Hubs' quality is decreasing.

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   klevifushaposted 13 years ago

   I've noticed that the number of poorly written Hubs is increasing daily. As the site's popularity grows, it's being flooded with Hubs from international users who have very little knowledge of the English language. We have to do something. We can't let the quality of this wonderful site to go down the drain.

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      Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      FLAG em'!!!!  Those silly hub moderators will only find any possible reason to mess with me instead of doing their real jobs if we don't give them poor hubs to review.

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         klevifushaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         That is exactly what I've been doing. However, we have to all put an equal effort towards flagging poor quality content. The number of painful-to-read Hubs are increasing by the minute.

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            Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I flagged about four this morning.  Several hubs were text only, and had nothing in the way of paragraph breaks, which made them unreadable.

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               WriteAngledposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I don't think those are reasons to have a hub deleted, if the information it contains is valuable.
               
               If the actual content is useful:
               
               Perhaps the author does not understand how to break up text when producing a hub. I think a helpful message sent to him or her would do more good.
               
               Again, perhaps the author does not know where to find suitable images. Or perhaps he or she does not realise that most Internet "readers" cannot cope with text without also having the instant gratification of images, videos, podcasts and similar stuff.
               
               If the content is not useful and is poorly written or spun, flag away!

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                  Uninvited Writerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  How does someone not understand paragraph or sentence breaks, don't they read? It doesn't matter where you write something you put breaks so people can read it. They are unreadable and I do flag them. It's up to HubPages to do something about it or not.
                  
                  What I do notice is that many like that when I check have just been copied from another site.

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                     Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It's not our job to teach people to write in English on this site, and by flagging something they at least get the message that things need to be improved - which actually IS helping them!

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                        kimberlyslyricsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        

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                  kimberlyslyricsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  nicely said I am so following you if I am not already
                  
                  Thank you for some clarity which really is not a dramatic as one may believe otherwise I agree flag away
                  
                  Also I don't see how this would directly effects ones hubs but if you are so concerned about the site maybe a thread is not your means of communication rather a letter to the Team who could answer some questions.
                  
                  All said and done, I think the majority of Hubs are good and a small percentage of the said 'poor hubs' would be tough to change this sites reputation
                  
                  Just my opinion, lastly this topic has opened many a thread for as long as I have been here and I see no difference
                  
                  Thanks 
                  
                  ps-hi Randy

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                     Mcham Lawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     I'm going to follow you both. Well said!

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                  Hunbbel Meerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I agree with WriteAngeled.
                  
                  Though we must protest against poor-quality hubs, but we should first inform  the author with a self-explaining message, and to guide him in a proper way. If he improves and starts to produce quality content, he will prove an asset to this community, and for the web, as many other great people.

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               IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I just went and looked under 'Hubs' 'Latest' (the hopper drivers me daft because you have to stop hopping to flag and when you start again you see all the hubs you've already checked) and flagged about 10 from the first 2 or 3 pages.
               
               There are a lot of spun articles as well as foreign language hubs.
               
               You can tell spun by the use of words that don't flow so well, like "Business proprietors who prefer to work from house" instead of Business owners who prefer to work from home" are dead give-aways.
               
               Someone wrote one about bad credit and it was unreadable - he had added lots of big words that didn't make sense, and someone had commented 'good hub' or something silly.
               
               Also be suspicious of the work of a new hubber who has put up 16 hubs in 18 hours and stuff like that. They are nearly always spinners.

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                  Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Hey Izzy, you don't have to "stop hopping" to flag!!!!!  There's a "flag" option on the little "hop module."  I swear!

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                  healinghands1668posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Spinners...that is a term I haven't heard used before in this context. I gather it involves using some computer program to write for you, since it allows a new hubber to put up approximately a hub an hour.

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                     healinghands1668posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     You know...with a two hour break presumably to eat and use the restroom.

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                     IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Hub an hour? Try ten hubs an hour.
                     Spinning software takes someone's well thought out article, and changes the words by using an inbuilt thesaurus.
                     
                     The result doesn't always make complete sense, depending on the ability to write in English of the user.
                     
                     They get the opportunity to edit the final version before posting.
                     
                     For English speakers, it is relatively easy to create what Google thinks is a brand new article.
                     
                     Less so for foreign language speakers, but Hubpages look out for such articles.
                     
                     Spun articles are as welcome here as tramps at a high class wedding.

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   sofsposted 13 years ago

   The internet and sites like these are for 'international' users. It would be unfair to say that all poor quality hubs are written by non native English writers, honestly on another site one of the most popular writer's on hubpages a person from an English speaking country was told to have his/her hubs edited by a person whose mother tongue was English.. it caused an uproar.. but the truth is there are poor quality hubs and they need to be handled.

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   erikjohnsonposted 13 years ago

   I agree you should flag them.  The community has to take care of their community!

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   Randy Godwinposted 13 years ago

   There is no hope of ridding this site of hubs which hurt all of us with their embarrassing content because of the way HP allows them to publish anything without oversight by already experienced writers.  This is the reason Panda came down so hard on HP a few months ago.  Nothing we can do will neutralize this present ill-thought-out  policy.

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      Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Howdy Randy!!!  I think the subdomain switch thing has helped me - but I guess the question is will it still help when pandaganda 3.0 hits.

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   I am DB Cooperposted 13 years ago

   Hub hopping is now part of my daily routine. I spend about 10 minutes giving thumbs up to excellent hubs and flagging the ones that are clear violations. About 75% are neither good enough for a thumbs up nor an obvious violation worthy of flagging. I'd like to think my efforts are helping things, although sometimes I'm just not sure.

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      Uninvited Writerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, sometimes it seems hopeless. Some may not need flagging but I am so tired of seeing the same topics and subjects over and over and over again. When I find something truly original and written well I vote it up and comment.

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   Jane@CMposted 13 years ago

   HP needs to stop the poor quality hubs, the hub greeters try to get them as they come in, but so many escape.  I think the poor quality is what left HP to their demise because they were not cleaning up poor quality as soon as it hit. 
   
   For the amount of time I have been on this site, poor quality hubs have been one of the chief complaints, possible the #1 complaint.
   
   I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that all hubs must be written in English.  So flag away because that is the only way they can be seen by the moderators. 
   
   I think HP could use some temporary moderators just to focus on those types of hubs, so the site can really get cleaned up.

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      Neerizzleposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'm fairly new, could someone mind checking to see if I could improve my quality or anything? I try to do an easy to read format with subheadings, and add pictures where necessary.

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         IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Well this is really the wrong thread for this, but I had a quick look at 'Close Shave' and 'Fried Food' and would like to say both hubs seem to be of a good length, nicely laid out and well-written so I don't think you'll have any problems with this medium

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            Neerizzleposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Awesome thanks, just wanted to make sure I was doing things right.

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               Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I LIKED you hub about fried foods!

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      EmpressFelicityposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I took a look at the Latest Hubs just now and out of the twenty or so most recent ones, I found a hub written in Finnish (at least I think it was Finnish).
      
      If HP can't even be bothered to add a foreign language filter, then I for one don't see any point in doing their work for them.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I've said this several times.
      
      HubPages has hired several extra moderators, but I do feel they've never used them to best effect. 
      
      All Hubs are moderated in strict order as they come up in the moderating "queue".  There's no attempt to prioritize whatsoever - which is why we all got so frustrated after Panda, when we were all getting moderated for minor things, while blatant spammy Hubs were still published.  They were just further down in the queue.
      
      I'd have thought it obvious that one or two moderators should be on permanent "new Hubs" duty, because such a large proportion of bad Hubs are created by new Hubbers who think they can get away with spun or spam Hubs.  If they're stamped on early, they'll give up quicker.

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   Mark Ewbieposted 13 years ago

   Every poor quality hub is a waste of time for a searcher.  That's you and me when we're looking for something.
   
   These pages are 'written' not for the joy of writing or a desire to share knowledge, but as a way of making some easy money.
   
   Half of them are not written at all, but copied and spun.
   
   I'm sick of them.  I'm sick of them when I go searching, I'm sick of them when I go hub hopping, I'm sick of reading utter crap from someone who has no idea how to write, be creative, SPELL - but just wants me to look at the advert for a ABCD TV or some other piece of utter shit I can look up my self on Amazon.
   
   My tolerance is absolutely at an end.  It's fortunate for them that I can't be bothered to hub hop either. I figure either Google will crush their subdomains or if it won't... then it's pointless doing anything.
   
   Where's the smack in the mouth button?
   
   Oh. If anyone thinks "but you should give them a chance".  No. F' off and get an English course or something.
   
   And yeah, right... welcome to HubPages!

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      Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      That's how I feel about it, Mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      
      HELL TO THA YEAH! LOL!
      
      Seriously, I don't spin or sputter - so that garbage with no paragraph breaks, and million and one "how to save money with coupon" crap can EFF off this site!

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         klevifushaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         It's as if you took the words right out of my mouth Wesman Todd Shaw. They really need to get the EFF off this site. It's ridiculous. People read a few articles on a subject and then they re-write these articles and publish them on here. These stupid "How to" articles have flooded the whole site. Reading something on a subject doesn't make you an expert. How the hell can these people try to teach others about crap that they don't even know. It's so pathetic.

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   sunforgedposted 13 years ago

   Im not sure why anyone would think this a NEW problem ! These forums were abuzz highlighting and showcasing and witch hunting the poor content that fills this site.
   
   This was only last month!
   
   how quickly memory fades, I guess.

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   Cardisaposted 13 years ago

   I flagged a hub this morning. The hub was obviously spun using that robot software.
   
   The hub made no sense. It was definitely not a grammar thing but it was basically unreadable. I tried reading it a couple of times to see if I could at least leave a comment on how to rewrite it properly but it was too bad.
   
   The hub was on winter clothing and what to pack when traveling....I think.

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    tlpoagueposted 13 years ago

    Normally I try to steer clear of writing negative things, but I had to quit hub hopping for awhile because it seem that I was mostly flagging hubs. I see it affecting the question sections now. In the last week, I seen the same question pop up twenty times. I wanted to stop what I was doing and say "Hey, how hard is it to read a hub about the topic in question? A hubber's opinion? Or find it in the learning center...Is this a generation to lazy to read?" Sorry, I'm done venting now. Hopefully soon HP will find a way to eleminate this issue.

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       Uninvited Writerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Or if it's not a Hubpages related question,  "just bloody Google it"

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          Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          I know this isn't the case with all of the questions on the forums on in Answers, but I've seen enough on Answers (and on the forums) to have seen that there are people who ask questions, look for the best answers they get, and then go post them on another site (maybe an answers site that pays those who have the best answers most often).
          
          I hate to be this jaded, but I really don't think a good number of them are "too lazy to read".  When I'm not in the mood to just kill time without caring who's up to what, I'll use questions I've run into as ideas to write my own stuff (on here or elsewhere, away from the location where "certain types of people" come to find a big supply of whatever answers they want. 

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             Uninvited Writerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             I never thought of it that way...

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                Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                I hadn't either until I saw it a time or two.   You can't be sure, but there's often a suspicious amount of a certain type of question that comes from one individual.  We all know what the homework-type questions look like (although they could be being used for something other than homework).  Then, though, there's a kind of question that seems to smack of a question-and-answers site.  If you look at who's asking, what else they do or don't do on here, etc., you may not be sure (although if someone wanted to bother they could check into it), but there's a "suspicious air" about them.      I recently discovered that someone who had raised my suspicions (not that I really care who does what, but this person had a particularly obnoxious avatar that gave off really bad vibes  ) has been banned.  I'll never know why, and don't care why, but it was pretty clear this wasn't your "usual, legitimate, Hubber".
                
                Of course, a person can't be sure (unless he sees something concrete somewhere), and there's a point where you can't just "go with your paranoia" because you know it happens.  Still, I pay more attention now to types of questions.  Sometimes, if I'm in the mood and don't care if someone's going to steal something, I'll just go ahead and enjoy answering because I'm in a good mood.  (I'm not usually in all that good a mood, though.     )

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                   tlpoagueposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                   Sorry about the " to lazy to read" thing. When I posted this I had came across too many of the same questions in feed that looked to be posted a couple feeds from each other. It was driving me while trying to browse through interesting hubs.
                   If it is a question that looks as if someone truly needs help, I don't mind stopping and answering the question. I, myself, have been anoying a time or two with question of something that I just don't get. I never thought about anyone asking questions so they can post it on another site. That is something I will be thinging about the next time I answer one.

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    Cardisaposted 13 years ago

    For the first time in months I read some quality hubs while hopping this morning. I was even moved to leave comments.
    
    One such hubber is fairly new her name is AnnaBush, nice poetry.

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    Mcham Lawposted 13 years ago

    I try to hop at least 10-15 a hubs a day and I'm not shy about flagging poorly written (as in the English is so bad I can't make sense of it) or obviously spun content.
    amazingly bad stuff out there, but then I hit a gem that I will vote up or follow.

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    Cardisaposted 13 years ago

    I was just wondering, if you read a hub that has bad grammar, incorrect information (and you can prove this) and awful layout, do you just skip it or do you vote it down?
    
    Does voting down another hub affect you, the voter, negatively?

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    maxraviposted 13 years ago

    I agreed with your point.There were a lot of junk article.may be mods can give a separate flag for it, other than vote down.yes it may hurt the reputation of HP.

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    adeaugustusposted 13 years ago

    OK, First i would like to say, that bad contents are not only from INTERNATIONAL USERS! i have read bunch or CREAPY hubs on here, that the authors are from the state! poor spellings and grammars, it a great thing to vote down hubs that doesnt worth staying on here, but the point is, are you not voting them down for the wrong reasons? on this thread somebody said he voted a hub down because it has not Paragraph, that BAD! an pretty new here, but i love reading peoples work (ones that worth reading. From my own point of view, i'did rather notify the author first before i vote him down, i'll tell him/her to check to grammars and the likes, and if he/she doesnt make any changes, i would be forced to VOTE DOWN. Above all time spent on writing a hub either BAD or GREAT should be appreciated.

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       Cardisaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I too prefer to leave a comment advising the person on how to present the hub in a better way than actually voting down, only extreme cases do I do that.

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    Randy Godwinposted 13 years ago

    Anyone?

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       K9keystrokesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

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    Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

    People need to understand that, in general, people are not voting down Hubs because the author comes from another country.  Honestly, everybody on here knows there are "tons" of people from other countries and pays little attention to who is from what country.
    
    What people vote down are Hubs that have serious flaws in English grammar and spelling, regardless of the Hubber's country.  As it happens, there is a very high number of people who come from other countries and don't know the language well enough to recognize the degree to which their English is grammar is flawed. 
    
    Regardless of the Hubber's country or first language, many grammar and spelling problems could be detected, and corrected, by simply running a grammar checker and a spelling checker.  For some reason, people obviously don't use either (because if they did they would see the errors/flaws in their own writing).  All anyone voting/reading can assume is that the Hubber doesn't care about correct grammar and spelling; and HubPages expects people to care about their grammar and spelling. People who honestly wanted to bother trying to learn English could learn if they'd use that grammar and spelling checker.  Obviously, not too many want to bother learning the language.
    
    For the most part, people often don't generally flag for the occasional grammar or spelling mistake in a Hub.  Many people understand that English is a second language for some and don't see a few minor flaws as a big deal.  What people won't overlook is writing that is completely riddled with poor grammar and spelling.  Again, it has nothing to do with who comes from which country and everything to do with whether that person has mastered the English language well enough.  Too many people are arrogant enough to believe they don't need to master the English language well enough to write on a US-based/English-only site.
    
    As for appreciating the time and effort spent writing, most people would appreciate time and effort put into something like writing a personal letter to a co-worker.  On HubPages, poor English skills aren't particularly appreciated and shouldn't be.  I don't know of any business that tells people, "We don't care about the quality of what you produce while you're here."  The Internet has created the impression in people that "anyone can write".  Well, anyone can try; but he'd better not expect that his writing won't be flagged.  (Hope that clears up the mistaken impression that Hubbers only flag people who are from non-English-speaking countries.)

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       adeaugustusposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Nice response.

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