I was trying to be helpful, not critical. In re-reading this thread (for the third time), I still did not see where you answered what I had suggested, so it seems I am overlooking something that must be there.
         
         I do think lrohner's observation is the most helpful here.  Hope you get it cleared up.

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            BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Oh absolutely Aficianado,I just didn't want to type it all again,lol.

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   Len Cannonposted 13 years ago

   lol, the person who stole your article didn't even edit out your name in it.

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      BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes not hard to prove that is my material,it does tick me off that whoever flagged my Hub though didn't have the common sense to realize that,but Jason has helped me out and hopefully it will be cleared up soon. Freaking crazy!

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         mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Probably no-one flagged your Hub, duplicate hubs are found by hubpage computer programs automatically, so don't take it personally
         
         Edit:
         
         A manual review may have only been cursory, and the moderator may simply have seen it was duplicated, not checked out the link to see it was clearly yours due to profile pics etc

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            BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Hmmm interesting to know.

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               mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

               What I do find odd is the things you were 'flagged' for. I would have expected you to be flagged for duplicate content because the hub you wrote appeared elsewhere on the Internet. I would NOT expect you to be flagged for being 'substandard' or 'overly promotional' as a result of a duplicated hub. However, this could be an error by a novice moderator I guess, but can't say for certain. Might still be worth querying the nature of the 'flags' with HP too.

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                  sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  links on duplicate content also equals "overly promotional" I think

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      The people who steal our writings are often not very clever. I had one hub stolen that was my own personal story called 'Losing Your Virginity', what was crazy was that bearing in mind I am a woman, the person who stole it was a man, (and therefore it read really weirdly with his profile picture of a young black male next to lengthy text that referred to a young female and her male seducer), plus, to add insult to injury, he not only stole it, but he posted it back here on Hubpages, along with a couple of other hubs stolen from Hubpages too, (including one written by head of CEO Paul Edmondson). Any comments I left demanding he unpublish my hub were deleted, so I reported it to the Hub Team, and he was 'out on his ear' in under 24 hours!! LOL
      
      What is frustrating is that to this day I still have to endure a banner at the top of the hub (only visible to me the author), stating words to the effect of "This Hub has been awarded an exemption to the duplicate content penalty", which I would not have to if he had never copied my hub in the first place.

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         BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Oh boy you mean I get rewarded for writing a great Hub and being copied with my own personal scarlet letter,lmao.

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Afraid so Benjamin, but on the plus side no-one but you can see it (I still hope they will find a way to remove this one day though, as it is mildly annoying to see whenever I go into the hub whilst logged in).

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               BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Misty my Hub was reinstated finally and I have no mark on it like you described. I guess that is just unique to you

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                  mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Strange. My Hub was originally flagged as 'Duplicate'  so not the same flags you received/described. I seem to remember I also got a 'D' or the word 'Duplicate' by the relevant hub in 'My Account' too. It was only when I got the copied hub removed that I got the banner appear at the top of my hub when I logged in, and it is still there to this day.
                  
                  Really delighted your hub was finally reinstated though. Great stuff

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   WoodsmensPostposted 13 years ago

   She also copied this hub http://hubpages.com/hub/How_to_Make_Mon … es_Program
   by hubber quotations
   
   and this one http://hubpages.com/hub/Best-Valentines … -for-Women
   
   by hubber Marye Audet

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      BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Well it would seem she is just a nifty little ignorant copy machine. Good catch Woodsmen.

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   WoodsmensPostposted 13 years ago

   and this one http://hubpages.com/hub/Should-You-Loan … o-a-Friend
   
   by hubber habee
   
   http://www.flixya.com/blog/2817997/Shou … o-a-Friend
   
   I'm sure there is more

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      BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Geez crazy!!

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   WoodsmensPostposted 13 years ago

   http://hubpages.com/hub/Caught-Wearing-Womens-Lingerie
   
   hubber Hope Alexander
   
   http://www.flixya.com/blog/2817738/Caug … s-Lingerie
   
   enough said
   yep there is plenty more
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Add-your … ebook-Page
   
   by Happy Hubber
   
   http://www.flixya.com/blog/2816664/How- … ebook-Page

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   WoodsmensPostposted 13 years ago

   Glad you brought it to the forums BenjaminB and glad you didn't over react to HP staff Good luck

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    BenjaminBposted 13 years ago

    LOL I took a little bit of the Hub off thinking they may have been unacceptable parts. Should I recopy them from the thief then put them back lmao.

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    tlpoagueposted 13 years ago

    Hi Benjamin,
    I don't know if this will help you much, but when I had read in the forums that so many hubs were being "stole" and recopied, I went to the site called HubDefender and signed up. Fellow hubber Edwardo created it to protect hubbers from this happening. Again I don't know if I can help, as my mind is still trying to figure out the changes with Google and HubPages. He has helped me out alot.

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       BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Thnx tip I'll have to check that out

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    mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years ago

    I emailed Flyxia myself, (even though this didn't effect me directly). I got a very fast response.. see below:
    
    Hello Cindy,
    
    Thank you for the email. We have taken the appropriate action regarding this matter.
    
    Regards,
    
    Ingrid
    Flixya Support
    
    
    On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 9:38 PM, Misty Horizon <snipped> wrote:
    
    Dear Sir/Madam,
    
    This user on your site
    
    http://www.flixya.com/user/Caitrinas
    
    appears to have copied virtually everything she has published from the Hubpages site. I suspect you are about to be inundated with complaints from Hubpages writers, and would strongly recommend to remove this person from your site and delete all their articles immediately.
    
    Thank you
    
    Regards
    
    Cindy
    
    (mistyhorizon2003 on hubpages, as yet, not a victim thank goodness)
    
    
    ******
    
    I have tried clicking on the User's link too, and it says she has been suspended..... hooray

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       BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       cool beans,yes I was pleased they pulled it down quickly,but Hub still not back up yet

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          ThomasEposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Unfortunately they are very busy at the moment, so it could take a while. Have you emailed the team explaining what happened?

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    sofsposted 13 years ago

    Wow I just saw this.. Glad that all has is well now Benjamin.

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    habeeposted 13 years ago

    Thanks to Misty, I just followed the Flixya link and got "User suspended."

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       BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       She needs her knee caps broke,that would appease me!!

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    Vala Fayeposted 13 years ago

    Here's a question...when looking at those rules for linking, I'm wondering if this includes linking to amazon affiliates. What I mean is..if you promote, through amazon, every time the same books for instance, due to them being relevant to your niche, does that also get you into trouble?

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       wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       In text links will count as I understand it, but using the Amazon or eBay capsule does not.

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          Vala Fayeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Ahh, nice to know, tnx

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    Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

    It's too bad there's not a thing on "My Account" where, if we see "duplicate content", we could at least "record" whether we had anything to do with the duplicates at all, or whether they're stolen.  (A little "reverse flag" of sorts.)
    
    Then (in my imaginings of what would be great to have in an ideal Hub world) maybe HubPages could have some kind of automated thing that kept picking up on all those "reverse flags" Hubbers put out there; and would then send the whole business to Google (and anybody else that mattered).   
    
    Of course, that wouldn't help us with what doesn't get picked up by HubPages, but it would help prevent Hubbers from having their stolen stuff look like they're the ones who stole it.

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    BenjaminBposted 13 years ago

    You know the more I think about this the more it just straight pizzes me off.That's fine if some kind of program flags stuff as duplicate,but to not have a human who takes the time to quickly browse the situation is a JOKE.
    
    As everyone said above this girl was copying everything from the Hub and the one she copied of mine included my picture in it,a screen shot of one my websites and my hubber name mentioned at least 4 times. If a human can't figure out that I was the original writer of that then perhaps they are not qualified for the job!
    
    So now here I sit approaching 1/2 a day without one of my best hubs being published for something that I didn't do! Funny I emailed Flixya and it took them a whole 20 minutes to pull down the article from their site. TICK TOCK TICK TOCK TICK TOCK Hubpages,PUT MY HUB BACK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    BenjaminBposted 13 years ago

    Still waiting.........................still waiting...........................still waiting........................you get the idea!

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