Link Violations?

1. 69

   Keith Engelposted 12 years ago

   So all of a sudden two of my hubs get notification of violations with in them. I click on them to find out what the violations are, and I am told that they are link violations and my hubs contains more than one link to the same site. Here goes the Warning.
   
   This Hub has more than two links to a single domain. HubPages allows no more than two promotional links to a single domain per Hub. Links in the image source field of images count toward this limit. RSS feeds with links in excess of two are permitted, but only when links in the body of the text do not point to the same site.
   
   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.
   
   The following domains are linked to more than twice:
   
       bertonbraley.com - linked to 6 times:
           http://www.bertonbraley.com/just_anti_social.htm (1)
           http://www.bertonbraley.com/business_is … ss__1_.htm (1)
           http://www.bertonbraley.com/essential.htm (1)
           http://www.bertonbraley.com/id545.htm (1)
           http://www.bertonbraley.com/opportunity.htm (1)
           http://www.bertonbraley.com/that_s_success.htm (1)
   
   First, is this new policy. If it is, it is a stupid and shitty one in my opinion. I link to sources as a means of providing evidence for what it is I am saying, or in this case of this hub links to the poetry of the Poet I am talking about. This is actually one of the hubs I get the most traffic to currently and the fact that now all of a sudden is in violation because I have more than one link, that isn't promoting myself is just stupid. I am not sure what to do with this matter and if this new policy by hubpages, they need to rethink this matter or have a better filtering system in place.

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   1. 0

      blake4dposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      People are discussing it since early this morning, I guess I was one of the first to notice, maybe...Nothing Michael is saying is incorrect, if it is strictly a link issue, then you will have to delete or unhyperlink your links ( and probably remove the http://www. part of the name, the rest people could copy paste into their own browsers I don't think that is a TOS violation.
      
      Here is one of the threads the discussion has been following thru on...
      
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/97118

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2. 69

   Michael Willisposted 12 years ago

   Hello Keith.  It has always been the rule that we cannot link more than twice to the same domain. This is why the violation shows up.
   If you use an RSS capsule, make sure the limit the number of links to 2. I know it allows more, and we have tried to tell HP Staff to change that, but it will show up as a violation if there are more than two.
   
   It does make it tough sometimes to share your references.

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3. 90

   mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years ago

   This must be a glitch as most of mine which are suddenly showing red skulls today only link to other relevant hubs of mine (internal links) or to photo attribution sources like Morguefile and Flickr. I have experienced this before with photo attribution links, and the skull/flag was withdrawn and I got a staff email saying it was an error and the flag had been removed.

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4. 69

   Keith Engelposted 12 years ago

   I have had this hub up though since November. Why now is it all of sudden getting flagged for this violation? That is the part that has me more frustrated than anything else. If I unhyperlink all the links that I do have then basically my entire hub is destroyed. Here goes the hub. http://keithengel.hubpages.com/hub/Bert … rican-Poet I might as well just unpublish the hub than keep it if the filtering system is just this stupid. Is there anyplace that I can file an appeal for the violation with some human person, since obviously this is an algorithm program that searches out for such violations instead of an actual intelligent person who can notice the difference between self promotion and actual liking of sources.

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   1. 69

      Keith Engelposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Well I have currently fixed the hub and did a work around of sorts. I posted all the link I needed to remove into my comments section. Not the prefer method I would like and hopefully hubpages fixes this mess with its algorithm.

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5. 77

   Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

   I just got a huge bunch of red skulls as well. The links being flagged are places like NOAA, a government weather website. None of the links are to sites I have any connection to; they are all on informational hubs.
   
   I had this happen before with a bunch of educational hubs-- I left for a few years because I couldn't figure out why my hubs were getting locked when I wasn't trying to promote or sell anything. i do hope Hubpages isn't going to start blocking educational hubs again!

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6. 59

   Jason Menayanposted 12 years ago

   A bug is making some Hubs show the red skull warning erroneously. If your Hubs are compliant with our rules, then you can ignore the red skulls for now. (You can see if clicking the "Check for Violations Now" button at the bottom helps make them disappear in the meantime; it has for some.)

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7. 77

   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   I don't know if I am compliant or not now.  We really have no way of knowing which links are exempt. Hopefully those 2+ linking to non-commericial sites will not be penalized for taking a wait and see attitude.

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8. 77

   Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

   After reviewing all of my suddenly-flagged informational hubs, I'm still getting red skulls for NASA and USGS websites, and I can't believe you're not going to fix that.
   
   The only one I'm really worried about is a review of drawing apps, comparing their pros and cons. I'm not getting a bit of benefit from those links, as they're not affiliate links -- it's just that the article is more useful to readers if they can read my reviews and then go buy the one that fits their needs! These apps all have very similar names, so the links are an aid to visitors. It would greatly diminish the hubs' usefulness without them.
   
   The irony is that so far, rather than benefitting from linking to those apps, I've spent  money buying a selection of apps so I could review them.
   
   Anyway, I hope that one doesn't get flagged as overly promotional. It would seem to benefit readers more than me, since they get the info they need, and all I'm going to get from that article is traffic and page impressions!

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   1. 59

      Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      What led you to believe that we're not going to fix that?
      
      Please see my highlighted post above: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/97138#post2074140

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9. 69

   Keith Engelposted 12 years ago

   And what about my hub in question in which I linked several times to one page for examples to a Poet's poetry? Was I in violation or not? I can understand trying to cut back on supposed spamming and promotional matters, but the current restriction seems in some cases to be a bit too strict as well. Am I supposed to be sitting there thinking to my self while I begin linking my resources and working on my articles oh I hope this isn't in violation of linking to one source too many times. Normally, I do try to spread my sources out from time to time, but there are occasions were this isn't the case.

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   1. 59

      Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I only see one link to each domain in that first Hub of yours that you provided the link for.

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      1. 69

         Keith Engelposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That is because I already went back and fixed it removing the 5 other links already that were in "violation"  posting them in the comments section. as I stated at the start of the Hub and earlier in this topic.
         
         The only link from the above that was left in was the first one from my first poet, all the others are now in my comments. Furthermore, I have written a couple of hubs commenting on customer service and being helpful. One of the ways to improve this is to actually ensure you have all relevant information and make it seem like you actually do so, a simple reading of the first part of my hub and a look through the rest of my comments in this thread would have told you that right now those links have been removed and put into the comments section. This hub is my biggest traffic getter actually and I don't want it pulled for "violations". Now if I were to go back and reinsert each one of those links back into the actual hub, instead of having them in the comments section, would that be in violation. Yes or No?

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         1. 59

            Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            If you want to be safe, keep it at no more than 2 links. If you want to insert more, I suggest contacting our support team, which handles moderation, to make sure that would be OK.

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            1. 54

               janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Can I ask that you check whether RSS entries are affected. Several of mine got flagged.
               Also how do you deal with using URL's to attribute more than two images from the same source, such as Pixabay and other public domain image sites. Does this mean you can only use two images from the same URL  source on one hub?
               Thanks,
               
               PS you're "this is a bug" message was a bit late,  as I wasted 2 hours fixing violations which were probably false alarms. Ho Hum!

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