Is HubPages known for holding grudges?

1. 42

   TIC Publishingposted 12 years ago

   So I'm at a lost about how to proceed here.  During my first week on this site, I wasn't familiar with the system and I ended up spamming a couple of articles which were blocked for dupe content (one was quotes and the other I think was too similar to one of my other articles).
   
   The end result was that all of my articles were unpublished.  Instead of informing me, or replying to my requests, HP waited until I came to the community to ask for assistance before condescendingly telling me that I was a big fat spammer and locking the forum topic.  Fair enough.  I operated in opposition to the rules of the ToS, and got a slap on the wrist. I can deal with that.
   
   The problem is that now I can't seem to get anything published.  Out of the 32 articles I used to have published, I've only been able to get 5 of them back up.  I have a bunch of them submitted and all that happens to them is every 1-2 days one gets rejected for some reason or another.  One was for having some text in italic that apparently made my article look ugly, another was for having "unrelated tags" because the moderator wasn't aware that the they were common names for jobs within the industry that my article was about... The latest one (which, like all of these being rejected, was previously published without problem) was rejected for dupe content & being substandard... and the way things have been going, even *if* I can figure out how to randomly reword it (I wrote it from hand and have no idea what or how much is matching some random place on the Internet), *and* figured out why it's considered substandard and fixed it, I have the feeling that next time they'll flag me for unrelated or excess tags (I've searched and searched, and even asked, but have never gotten an answer to how many are considered excessive).
   
   One of the few articles that has gone through - discussing some scientific research on the effects of red wine - has had ads banned from it... I cannot for the life of me figure out why and can not get an answer from HP to clarify.
   
   So, my question to the veterans here is, is this common practice; how I can expect to be treated for the foreseeable future?  Is this HP's way of telling me that I'm not welcome here, by harassing me and wasting my time so that I'll just pack up and go away?
   
   Over-all this is a very good system, and the community here has been great, but if my abilities here are going to continue to be crippled - so much so that even making a multi-part article isn't worth trying because at least one of them is going to get moderated, breaking the series - then this toxic relationship isn't of any real use to either of us.

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2. 81

   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   The system is pretty much automated.  If you are not getting the notification emails you need to check that they have a current email address for you and their email is on your "safe" list.

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      TIC Publishingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I do get some replies from them so they have my address... and the rejections are not automatic - they *all* passed 'before the fall' and most of them specifically say under the reason for rejection "This information is based on a human review of this Hub"

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3. 81

   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   And in each case you should have an email saying exactly what rule the hub is breaking. Have you search to ensure the emails didn't go astray?  If you still don't find them, ask for them to be resent.  until you know what the infraction is how can we tell if they are using a different standard for you versus the rest of us?
   
   If you make enough mistakes you will end up having all hub held and reviewed before publication--but that is still done to anyone who has a certain number/rate of infractions not just because someone doesn't like them.

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   1. 42

      TIC Publishingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Appreciate the info, as always, Psycheskinner.  If they at least communicated what was going on with me and replied to my requests for clarification, I'd feel a lot more like we were working towards a resolution rather than being firmly stuck in this quagmire.

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4. 63

   CASE1WORKERposted 12 years ago

   I very much doubt that they hold a grudge.However what they might be doing is checking everything you have done very carefully. After all you have broken the rules by your own admission. As psycheskinner says- check your e mail link, e mail the team and allow plenty of time before you get a reply.

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5. 59

   pedrogposted 12 years ago

   Well i can help you with the red wine one, you cannot use Adsense in articles with alcohol related topics, thats Google rule.

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   1. 42

      TIC Publishingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I have not been able to find anything of the sort in HubPage's ToS.
      
      The only thing I have been able to locate on Google Adsense's ToS is that you cannot put adsense on sites that sell alcohol, or promote illegal drugs.

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6. 81

   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   "Ads are also not permitted on pages which sell or promote the sales of beer, hard alcohol, or liqueurs."
   
   "Promote" seems to be a gray area right now.

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7. 63

   SandyMcCollumposted 12 years ago

   It's not Hubpages' TOS that's being crossed by the wine content, but Google's TOS that's being crossed. They don't allow work that promotes buying or using alcohol, so your article could have crossed a line somewhere.

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8. 42

   TIC Publishingposted 12 years ago

   Oh come on!  Seriously?  Seriously?
   
   My hub "15 Things to do in Fresno - Vacationing in California" was rejected for 'Gambling, Alcohol, Tobacco, or Weapons', because one of the 15 things is taking a friggin' wine-tour??
   
   Is there absolutely no level of allowance for common sense?  If I wrote a story about my dog named Vodka would it be pulled because I'm encouraging children to go out and lick strange dogs in the hope they might actually taste like liquor?

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   1. 62

      SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The best thing to do under these circumstances will be, to start your own blog or site with all those articles, use adsense codes in them, and see what happens.
      
      Just an idea

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         TIC Publishingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That's good advice, SunSeven.  I am moving a lot of my articles over to my own server; it's just unfortunate, as I really like Hubpage's interface and the community atmosphere here.

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         1. 71

            celebritieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            You may want to write for TRIOND, they are a revenue sharing site that has an active community and from what I understand let people write on whatever topics they want.
            
            The content you submit to them must be original because they have software that can detect duplicates as well.

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9. 81

   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   The system is based on keywords, use enough of them and you will get a warning. To avoid a "vanishing" that is when you contact support....

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10. 86

    Stacie Lposted 12 years ago

    certain words seem to trigger the censors,probably a software program and not an actual person.yeah the response can be slow.
    hubpages is trying to stay a successful online business since Panda hit so being careful is for the sake of the site and all the writers..

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    1. 42

       TIC Publishingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       If it was automatically flagged that'd be understandable, but all these ridiculous flaggings I'm getting state specifically that they were human-reviewed.

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    Will Apseposted 12 years ago

    Some people are like moths. They just keep throwing themselves into the flames.

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12. 81

    psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

    With content writing I think it is always good to spread your risk over more than one platform.  So if this material seems to be okay for adsense but not for Hubpages you might try branching out into another host like Squidoo or Infobarrel?

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    relacheposted 12 years ago

    I've not known HubPages to hold any grudges in all the years I've been on the site... But it's fairly common for disgruntled site users to do so.

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       CASE1WORKERposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Relache- well said!!

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