Hubhopping nightmares...

1. 68

   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   I've been doing a bit more hubhopping than usual the last few days, and what I'm seeing is downright scary. I would have to say that a full one-half of the hubs I've read were nothing more than stolen content -- 100% plagiarized. Most of the remaining hubs were pure garbage and/or totally unreadable. Here's a sample:
   
   Excursus from the wonted places you would look to gain a maize tool there is a healthy industry for using maize poppers in businesses for a variety of reasons including customer retentiveness and obligation unsatisfied kids inhabited patch parents outlet for products.
   
   What the heck is going on? Is it a full moon or something?

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      CMHypnoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Full moon and at least one bottle of vodka!  LOL!

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      cloverleaffarmposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I hub hop all the time, and I honestly have never noticed stolen hubs. I have seen "copied idea" hubs, and that aggravates me...especially when I know they were ideas from me. "Get your own ideas, man".
      I don't flag these, as it would be impossible to prove. I do however flag the ones that have obviously stolen pics. The ones that are like the one you wrote about get flagged as "low quality".  I feel bad flagging, but gee, get with the program.

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   skyfireposted 13 years ago

   Spinner 

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3. 83

   donotfearposted 13 years ago

   Sounds like psychosis to me......

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   CASE1WORKERposted 13 years ago

   think all of us who can string three words together better go hopping

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5. 78

   nell79posted 13 years ago

   That's terrible! Wow! I can't even make out what it's supposed to say with any surety. Yikes!

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   rebekahELLEposted 13 years ago

   It is amazing what some people publish. 
   I'm no longer amazed at how many people don't read TOS or general guidelines before writing or posting in the forums.

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      skyfireposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      People ? No. I guess there are some bots cracking captchas lately so chances are there this article is bot posted.

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7. 68

   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   I just hopped 10 more hubs, and sure enough--five of them were stolen. And yes, they were stolen, not "duplicate." I don't believe The Food Network gets their content from HubPages.
   
   This stolen cr*p even has people commenting on them. Like this one:
   
   ht tp://hubpages.com/hop/#/Top-luxury-foods-in-the-world
   
   Stolen from ListVerse who originally published it in 2007:
   
   http://listverse.com/2007/08/06/top-10-luxury-foods/
   
   Stop the madness!

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      brandonhart100posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I really think it's getting worse.  I'm trying to do 20-30 hubs every day and a lot of them are short, full of links, and spun.

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8. 88

   IzzyMposted 13 years ago

   On a similar vein but slightly off-topic, I am sick to death of seeing spun and plagiarised content on page 1 of Google just because some half-wit bought a domain name using searched-for keywords.
   I thought the new Google changes were supposed to clamp down on this?
   
   off to hub hop.

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      skyfireposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Unfortunately google never took action against plagiarized content and sites. Take a look at number of sites hosting content that is copied from hubpages. 
      
      metroadvice .com
      birdscagesforsale. com
      tutorialwordpress. com
      -
      and list goes on.. (i have more than 100 autoblogs list in spreadsheet)
      
      Even comments from yahoo answers, hubpages answers are found on these sites as part of their ranking content.

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      1. 68

         Michael Willisposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I found one of my football hubs copied and pasted on Rootzoo.com Even the pictures, divider bars...everything!  I have sent a DMCA, but no response.

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      thisisoliposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      They will be coming in to play over the next few months

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      1. 68

         lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Seriously, Oli, with the amount of dupe, stolen and spun content I'm finding, do you think that stuff will hurt us at all, or would Google just ding on a hub-by-hub basis?

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9. 68

   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   Agreed, Brandon.
   
   Okay -- so this one was just too funny and I had to share:
   
   Flatbottom our youngest son, who is digit, is acquisition how to use the Whirley Pop Corn popper.
   
   Do ya think someone really named their son "Flatbottom?"

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      IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      

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      To Start Againposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I thought MY son was the only Flatbottom! So much for being original....

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      nell79posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Even after a very long night up with a sick baby, that one got me laughing. I had to read it twice though HAHAHA!

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      lorlie6posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Only if their last name happens to be 'boat!'
      But seriously, this sort of 'content' embarrasses me.  But I guess that's the problem with writing sites such as HubPages-anyone can publish here, and it's up to us to 'police' activities, and bring problems to the attention of the team if need be.

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10. 0

    EmpressFelicityposted 13 years ago

    I did a bit of hub hopping yesterday and found two hubs that were duplicate (probably stolen) content.  And there were a couple more that were just plain cr*p.  Depressing.
    
    If anyone's unsure how to establish whether a hub is duplicate content, it's very easy to check - just copy and paste the first couple of sentences of the hub into Google's search bar.

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       nell79posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for that, I was wondering how you would be able to tell.

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          jbosh1972posted 12 years agoin reply to this

          I saw a lens on squidoo that was copied word for word from Wikipedia! Now sometimes I may use a sentence or paragraph from another source but at least I say where I get the info.

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    2. 68

       lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Actually, I usually go to the middle of the hub and grab a couple of sentences. I've found quite a few that have had a unique intro paragraph, but the rest of the hub was copied verbatim from somewhere else. I guess they do that because most people do grab the first few sentences!
       
       As for recipes, the ingredients list is not copyrighted, but the actual prep methods are. I just grab a few sentences from there and ignore any intro the hubber may have put on it.
       
       Edited to add: BTW, I think Habee is on a hub publishing binge, and the recipes sound GOOD! Way to go Habee!

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          EmpressFelicityposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Good tip, thanks.  I'll bear it in mind next time I hop (I don't do it very often, 'cos I find it a bit dispiriting tbh).

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11. 77

    American_Choicesposted 13 years ago

    Hub Hopping is a valuable tool for all writers.  It is surprising what is out there.
    
    Often when I hop hubs, I sadly find at least one that must be reported to the team at Hub Pages.   The percentage of the time that Hub Pages is guarding is amazing.
    
    I don't look for copied content so the percentage is even higher.
    
    Kudos to Hub Pages staff for keeping us on target.  Hub Hopping gives us a true picture of the great management team and practices that this writing site has created.

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       KristenGraceposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I find much more than ONE hub when hopping, and I don't usually report it unless I KNOW it's poor quality or spam.
       
       It's a shame for HubPages, but I will say, in the same breath, there are many dedicated and talented writers out there, and I appreciate reading all of your work

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       1. 68

          lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Agreed. I did find a few gems in the midst of the garbage. Those few hubs are the reason why I do hubhop to begin with. Although I do flag each and every hub that is spun, pure garbage or stolen.
          
          @Izzy - Yup. I don't check the known hubbers either. I know those guys feel the same way we do about this stuff!

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       Howard S.posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I generally have to go through a few just to find one that doesn't need to be flagged--and I haven't even been checking for dup content. (yet)

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12. 88

    IzzyMposted 13 years ago

    Well I went hub hopping and got fed up hitting the flag button after a while.
    One, on kitchen units, used the word "f*ck" instead of screw or whatever word it was supposed to be. It was unreadable!
    Yet another was calling for the UK govt to hand out heroin to addicts like him instead of methadone. Not sure if that is against adsense TOS but probably is.
    It seems that nearly everything was copied except those hubs from well-known hubbers.(which I'm assuming wasn't copied, I didn't actually check those, but hubbers don't get hubberscores in the 90s with stolen content).

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    1. 78

       nell79posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Wow, I've never come across anything that blatant while hopping before.
       
       As for the herione hub, I'm sure it probably is against google TOS since I know a blogger who lost her adsense account for blogging about her life as a cancer patient and it included the use of medical marijuana. I know she fought it, but I don't think they ever gave it back to her (which is ridiculous, IMO). Though I think the heroine hub is a completely different aspect of the whole drug issue. Haha

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    2. 90

       rmcrayneposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       
       
       That sounds right, but I can tell you that you can achieve 3 yrs on HP, nearly 800 seemingly good hubs (usually copied from several sources vs just one), and an author score in the mid-80s...

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       1. 88

          IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Well that just.........sucks!
          I hope the Google changes will force HP to stop permitting stolen content.

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13. 88

    IzzyMposted 13 years ago

    Guess I'm the odd one out then cos I don't hub hop to look for gems. I hub hop purely and simply to look for garbage and flag it. I (we all) want to write on a quality site so we have to help the staff get rid of the trash!

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    1. 81

       Mark Ewbieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       No need Izzy.  Just check in at chez Ewbie for some real gems.
       
       Sorry, if that sounds like self promotion, it's meant just as a joke. Which I've now spoiled by explaining.
       
       You have to be so careful these days.

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          IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          

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    2. 95

       wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Izzy, I'm with you.  I mostly hub hop looking for garbage - I actually read and enjoy very few of them.
       
       I guess I'll have to start looking for stolen material now as well, though.

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       1. 87

          Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Well, if you look at the link to Hub Hopping on your Statistics page, it says
          "Help us out, Hop some Hubs". 
          So clearly, HubPages expects us to use the hopping feature for exactly that purpose!

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             wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             That's the way I see it, Marisa.  Occasionally I will read one I really like and vote it up, but mostly I either mark it down, flag it or just pass on by.  Rarely do I actually read it - I'm kind of a strange duck I guess, with odd interests.

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14. 95

    leahleflerposted 13 years ago

    Hmm... there is a free downloadable program called Paper Rater that will detect plagiarism. There are also free online tools that will search the web for written content to detect plagiarism.
    
    The poorly written content is horrible. I have a feeling this is why eBay stopped giving accounts to hubbers (which makes me sad, because I would have loved to have had one)!

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15. 59

    Smart Rookieposted 13 years ago

    I've flagged a bunch of auto-translated, auto-spun into surreal poetry hubs, but I didn't realize the generation of them was this out of control.
    
    Although it is scary, and an insult all of us who are putting effort into creating worthwhile content, some of the stuff I've seen is so bizarre, I can't help laughing at it. 
    
    "Mostly, you belike already bonk virtually Vizio, they are one of good manufacturers of LCD Video in the Unpartitioned States"
    
    the Unpartitioned States
    
    Anyway, I'm off to do some hub-hopping.

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    1. 68

       lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       LOLOL!
       
       Here's one for ya:
       
       The mistakeke fixedthe attention of citizensns just nowd collectionlection social networks abuzz with many users commenting on the mistakeke.

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          Mark Ewbieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Hey!!  That's one of mine.  What's going on here?  It's a witch-hunt I tell you.
          
          Ok, it looks bad out of context, but the rest of that hub was fabulous.

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             lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             

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16. 83

    CMHypnoposted 13 years ago

    Just found a good one - can anyone translate?
    
    
    'Daddy diaper bags ordinarily come in messenger bag types. That is due to the fact they are a lot more convenient to wear along. They are also created in various ways that might suit the style of daddies'

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       IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       

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          CMHypnoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Being a Brit I didn't even know that 'daddy diaper bags' existed, but have done some research and yes you can buy diaper bags for daddies, the term daddy diaper bags attracts 1600 global monthly searches and apparently they make the perfect Valentine gift (OMG!) So, on your hubmarks, get set, go create a hub - don't think that any of us would have trouble outranking this one! LOL

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             IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             ROFL - you're on your own with this one! I don't care how many searches it gets - no way!! I couldn't type for laughing!

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17. 76

    shoganposted 13 years ago

    Wow, I just hit "hop" and the very first article I came to was ripped off from another site.  I didn't realize the problem was so widespread here.

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       IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I don't think any of us did until HP introduced the hub hopping tool a few months ago.

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          shoganposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Well, I didn't know the tool was only a few months old, either. 
          I'm learning all kinds of things today!

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18. 77

    brimancandyposted 13 years ago

    It seems to me that a majority of the really short hubs are created for nothing more than having lots and lots of hubs that might generate income. I have seen some that are so short, they are just a couple paragraphs with pictures, and you can look at them for a few seconds and be done. I don't care for those.
    
    I especially don't like a hub that has almost nothing to it, on a topic that I am interested in. I almost feel that I have wasted my time looking at it. There are also a few out there that seem like they are nothing more than someones attempt at telling a long joke.
    
    But, for those of you who put out informative and interesting hubs, I say thanks. There are some really good ones out there.

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19. 71

    yenajeonposted 13 years ago

    I've never hubhopped before until now and look at the very first hub I "hopped"!
    
    To head your Hotel Rimini   magical and a woolgather get real, there are a show of ritual venues getable to match every ambit and enough and solon party planner to assure that your day is rightful!
    
    LOL

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       IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       
       They are fun to try and read - you can't help but smile before you hit the flag button

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    wildernessposted 13 years ago

    I must be living right.  Out of about 15 just hopped, no spun hubs and only 1 copied.  Only a couple short ones, and they weren't the 50 word ones - just too short for me.

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    1. 68

       lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Well, this just goes to prove that there is hope after all!

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    lrohnerposted 13 years ago

    Well, I just hopped another 15. Only two were stolen (definitely stolen - sites like IMDB don't get their content from HubPages), two were spun, two were barely understandable (someone new to the language maybe?) and one was 46 words and a picture. Definitely better than what I have been seeing.

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    DIYweddingplannerposted 13 years ago

    Dang!  I wish I had heard of the name Flatbottom before I named my son Wolfgang!
    Seriously, I had noticed the same thing while hopping and what got me was some of them had a higher hubscore than some of my legitimate, original, from my own mind hubs.  What the heck?!

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23. 95

    leahleflerposted 13 years ago

    I didn't use the hopping button, but I did go through some new hubs (from the top tab, under "Hubs" and "latest"). I found three within the first two pages that were blatant adult material or spam. One had no words and was a series of pictures, including adult content and one picture was superimposed with a blog link. Ridiculous!

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24. 95

    leahleflerposted 13 years ago

    I just used the hub hopping tool and just about died laughing. The first hub I ran across was one titled: "Selling comb to balled headed man."
    
    Oh, the poor men with balled heads! ROFL!

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       lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       

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25. 0

    Shayla Ebsenposted 13 years ago

    Shouldn't it be on the shoulders of the creators of HubPages to ensure all hubs being created aren't plagiarized content? It seems logical that Hubs should automatically be run through a plagiarism checker before publishing is approved... I'm not a programmer but it doesn't seem like this could be too terribly difficult to incorporate into the system.

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26. 95

    leahleflerposted 13 years ago

    I doubt any of my hubs have been copied yet, but how do you check to see if your material has been plagiarized? Do you just put a portion of your hub into google and see if other sites pop up with the copied content?

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       lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Check out Edweirdo's HubDefender. It's fabulous!

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          leahleflerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks- I'm off to read it!

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    princess gposted 13 years ago

    article spinners rteally piss me off

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