Editbot- Milestone for HP -Compulsory Edits to Hubs, Bypassing Authors

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   janderson99posted 8 years ago

   If you stand back, and take a breath, you will realise that Editbot marks a major change in intervention by HP for the content of hubs. The following points are relevant:
   
   => The introduction of subdomains was heralded as an opportunity for authors to 'do their own thing' within the rules and be in charge of their own destiny. If you were good at it you did well, if not you failed.
   
   => Various previous site-wide changes such as the number of product capsules were only imposed after the author edited their hubs in response to suggestions. I cannot think of a previous instance where compulsory edits were thrust upon writers, rather than involving them to do the editing themselves.
   
   => The Hubpro program started the intervention, rewriting and editing hubs, but it was voluntary (you could opt out) and the author had the opportunity to edit and revert the proposed changes BEFORE they were accepted and went live.
   
   => Hubpro Basic was the next step by HP. It is compulsory, but the author has the opportunity to work with the editor and make reversions for things they do not like. One of the interventions related to 'style'
   
   => Editbot is a major new development as the edits are made ( done deal), before the author has an opportunity to accept them. Sure the author has the opportunity to revert to the other option to correct Editbot mistakes, but only after Editbot has changed every hub on the site, that Editbot deemed to contain errors. The poor way that Editbot was implemented, without the ability to have the tag disappear once the suggested edits have been accepted or not after being viewed by the author is symbolic of a change of attitude and approach. The edits sit on top of the original content, and bypass the original version of the text. The original author's text is not changed, the edits sit on top (take, leave it or change it).
   
   I would have preferred the other approach, which was for Editbot to highlight potential spelling errors with suggestions. It would be up to the author to make the changes to the ORIGINAL TEXT. But now the edits sit on top of the content and HP has the ability to thrust similar changes on the content is similar ways. Editbot may be run monthly and so we can all expect this process to continue. I suspect that similar edits and changes will be thrust upon us.
   
   I fear that the respect for authors and their content is gradually being eroded by Editbot. This is disturbing!

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      thegeckoposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      So far all the edits have been for content inside of people's comments on my Hubs. I smirked

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      makingamarkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I made the point about the level of interference with HubPages content becoming out of control a while back - in relation to copyright.
      
      To my mind setting up a system which attempts to remedy problems with people who have poor English while alienating people who can write - who then transfer their content elsewhere - could spell the beginning of the end for HubPages.
      
      IMO HubPages needs to think very carefully about the business ramifications of interfering with people's content - WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT.
      
      After all, it's very easy to pick up all the content on a hub and remove it, deindex the URL and set it up on a site where nobody is going to "tell you" about spelling, grammar and how many links to a domain and Amazon modules you can have.
      
      [NOTE re context: I have lots of very long hubs (several thousand words) which have incredibly few editbot changes - average seems to be about 1 - and that's often in the comments. I'm very irritated by any changes which I don't get to vet first BEFORE implementation. Plus traffic continues to increase exponentially on all the content I've removed and placed on my own sites. Just saying.... ]

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      Matthew Meyerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Marina just posted an update related to EditBot here.
      http://hubpages.com/forum/post/2767050

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