Why has my hub been flagged

1. 59

   Griser12posted 14 years ago

   Hi,
   
   I've read an e-mail I received with the rules and the ONLY thing I could see was that I had 2 links, so I removed one and still got flagged.
   
   I think I followed the rest of the rules. Any suggestions? Here's my hub URL:
   
   <snipped>
   
   THANKS,

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   1. 60

      Dewey Cheatemposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I can't help but wonder, do you star in that hit television show "The Office". Dunder Mifflin would be a great place to work. Can I send a resume there? I need a job, I'm out of work.

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2. 68

   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   First of all, it's duplicate content. Second of all, it's crap. Third of all, you talk about piano lessons but then link to ads trying to get folks to buy something about guitar lessons. Are you stupid or what?

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   1. 59

      White Teethposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      uh...that is kind of harsh..other than the duplicate content remark...

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      1. 68

         lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I know. I feel kind of harsh today. Apologies -- but only for my tone. Not my content.

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   2. 71

      sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Im glad someone has the courage to state the obvious!
      
      Except for ...for humors sake..did you mistake the large adsense guitar ad..for one that the OP posted?
      
      3w.easypianolessons101.com/
      
      I wouldnt waste time promoting that site yet! ...its not indexed by yahoo ..you have zero chance of beating out any of those keywords in google ...pianolessons101 will beat you every time!
      
      Dont beat a dead horse...that sites a dud, keep working on finding a better niche
      
      This is very honest and worthwhile advice! dont waste your time with that site
      
      zero searches for your title (less than 10)
      
      1900 for your realk title (easy piano lessons) with 4 million competitors !!!
      
      and first page results has PR3 and PR4 comp...u dont stand a chance

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      1. 59

         Griser12posted 14 years agoin reply to this

         To Sunforged:
         
         What Guitar ad are you referring to? I don't see it, and I wouldn't know how to change it.
         
         When I open my hub I don't see any guitar ads. I don't have any intention to promote guitars, I don't even own one, or know much about them. That must have been a mistake.
         
         This is my first post, so unless I clicked on the wrong button, I don't know what happened.
         
         Thanks,

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         1. 71

            sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            I was responding to this post
            
            "First of all, it's duplicate content. Second of all, it's crap. Third of all, you talk about piano lessons but then link to ads trying to get folks to buy something about guitar lessons. Are you stupid or what?"
            
            the person obviously couldnt tell the difference between the standard adesense module location and your own content (which is rather stupid
            of them)
            
            You dont have definitive control of ads..they are based on your content keywords...words like "music lessons" could have easily triggered a guitar music lesson ad etc.
            
            Dont even begin to sweat it...if you something completely illogical showing up repeatedly you can read through your content and try to guess what words are triggering the ads and remove them or rephrase them
            
            
            But i wouldnt worry about it now, there is plenty of other improvements to focus on for now

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3. 0

   Ghost32posted 14 years ago

   Your Hub was undoubtedly flagged for being both overtly promotional (encouraging the reader to click on the link) and also for duplicate content (since the link goes to a page that is the same content word for word). 
   
   HubPages has no problem with members working to earn money through their writings on this site.  However, it is NOT a place to shout, "I am selling this; come buy it!"  And we (I say we because I consider myself a cell in the body of the HubPages community, as it were) REALLY frown on duplicate content.
   
   I did not flag your Hub because you had sincerely asked to find out what you had done to trigger the first flagging.  However, had I come across that Hub in the normal course of checking out work by other Hubbers (which I do when I have time), I definitely WOULD have flagged it.
   
   How can you accomplish your goal and still stay within our "Rules of Engagement"?  Let's say the Hub was titled something like, "Superior Sources For Easy Piano Lessons", for a start.  Then if you followed with ORIGINAL content discussing the desire of many potential students for easy piano lessons online, AND you included not just the source you cited, but SEVERAL solid, competing sources...well, you might just have a winner. 
   
   Of course, the risk in that approach is that some of your readers will end up liking your competitors' sites better than your own.  The plus side, however, is that you will come across not as a salesman but as both a music lover and a writer with something valuable to say.

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   1. 0

      Louidam1posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Great explanation!

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   2. 59

      Griser12posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Ghost32,
      
      I changed the link's URL and modified the title.
      
      I don't see any guitar ads on my hub, do you? If so, how can I remove it or change it. That wasn't my doing, I have no desire to promote guitars.
      
      Thanks for your feedback

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      1. 58

         LVMposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Use Competitive Ad Filter.  Log in to your Adsense account, click the Adsense Setup tab.

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4. 58

   LVMposted 14 years ago

   I think ghost32 was right.

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5. 42

   Neil Ashworthposted 14 years ago

   This is very interesting and provides some clarity to my own current situation - I have also had several articles flagged - in fact all 48 of them within the last 12 hours - which I have written over the last 4 or 5 months without previously encountering any problems.
   
   I have no issue with community feedback and value it but I am uncertain as to whether or not it can also be used malisciously and I would value all your feedback before I review, edit and resubmit my material.
   
   Let me start by saying, of course I enjoy writing, but I am a business man and attempting to also earn and income from my writing - I have three young children, a large debt which I carry heavily and few other options so any valuable feedback in order for me to be accepted into this community would be warmly welcomed and some clarity around my hubs.
   
   All my content is unique, written by me and on topic - two at most affiliate links. No heavy sales copy and a balanced review on material people are hopefully searching for.
   
   I have written several articles on the same topic but from different angles - reviews of different aspects of the business (carboncopypro). Is this considered duplicate content, although all articles are unique and only linked internally to help with SEO?
   
   I also have one or two other articles which are simply stories -"But TheY Like Pies" being one - this has no links other than to another hubpage and has no sales copy - its a story? This has also been flagged?
   
   Any response would be appreciated before I resubmit.
   
   Thank you
   
   Neil Ashworth

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6. 63

   Mishaposted 14 years ago

   Can't say anything about your hubs, cause they are unpublished obviously. Moderators usually do their job properly here, but everybody can make mistakes of course. The proper course of action for you is to re-read the email you received (and you should have received one, unpublishing is not an automated process,  moderator did it) and try to understand what exactly they think you did wrong. Reading help section and Maddie's hub might help too: http://hubpages.com/hub/Overly-Promotional
   
   If you still don't understand, contact them at: team at hubpages dot com.

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   1. 42

      Neil Ashworthposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for the reply - appreciated.
      
      I have gone over the Q&A and although I can see some of the hubs require revision, all 48 have been flagged and unpublished and a fair number are just stories? Still puzzled and as this was a human act even more so - I guess you cant please everyone - I'll go back over it again and thanks for the feedback.

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7. 87

   SimeyCposted 14 years ago

   I recently had a hub flagged. It basically showed a method to create a cartoon from a photo and then pointed to one website.
   I simply updated the content so that it was more generic, and added several links to alternative websites and hubs.

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8. 42

   Neil Ashworthposted 14 years ago

   I have realised why some of my hubs may have been flagged - I have the same content on Squidoo - now, although its my content and Hubpages has no issue with this actually, you can re-publish content but your score is affected - the issue is that you cannot add links to affiliate pages from duplicate content.
   
   So, that explains around 30 of the 48 hubs - but not the others with no affiliate links?
   
   I did post a message on facebook offering a link to see if anyone wanted to pay me to advertise their link on my page - its one which comes up number 1 on google for a competitive term and gets around 100 visitors a day. As this is a competitive market I'm wondering if someone has flagged it while visiting to prevent my hub from generating ad income in this way?
   
   People are strange that way I guess..any thoughts?

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   1. 66

      darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Affiliate links or not, duplicate content with any outbound links is considered over-promotional.

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9. 63

   Mishaposted 14 years ago

   You keep missing the point - flagging has no effect on your hubs if they are within the rules. A million people can flag them, and they still be published. I guess in case of million flags you would receive an email from moderator wondering what is going on, but this would be pretty much it. Flag just triggers a manual review by moderator, no more no less. If moderator thinks hub breaks the rules, action is taken. Otherwise flag is discarded.
   
   So, you found the problem with quite a few of them. Fix the problem and submit them for clearance. Once that done, you can try to figure out what is wrong with other ones.

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   1. 69

      Manila Girlposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      If flagging a hub by anyone de-publishes a hub, I wonder who would be interested in hubbing.

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10. 42

    Neil Ashworthposted 14 years ago

    Thanks Misha - I wasn't missing the point just not aware of it -appreciate the clarity.
    
    That is interesting in that case as the moderator is without doubt incorrect for at least 10 of the hubs which have been removed for excessive promotion.
    
    I will adjust the ones with links in and request further review on the others.
    
    Its all good education!

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    1. 63

       Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Sure, you are welcome. Actually there is a chance that moderator just checked a few of your hubs, and seeing all of the checked ones violating the rules, unpublished all your hubs in bulk. They do this due to workload. This could solve your mystery.
       
       Again, stay in touch with them, send email to the team for clarification, your other hubs may be ok.

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       1. 42

          Neil Ashworthposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          That might be the answer, as some of the hubs removed haven't even had a single visit/viewer.. thanks again Misha.

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          1. 70

             AEvansposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             Wow!!! I can see that everyone gave him great advice what a great bunch of hubbers.

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11. 80

    Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

    Did you read the message you quoted?

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12. 42

    Neil Ashworthposted 14 years ago

    Thanks to all! Here is the answer for anyone wondering why my hubs were flagged..
    
    I just spoke with the team and as Misha had pointed out they had removed all because around 10 had the same RSS feed running through - it was one of my blogs and I had left the full feed in, so it was flagging as duplicate but also they thought it was an affiliate link which it isn't.
    
    I have been asked to resubmit (and if I want affiliate links to remove/delete my duplicate articles on Squidoo - which I am more than pleased to do)
    
    Neil

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13. 61

    Helen Caterposted 14 years ago

    Bet that's a relief for you.The sort of thing I would do.See you not a baddie after all.

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    1. 42

       Neil Ashworthposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       (LOL) Funny! Never thought I was but it's not that easy to convince others sometimes Helen. Anyway, back to the land of the living - thats my weekend gone again - resubmitting 40 articles to rescue my profile ranking which has taken a nosedive!
       
       Dont suppose that matters too much but its nice to see it climb rather than sink.
       
       Interesting enough, the same articles I have ranking pretty well with hubs on google search come nowhere on squidoo - tells you a lot I guess - maybe squidoo really has had its day?

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14. 51

    shamelabboushposted 14 years ago

    You should double check the content of your hub. Another reason, there might be a spiteful fellow hubber who did that? Who knows?

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    1. 80

       Uninvited Writerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Flagging just means administration looks at the hub. You can't get someone's hub removed just by being "spiteful."

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       1. 63

          Angel Of Loveposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Cause if you could, I wonder how much havoc it would bring.

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       2. 42

          Neil Ashworthposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Perhaps not but it can give the flagging hubber a much needed author boost.. quote below from one of darkside's informative hubs; (Hub score and how it is determined).
          
          "your participation in the HubPages community, such as: reading and commenting on other people's hubs; forum activity; flagging content violations; rating other people's hubs (thumbs up and down)"
          
          So, if a malicious hubber wanted to flag others content to increase point score, perhaps there would be some value in this activity?
          
          I'm sure nobody here would ever dream of that kind of action but people are strange sometimes..
          
          It would be interesting to know how often people flag content and why. I can understand the need for this function to keep out the obvious spammers and anyone wanting to publish pornographic or other similar content but wonder does it get abused by some.

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