HubPages CNet Article - the Anti-Content Farm?

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   Pandoras Boxposted 13 years ago

   "Regardless of the changes Google makes, we will continue to strive to create the most rewarding place to publish online and continue to innovate for our fantastic community," Edmondson said in a statement, adding that had the algorithm worked as Google wanted it to, he would have expected to see HubPages content with higher "HubScores" ranked more prominently in search results. "While we welcome changes that improves quality, and we hold our authors to the highest UGC (user-generated content) standards--much more comprehensive and strict than Google's YouTube. We feel that too much high quality content is suffering as part of this update. We haven't seen any change in traffic from Google to higher quality Hubs (articles) since the update. This is disappointing."
   
   A HubPages representative told CNET that internal metrics did not correspond to Sistrix's findings, and that it's still too early to tell what the long-term implications of Google's actions will be.
   
   Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20037 … z1FMiMKFHq

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      Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I could read that with a jaundiced eye and decide that Paul thinks there is nothing that needs to change at HP...

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   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   I should zip my lip here in an effort to remain all HP-warm-and-fuzzy, but...
   
   I find it rather disgusting that Paul opted to make his first public statement about this whole thing a PR opp instead of addressing the HP community directly.
   
   And I found it very interesting that he equates high hubscores to "quality" content. As far as I can tell from my hubs, traffic and comments plays a huge part of hubscore -- not quality. I've seen spun garbage that has a higher hubscore than some of my hubs.
   
   I just lost quite a bit of respect for Paul.

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      ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, although I am open minded, there is a small chance that a journo squeezed a couple of quotes out of him and managed to string together an article out of it... rather than a pre-arranged interview in which he considered his statement.
      
      Albeit, we could do with some additional communication. On a positive note, he is fighting the corner for Hubpages. I would hope that his insistance that Hubpages is high quality will go hand in hand with some stricter publishing conditions though, because that seems to be the general response in the wider market.
      
      There is tonnes of great stuff here, but more could be done to weed out junk (and not just new junk but also retrospective junk). Personally I think that there should also be a huge "Improve Your Hub Challenge" inititiative too.
      
      You know, 30 improved hubs in 30 days, all that shizzle

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      Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Starting popular threads in the forums increases Hubber score too.  Getting a bunch of folks really incensed at  your opinion is worth two or three points easily.

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         dingdondingdonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Well then, on that note may I just say that I hate puppies and I keep a collection of them to kick in my free time.

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            ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Great idea!

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            waynetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            evil....!

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            ewd76posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            You too?

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         lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Well then, I'm surprised your hubber score isn't significantly higher!

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            Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            It was - when I started some big controversial threads.  And it stayed there until they petered out.

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         I am DB Cooperposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Ah, so that's why people start those stupid "Let's count to 1 million" threads.

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      Maddie Ruudposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Actually, Paul did respond to the community with a blog post several days ago.
      
      Also, while I am torn in that I sincerely want to reassure all of you, I'm not sure what any of us could have said, other than "we're on it," which I did say.  Instead of spending the weekend sucked into back-and-forth in the countless forum threads, we all put our heads down and did something much more ultimately useful--continued to work for the betterment of the site.

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         dingdongposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Great team!

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         Don Simkovichposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Maddie, for posting this. I know I've written high quality content. I just did an interview with two owners of a fabric company in LA. I've seen Ezine articles send out emails in response to this as well.

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      sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I think both Google and HubPages would consider traffic and comments marks of quality. A comment should show that a reader stayed on the page rather than clicking back or immediately leaving through an ad and also was stimulated by the quality of the content enough to interact.
      
      It also makes a page dynamic and shows that it is still relevant and timely.
      
      If Google was only sending sites that it finds to be "quality" traffic, then in turn HP should consider traffic a quality indicator.
      
      I suspect some elements of wishful thinking in Pauls comments, but it makes sense that Paul would stand by his algorithm just as google stands by theirs. Probably from a macro level, the hubs that fall in the 80-100 range are mostly top overall quality and the ones that stay in the nofollow range are not of great quality.
      
      And Hp would rightfully expect that if Google switch was quality focused then some reflection should be seen in HP's vast portfolio - but as everyone knows the algo flip just helped established ecommerce, ancient outdated forums and content and eHow - oh yeah and scrapers

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         Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         That's the problem, for them and us.
         
         We don't know WHICH of many possible reasons has caused this.
         
         It would be foolish for HP to delete all duped content if that is NOT part of Google's gripe.  There is no point in getting tougher about spammy stuff if Google doesn't think we are above its magic percentage for crap.
         
         There would be no point in removing hubs with links from spammy sites if the percentage is again too low to affect us and there is no point in changing internal linking structures if THAT isn't what made Big G roll its eyes.
         
         HP needs to figure out WHERE the problems really are.  That's the hard part. Fixing them is much, much easier.

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   skyfireposted 13 years ago

   Why i respect HP ? Because staff is not gaming SE like any other content farms. I found plenty of articles on IB with 1 or 3 views but 100+ FB likes. Not taking a shot on IB but have to openly admit that why HP staff deserves *rant-time-out* during this period.
   
   
   
   

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   Pandoras Boxposted 13 years ago

   Huh. That makes sense. I went months and months without publishing but as long as I was active in the rel and pol forums I always enjoyed high 80's and low 90's anyway.
   
   It's a traffic draw I guess. Makes ya wonder why they don't monetize the forums.

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      ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Forums are notoriously difficult to monetize, the CTR for AdSense on a typical forum can be something like 0.1% so it really isn't worth the hassle.
      
      It would also mean 24 hour per day constant moderation, and topics being banned. It's bad enough not being able to write about certain topics for Hubs, yet alone being banned about talking about gambling or sex on here!

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         Pandoras Boxposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Good point, Ryan, that makes sense.
         
         
         On another note, I was making no observation myself, merely providing the link.
         
         (kiss kiss)

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   Mark Knowlesposted 13 years ago

   Personally - I am glad he is out there fighting for my content and promoting the site rather than in here telling me not to worry.

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      skyfireposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      +1

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      livewithrichardposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Same here!!!

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      rebekahELLEposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'm so in agreement here. I'm sure he's been contacted by numerous media outlets for comments and response.  As far as not speaking to the community first, well, they let us know last week that new advertising changes were on the way, plus his own blog post.
      It's his business that's at stake, I'm pretty certain he's doing whatever he has to do to move forward in the business community. HP reputation is at stake. I'm glad to see he's out there fighting the fight!

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   frogdroppingposted 13 years ago

   I've been interviewed a few times over the years. Always the same: what I meant and said wasn't close to what got read
   
   No idea how it went and tbh I'm square with some pr. Someone better because we're getting a kicking all over. That cheeses me off more than the algo change.
   
   So Paul can get himself around and remind everyone just how great this site is/can be. Hell I'd drive him there if he'd get in my frog-mobile

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   Froggy213posted 13 years ago

   Thank you Paul.
   He is out there fighting for us and I see people whining.
   Take it from a guy who has been here at hub pages a long time, Paul and Robin have us all as their priority. They know if we are happy, they are happy.
   I have tried out many writing sites and no one has been more personally involved than Paul and the staff at hub pages.
   This is not a butt-kissing but an honest statement. I would be the first to jump if I thought Paul was doing wrong, but I agree with how he is handling this whole thing.
   Count your blessings, at least you are not in Egypt with no internet or a means to publish your thoughts and ideas.

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      Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I agree.  I mean at least he's out there trying to do something, what more can we ask.

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   Mark Ewbieposted 13 years ago

   Sigh.
   
   That's all.  Just sigh.
   
   Oh and say hi.  But not yet goodbye.
   
   Maybe soon.
   
   ...
   
   There ya go - that's high UGC content and that's what rakes in the traffic - or did until Friday.
   
   No need to change.

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   Len Cannonposted 13 years ago

   It is a mostly positive article on cnet, that is a pretty big deal. It would be nice to hear a statement from the team HERE, but I think I feel even better having the entire world hear good things instead of having my ego stroked on the forums.

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      Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I agree

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    Jason Menayanposted 13 years ago

    Sit tight, folks. Maddie's right when she says we're on it. Things are very, very (very) busy here, but Paul is readying a second blog post which we hope to have up shortly. No one should think that we're ignoring this. (We're posting on the blog since it's more widely read by our community and beyond)
    
    Paul's been asked to speak to many different media outlets over the past few days, and naturally will not miss an opportunity to share what we've noticed about the update (the substance of which is similar to what he shared in his previous blog post)

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       Mutiny92posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       thanks Jason and Maddie!  I look forward to seeing the plan of action to 1) remove old, bad content; 2) address the variance between Google's definition of quality and HubPages definition; 3) lay out a path to keep HubPages well respected (read: good positions in SERPs)
       
       Thanks for the hard work!

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          Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          As I said above, we don't know what actions need to be taken, so there is no point to a plan until that is known.

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             Mutiny92posted 13 years agoin reply to this

             you're right!  It will be interesting to see what those actions are.

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                IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                I'm getting all excited now waiting for something good...

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       Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       It wouldn't hurt to put a link to it in "OfficialHubPages Announcements" as it is an .. umm .. Official HubPages Announcement..

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          webismineposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          This would be fine, considering how many hubbers do not visit the HP blog at all.

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       frogdroppingposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I think we are, for the main. Reckon we're sat more squirmy than tight but we're still sitting.
       
       I've seen some sad stuff though, have to admit. Companies that are already considering who to lay off if the dust doen't settle a bit more fairly. And I'm talking about the guys that don't deserve to be buried under the dross that's now risen to the top.
       
       Anyway, both - and everyone else in the office, thank you.

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    Spacey Graceyposted 13 years ago

    My traffic's still a big pile of pants but relieved to hear from HP team so off to celebrate with an enormous glass of whisky and coke.
    
    Thanks team.

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       Mutiny92posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Spacey Gracey - you could just ask for donations now that the views are in the tank.  http://hubpages.com/hub/Help-is-very-much-appreciated  Gotta make up the income from the SERP-busting of the past few days!
       
       I LOVE hubhopping!  These are hilariously poor quality. 

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          Spacey Graceyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          lol - maybe I should just post up my home address and you can all send me tea bags and whiskey - the two things I need to cope day and night with the trauma

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    prettydarkhorseposted 13 years ago

    a very positive write up here - http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/201 … ATD_skybox

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       Susana Sposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Interesting read! I would love to know which hubbers have been in with the testing (I usually get asked to do some of that, but not this time )

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          prettydarkhorseposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Positive improvements about to be implemented isn't it? Maybe you were included, you just didn't know, LOL or they just culled it from their data.

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             Susana Sposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             Very positive No I definitely wasn't in - I'd be grinning from ear to ear if my income had risen 60% I could sure do with kind of increase right now....

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                prettydarkhorseposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                Def we were hit but love to see the extent of it coming from our own data not sistrix etc, but of course it is for the HP management management to analyze it.
                I need that 60 percent increased too, LOL

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    IzzyMposted 13 years ago

    http://blog.hubpages.com/2011/03/

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