The little red "C"...

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   FatFreddysCatposted 10 years ago

   When checking my stats this morning, I noticed the little red warning "C" symbol next to two of my older Hubs, which meant that they "may have been copied." This was a first for me, so naturally I got mad, opened up each Hub and clicked on the warning to see who was swiping my stuff, ready to kick someone's virtual ass.
   
   Turns out... it was ME. Duh!!!
   
   The two Hubs in question were written very early on in my Hubbing journey, almost three years ago now. At that time I didn't quite have the hang of properly "promoting" my work yet, and what I'd done was copy/paste the first paragraph of each hub into a thread at a music forum I hung out at, with a note that said "To read more, go here" and a link. Obviously that copy/pasted chunk was enough to set off the warning. It was a total amateur mistake... I had completely forgotten I'd even posted those "promotions," cuz it had been so long ago. I wonder why it took so long for HP's warning thingie to pick up on them? That thread hadn't even been bumped since mid 2011.
   
   Anyway...fortunately I have Moderator status at said music forum nowadays, so I just deleted those two posts from the thread altogether.
   
   Soooo... that should take care of the problem, right? Anyone know if the little red "C's" next to those two Hubs will now go away on their own at some point?

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      Anna Marie Bowmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Sometimes I send a message to HP staff. Sometimes when I do that, the red "C" comes down; sometimes it doesn't. When the re-check, which seems to be fairly infrequently, if the content is removed, they will come down.  I had articles with red "c"'s next to them, that were there for a year after the copied content had been removed.

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      syedshahabposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      i am new here what is the red 'C'?

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         Anna Marie Bowmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         It shows up next to a hub you published to show you that your content may have been copied in part, or in total, on another site. It's the little copyright symbol.

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            syedshahabposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            okay thanks really

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         Ghaelachposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         @syedshahab
         Go to your Accounts page and scroll to the bottom. You will see a list of icons that could/can be next to your hub title. The very last one is a red copyright icon.

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      sheilamyersposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I haven't yet had any of those notices, but I thank you for telling us why you got them. I'll have to remember this so if I ever post a note at another forum site or social network I don't copy/paste any part of my hub there.

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         FatFreddysCatposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Yep, the lesson here is links are OK, but copying/pasting any part of the "body" of the hub might not be.such a great idea....

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            Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Try just posting the HP Summary (Description Tag) with your link.  That gets posted all over the Internet anyway when people link to your Hubs.  As a side note, I always place that at the top of my Hubs so that people can copy it and link to it.  It's only 160 characters (including spaces) and is not considered duplicate content if that's all that is posted elsewhere.

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               sheilamyersposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for that tip Writer Fox.

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                  Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Hi FatFreddysCat,
                  I have a few hubs that still have those little red "c's" on them yet too, even though I've contacted the guilty parties who stole them and they are no longer up on other sites. I don't like seeing them either, but figure it's a waste of time to get worried about them. We are the only ones who see them.

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                     FatFreddysCatposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Yep, I'm not going to worry about it either. Until it goes away, it will serve as a scarlet letter on my stats page, reminding me of my youthful stupidity.

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                        Phyllis Doyleposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                          You are so funny !  I like funny in the forums.

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      moonlakeposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The C on my hub is still there and should be off by now but isn't. The copy it found no longer exist.

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      LOL - I can laugh, FatFreddysCat, b/c I have done this myself (stolen my own hubs). Not just the summary or opening sentences of my hubs, but the whole thing! I write for several sites and have to be really careful what I post to each site. I will have to find a solution to keep track of each article and where I posted it. I am thinking maybe an Excel spreadsheet would be a good idea, so I can always keep the article titles in alpha order.
      
      What I do when I get a duplicate warning, is to unpublish my hub and find out where the duplicate is on another site, delete or replace that duplicate, then come back to HP and publish my hub again for review. Usually it does not take long for HP to review and feature  my hub again.
      
      Also, when I post a link to one of my hubs, I make sure to write a completely different and short notice so as not to duplicate anything.

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   The Examiner-1posted 10 years ago

   What about the link at the other end?

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   FatFreddysCatposted 10 years ago

   OK, thanks for the tip. If it stays there for a while, it stays there. I'm not going to get all OCD about it or anything. Haha.
   
   
   
   ...you mean the link at the music forum? It's toast. I deleted it along with the post(s). The thread they were in was buried waaaaaayyyyy in the forum's archives and hadn't been looked at in a long time anyway, so it's not like I just cut off a major traffic source.

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      The Examiner-1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, that is the one that I meant. I did not know if it was important to delete.

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         FatFreddysCatposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I figured, if nobody's looked at it or clicked on it in two years, nobody's going to be doing it again anytime soon, either.

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   ilikegamesposted 10 years ago

   This little C feature sounds like an amazing inclusion in the Hubpages system, I didn't even notice it until just before. Loving HubPages so far!

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