John has written an excellent article about the sense of community, especially at Hubpages.
https://hubpages.com/community/Keeping-Community-Alive
So much truth in John's article. I joined Hubpages 2 years ago and it felt like a community. Writers would comment on articles, the forums were always busy with new writers getting help from other writers. Everything I learned about Hubpages was from the community. The changes they made negated the whole aspect of the community. Most writers don't even know other writers they share common interests with. It was very encouraging to write articles knowing that you have an audience of writers here that will interact with you on your articles and offer writing tips.
It feels like a ghost town.
On the plus side, the community of poets seems to be thriving. It is the only community I see sharing poems and interacting.
I agree with everything you say, Al. I too miss the old HubPages. New hubbers are constantly asking why they don’t have comments on their articles and where is the comments capsule etc. In fact the Learning Center and HubPage blurbs still speak of the community and commenting as an important part of the site…this seems somewhat hypocritical at the moment.
As you say, on the plus side poetry does seem to be thriving. Others are leaving because they are making less money her now. I write mostly poetry, and my earnings are the highest they have ever been.
I really like this article and relate to so much of it. I check social media sites the same as you. I spend time reading articles and writing. There is a good sense of community at Medium, but like you I do not want to lose the sense of community at Hubpages. I sure hope they make some changes. Thanks for such a heartfelt article, John.
Thanks, John, for sharing this important message. You are correct that we need to take all possible steps to save the Hubpages community. I just hope HP takes some action to preserve the same. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Pamela, for sharing John's message.
Thank you for sharing this article, Pamela. I appreciate your kind comment and am glad you can relate to my sentiments. I am gradually getting used to Medium, but it will take time for me, so I am not intending on leaving here anytime soon. Yes, it does seem to have a good sense of community though.
Thank you, John, for writing this article. Yes, you are right we need to preserve HP community. I also hope HP takes some measures to keep HP writers happy. That way it will be a win-win and both the parties benefit. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing John's post, Pamela.
Hi Rosina, it seems simple doesn’t it..if HubPages and the writers can come to a happy compromise that benefits all. I hope continue to hope that all the changes they are making are experiments to find out what works and what doesn’t and that eventually they make the right decisions.
Thank you for your continued support.
John, I share your love of the HP community, but I find it cumbersome to use the forum to communicate. It's difficult to find articles, and even when comments are made, they are eventually lost to the ethernet, not tied to the original post by the author.
It's a conundrum. On one hand, like you, I want to remain in touch with my HP friends. But, if we use this "workaround" method, where is the incentive for HP/Maven/The Arena Group to reinstate comments?
I agree with you, Linda. When the forums workaround to commenting was first brought up, I said the same thing. There's no reason to restore comments as they were (directly on each article with notifications of same) if people are finding a way around it. Commenting in the forums does nothing for visibility of the actual article(s) as far as SEO leading to organic search ranking. The forums have become more of a social media center rather than what they were intended to be.
I appreciate your thoughts, John. But HP will never be the same again. Setting aside the cumbersome, nearly invisible, and completely useless commenting compromise, the articles themselves are becoming more and more buried inside ads and pop-ups. If I were a new reader and happened upon one of TAG's HP pages thru organic search, I'd click out within seconds.
Hey Shauna, thank you for your valued input. I do hate how ads and pop-ups are ruining the reader experience of our articles at HubPages. While Matt keeps saying they are still working on a viable comment solution to both comments and ads, I still have hope..as naive as that sounds.
There is another viable alternative to commenting other than forums of course..simply email the author. I probably get half my comments that way. Who knows, maybe HubPages will be sold again to some more community minded entity.
John, email is fine and dandy, but that takes time and only boosts the author's ego. It does nothing for search engine recognition. I, frankly, don't have the time to leave HP, find an author's email address (if I don't already have them as a contact in gmail) and send them a note. I'm still working full time and don't have time to bounce around. I don't want to come off sounding cold, but when it comes to the theme of this thread and your article, "It wasn't broken", so why did HP think they needed to fix it? Now, it's broken. Period.
All good, Shauna. For most authors you don’t have to leave HP to look for their email address, you just click on “contact author” (if they have allowed emails) and can email them from the site about that particular article. True, it may just boost their ego, but I wasn’t sure comments on the hubs really helped search engine recognition anyway.
I know the Contact Author thing, John. But you have to leave the article to do so. Comments do count towards articles ranking in the search engines. Google has an article that talks about ranking, bounce rates, etc.
Once upon a time ago when I Googled myself, quite often comments I've made on articles would show up in addition to my own. Now not so.
Hi Linda. You are right about comments on forums being lost to the ethernet after they are made rather than tied to the actual article, however at least the writer gets some acknowledgement from their peers and it does let us keep in touch.
I am the forever optimist and I just see this as a workaround until there is a fix, and a string to keep the community connected. It maybe that this is the place I started writing and I am just too stubborn to give up.
Maybe, I will be more inclined to write more on Medium when And if I become a paid member there, but I won’t commit to that until I am making at least $5.00 per month to cover the subscription. Thank you for your views.
John...
A wonderful article which I hope someone from Hubpages or the power to be might take the time to read.
It's awful logging onto Hubpages & seeing many of my friends no longer here.
I love having a place for my articles to have a home. A place where others can read some of my work.
But all the things you mention are valid concerns.
Especially breaking up our poetry. Quite frankly...a poem needs to be kept together.
Not broken up into bits with ads. I personally have lost readers who have told me The ads pop up.
But as for the Community...Hubpages is the best.
Even those who only jump on occasionally, are still part of my family.
I honestly don't know how I would have survived without the kindness of my Hubber Friends.
As far as the forums...I'm glad we can post there and get feedback.
But...I do wish they would let an author post his/Her own work I steady of waiting for someone else to post it.
Then again.. when someone else post it, you get an immediate feel of what your article means yo them.
I love writing. I love my Hubber Friends.
I won't abandon ship just yet. Who knows....maybe we can surpass those other sites with a little bit of help from Hubpages.
Personally...I think we can accomplish anything we want...if they only give us the right pathway.
Brenda, thank you for your valued contribution to the discussion. I am one of those stoic individuals who doesn’t give up easily. I can tell you are too. I hope someone from HubPages reads this, they have to don’t they to decide if it can move to a niche site, Discover or whatever? But, whether it makes a difference is another story.
I must say the few staff members I have had the chance of having dialogue with over my articles etc have been very amiable, they just don’t seem to get involved of these type of debates (other than the occasional short statement by Matt that all will be okay, or they are working on things.)
I just have a feeling their hands are tied to follow the Maven or Arena Group directives.
It would feel weird sharing my own work on a forum. I find it a compliment if someone else does, but do wish it wasn’t necessary. They still have the original HubPages format available (where comments did work) because old hubs and those not seen as suitable for Discover or the niche sites are still languishing there.
I keep hoping they will realise it wasn’t broken back then and that the changes aren’t improvements. Then common sense may prevail and they will move everything back to that platform. How’s that for wishful thinking?
Thanks John...
I do imagine their hands are tied.
Matt seems to care. At least that's always been my opinion.
It is a great compliment when others post our work. I've actually come to enjoy the forums so much more lately..
But watch out...when we like something, it disappears.
It would be great if they could conjure up a few incentives for us writers.
Toss us a bone. We get hungry for writing opportunities.
Take care & keep smiling. We'll make it.
Amen to everything you said. Dear Brenda,
I am one of the hops on and off people---I have family that needs me at times, I do read many hubs, but they do not know it because I could not comment. This no comment is strange to me and frankly I do not care for it. One can either comment or not--at least we have a choice. We are all busy I know but we need the human communication. I love the new hubbers, but I still want the ones I follow to know I am reading and still care about them. Now, I will be silent for a while.
Bobbi Purvis
John has created an interesting article, especially with respect to the problems that we are facing. I hope the situation improves, but I’m not convinced that it will. It’s a sad situation.
Hello John!
I liked reading your thoughts about keeping the community alive! I feel the same as you and it's the members who can keep this going, inspite of all the unpleasant changes!
Many thanks for sharing the feelings of most of the HP writers!
Thanks for sharing this Pamela!
John, thanks for speaking what I'm sure many of us also want to say. "A true community is . . . about feeling connected and responsible for what happens." (Yehuda Berg) You validated that in your article. If only this owners how much more the writers (and they in turn) would prosper if they allow us that connectedness.
I've been here for 12 years and can tell you the steady decline of the owner's concerns for the writers has been evident the entire time. You can't comment on an article any more? How are you supposed to interact with your readers? They edit hubs at will and often for no obvious reason? Hubs are no longer shareable? I have more than 150 articles here and have not written a new one in years. The only way to connect with the community is via discussions. The owners must be making money off the site or it wouldn't still be here, but every change they make diminishes the community.
by HubPages 3 years ago
Hi everyone! We’re pleased to share an exciting update about comments—we know this is an important feature for many of you. We will only be rolling out our new commenting system on AxleAddict for now, but we will keep you posted on when commenting will extend to our other Network Sites. Here are a...
by Paola Bassanese 16 months ago
Hi,I have been on Hubpages for ten years now and I thought I'd like to write about my experience, like I did five years ago (https://toughnickel.com/self-employment … ifferently).So much has changed in the past few years and I'd like to hear your thoughts about how this platform has evolved...
by Miebakagh Fiberesima 2 years ago
Since the removal of the comment system from Hubpages, writers have seen how hard they readers can project feedbacks on articles and interact with one ajmather. Now, that...
by Misbah Sheikh 2 months ago
What happened to comments capsule on hubs.
by dellea 8 years ago
PROBLEM: Whenever I write a hub on a controversial subject, a number of people create new, fake hub accounts solely for the purpose of posting negative comments and feedback on my hubs and/or threatening me anonymously. These new hubbers have 0 (zero) hubs and no other activity, and they are never...
by Christopher Wanamaker 7 months ago
I just went through all people I have been following and purged the ones that have no articles and no activity. I am quite surprised to see how many people have left HubPages over the years and I wonder what made them leave in the first place. I understand the volatility of writing online but there...
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |