RSS Feeds and Tags can get your Hub unpublished without warning!

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   Marisa Wrightposted 12 years ago

   There has been a discussion thread about this, but I just wanted to alert other Hubbers to it.
   
   You will receive a warning email about some rule violations - but for some, your Hub will show a warning on the Hub itself, but you'll get no email. So you need to fix these issues up now, don't wait till it's too late!
   
   Here are the two I've come across:
   
   Tags - if you've used "personal" tags such as codes or nonsense words, you must delete them.  I know several people who use such tags to create RSS feeds, and in fact many experienced Hubbers (including me) have recommended their use in the past. They're allowed for official projects like HubMob - but individuals are NO LONGER allowed to use them and your Hubs will be unpublished. 
   
   If you're one of those people who accepts all the "suggested tags", please go and cull your tag list right now. The Suggested Tags tool is automated, and just picks up frequently used words - so it always includes a bunch of words that are far too general to have any value.  Those will be classed as unrelated or deceptive and can also cause unpublishing.
   
   RSS Feeds - RSS feeds to unrelated Hubs or websites are not allowed.  That means, no "latest Hubs" feeds.  Yes, I know your latest Hubs are related by the fact that you're the author - but that's not what "related" means on HP.  They must be on the same subject.
   
   I'd also advise you to make them closely related.  I had RSS feeds to my bellydance DVD site which triggered the warning on a Tribal bellydance Hub.  I changed the feed to my Tribal site's feed and that was fine.

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      lisabeamanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Marisa - I've been out of the loop for a while... what about the tags and rss feeds that we did for the 60 Day Challenge? Do I need to go and delete them? I haven't gotten any warnings (except that some of my links are broken on my original 60dc hub).
      
      Thanks!
      Lisa

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      1. 57

         prettydarkhorseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Lisa, read this from Jason Menayan (HP staff) below Marisa Wright response on p.2 of that thread.
         
         http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/74304?p … ost1616102

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         1. 62

            SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It means you can put a 60dc tag /or hubmo b/ or hubtrail on all of your hubs. Is that right?
            
            If .......

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            1. 88

               IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I've got some personal tags on hubs, yet there is no warnings on the hub themselves. Does that mean they are OK?

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                  Mutiny92posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I don't think so.

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               2. 91

                  Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I have the exact same question, so hopefully we will get a response soon.

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               3. 66

                  Michael Willisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  IzzyM...can you give n example of your personal tag here?  Hp is tightening their existing rules they say, so it is best to make sure your tag is allowed. Just because it was "allowed" in the past, does not mean it is allowed now.
                  
                  I make my own tags instead of using the suggested tags, since they can be irrelevant to the content of the hubs at times.

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                  1. 88

                     IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     well, I've got my shark hub linked together with the tag 'izshark'. Obviously there is no such word, but all the hubs in the feed relate to sharks.
                     
                     I haven't checked all the hubs in this feed. Just one actually and it doesn't have a warning.

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                     1. 66

                        Michael Willisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        OK, that is the type of Tag that Jason was saying not to use according to the HP rules in the post Marisa mentioned.
                        
                        What I do to link hubs together and you might think about is; create a "group" and name it Sharks. Make sure it fits within the category topic as well as the content a match.
                        
                        Example of one I use for RSS feed is : NFL Football or NFL Playoffs 2011. Jason said these looked fine since they were closely related to the particular hubs.

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                        1. 88

                           IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           These feeds are for offsite promotion. The promotion has been done. I am going to lose a loss of backlinks gained over time if I take the feeds out.
                           
                           It will also mean manually editing nearly 500 hubs - again. I am getting pissed off too now.
                           
                           These tags were carefully chosen. They have the main keyword in them plus two poxy little extra letters. If google reads tags, it will see the keyword only.
                           
                           Someone needs to explain to me WHY they need to go, otherwise I am not moving them and may in fact just move my hubs instead.

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                           1. 66

                              Michael Willisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              You do have a large number of hubs. I would e-mail HubTeam and see what you can do with this then. Good luck. I can understand what you are saying.

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                                 IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 I emailed team the other day with a question (not about this) and am still waiting for an answer. I know they are snowed under just now. I am taking it that there can't be a problem or I'd receive a warning on the hub. Until I hear otherwise I am leaving them.

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                     2. 88

                        Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        "izshark" would be "illegal".  It's a perfect example of what I'm trying to say.  The FAQ clearly says "nonsense words" are not allowed, and it's a nonsense word.
                        
                        I suggested they say "only words in the dictionary are allowed", to make it clearer.

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                        1. 88

                           IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           Was that in the FAQ when I put them there? If not, they have moved the goalposts. I will keep an eye out for warnings getting put on the hubs. I have not added anymore 'nonsense' tags since the new rulings came in ( and yes I have published several new hubs), but that's a bit unfair to make it backwards compatible.

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                           1. 88

                              Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              No, it certainly wasn't in the FAQ when you put them there.
                              
                              I had a row with Jason on another thread about this.  He maintains the policy has always prohibited "deceptive tags" and a nonsense tag is deceptive.  It's just that they were more relaxed about enforcing standards in the past, so we got away with it.
                              
                              Personally, considering all the times people like Edweirdo recommended using "unique tags" on the forums, I can't believe somebody like Maddie never noticed and dropped in to say "sorry, you can't do that". 
                              
                              And yes, it is backwards compatible, like all the new rules.

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                           2. 60

                              Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              IzzyM: I don't think you have anything to worry about. If your Hubs are otherwise OK, it is very unlikely that you will be moderated for that alone. An analogy: Just like it's illegal to jaywalk, you're probably not going to get thrown into jail for doing so unless you are committing a few more worse crimes at the same time.
                              
                              The one case I know of where a person claims they were moderated for nonsense tags had a LOT more wrong with their Hubs than just the tags. The other purported instance was darkside's Hubs, and as he clarified in his post in a similarly-themed thread started by Marisa, the reason his Hubs were moderated had nothing to do with tags.
                              
                              If you have any further questions, feel free to contact team@.

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               4. 88

                  Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  No, it just means they haven't got to them yet.

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               prettydarkhorseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I am not sure for hubtrail,  hubmob and 60dc, 30dc seem ok
               
               What if Sunseven??

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Good post. Thank you.

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   WryLiltposted 12 years ago

   I'm fine with the RSS feeds - because I used personal subject related tags. Oh wait .....

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   1. 88

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      What, Wry?
      
      Just in case you're being serious:
      
      If you use your author name and a subject-related tag to create your RSS feed, you've got no problem.
      
      However, if you created a personal subject-related tag (like, "WryLiltbaby" for baby Hubs), that is what's not allowed.

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      1. 62

         SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Is it official yet? I couldn't find any reference to this on the whole site.

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         1. 88

            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            SunSeven, yes it is official.
            
            I asked the question about both these issues in another thread.  Jason told me these rules have always existed, they're just applying them more strictly now.
            
            I suggested that the HubPages team should make an official announcement to let people know.  He doesn't think it's necessary - apparently we "should" have known.
            
            I think he's wrong, because many of us have been doing these things for years and never, ever been reprimanded for it.  Therefore I think it would be courteous of HubPages to announce the change formally.
            
            That's why I started this thread, because I don't think people do know.  And what's worse is that your Hubs can get unpublished for this, you won't just get a warning email.

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            1. 62

               SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I am not very intuitive, I am afraid. If it is not black and white, then it should be in grey or color.
               
               May be I am color blind, or may be I am just blind.
               
               I searched for the official link to the page which says what is allowed and what is not. I could not find it. Marisa, are you trying to fool new hubbers? Or am I hallucinating?
               
               May be I am blind, after all.
               
               Warm Regards

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               1. 88

                  Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  It has not been announced,but following my questions, they have updated the FAQ:
                  
                  http://hubpages.com/faq/#deceptive
                  
                  http://hubpages.com/faq/#unrelated

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                     SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Thats very LOL or whatever expression is current, very convenient.
                     
                     Congratulations on your new role, HP is a million dollar business, and being a spokesperson for them is a coveted job. I envy you.
                     
                     PS: Please dont reply to my post above till you read my PM.
                     
                     WR

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                     1. 88

                        Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        LOL, got your PM.  I'm not aiming to become a spokesperson, but I know a few people have been caught out by this "tightening" of the rules and I feel someone should try to avoid inconvenience to other Hubbers, even if the HP team don't seem to care.

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         2. 88

            Robinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            We refer to both of these topic, RSS Feeds and Tags, in our static Forum post regarding all HubPages updates:  http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/74274
            
            This is always a great place to look first for any HubPages related changes.  If there is something that we haven't addressed in this post, feel free to start a Forum thread and we can update it.
            
            Have a great day,
            Robin 

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            1. 62

               WoodsmensPostposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for pointing this thread out to me Robin. I hate when hubbers start to cry wolf with information, sending everyone into panic mod. mYself I don't scare easily to start radically changing hubs because one or more hubbers claim of mistreatment. I have received warnings made the mods and everything is fine. Thanks again and others should do their own due diligence on this subject matter before a wave of panic starts again within their own hubs. WP

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               1. 88

                  IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Well, its still clear as mud to me.
                  
                  "However if the tag is very obscure, and if our moderators don't recognize it, it might be moderated for being unrelated. "
                  
                  Hmmm...
                  
                  izshark isn't a dictionary word, but the word 'shark' is still there and very much relates to the hub(s) in question, so it looks like it depends on the moderator if they think it is obscure or not.

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4. 69

   Hendrikaposted 12 years ago

   I can agree with the tags one. I have had quite a few of my Hubs that I had to weed out tags.

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      SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You are insulting the great programmers who has invented the suggest tags feature here at HP.

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   Will Apseposted 12 years ago

   I never saw any use for RSS feeds. Links, I just do manually.
   
   I realize this is an insane investment of time and energy (it takes minutes) but I am just plain old fashioned.

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6. 88

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   Furthermore, just checked out that feed http://hubpages.com/tag/izshark/hot and some of those in that feed also have the tag 'izsea' relating to oceanic things, which leads to yet another feed http://hubpages.com/tag/izsea/hot again none of them have a warning that I can see.
   
   Edit: I am going to be annoyed if I have to remove all of them, because obviously those feeds were created for promotion outwith Hubpages. Just about all of my hubs are interlinked in some manner.

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7. 65

   Richieb799posted 12 years ago

   I used the RSS feed to allow search engines to see that my pages aren't static but since we are not allowed this I will be updated all my RSS feeds to news feeds now..are news capsules still ok?

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      Mutiny92posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      news capsules are going away I believe.

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      1. 65

         Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         LOL, just noticed they aren't in the options anymore :S
         
         What are using to keep your hubs regenerating Mutiny? I can see that it would be hard work to find related links for each of my 262 hubs

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            WoodsmensPostposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            You can still use RSS Richie have a look at the thread Robin put in her post it clears up everything that was attempted in this thread with speculations

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            1. 65

               Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               But you can't use a latest hubs RSS? I haven't got another RSS feed
               Just read the thread pointed out in Robins comment but it doesnt mention RSS there

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                  WoodsmensPostposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/74274
                  
                  3/4 of the way down the page, you can use a tag rss if you dont know what that is check the learning center. It can be used for all your related hubs with the same tag? Sorry gotta run for now

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               2. 71

                  Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Richie,
                  
                  RSS Feeds are labeled based on "latest", "hot" and "best". Those are all you can choose from.
                  
                  How "hot" and "best" are best used is by using "keywords/tag" links to related material, either by you or others, which are in the RSS feed itself.
                  
                  ht tp://hubpages.com/tag/(keywords or tags)/hot?rss
                  
                  You would setup related "keywords/tags" that help your content. When using "tag" type feeds and keywords that have more than one word, then use a "+" in between the keywords/tags(withoutspacing).
                  
                  ht tp://hubpages.com/tag/character+trait/hot?rss
                  
                  The above is a sample of one tagged RSS Feed I use.

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                  WoodsmensPostposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Better stated here in the learning center 
                  
                  How to Create a Hubber-Specific RSS Feed
                  
                  http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/hubb … c-rss-feed

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            Mutiny92posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I am the wrong person to ask.  My views and earnings continue to deteriorate.

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   Richieb799posted 12 years ago

   Thanks guys, Ive begun removing all of my existing feeds because that way it puts the bottom ad in a more prominent position anyhow..I probably won't bother with a fee because I notice there is now a Facebook social plugin and that probably keeps the page updating for search engines anyway

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