HubPages has always believed in open publishing platforms and giving Hubbers as much freedom as possible to share their knowledge with the world. At the same time we have always taken content moderation seriously and work hard to be great Net citizens. Today, I posted a few questions regarding best practices to the Google Webmaster Forum. For the community of great writers here at HubPages, we will keep you informed as we work to understand the recent Google changes and how to best maintain the platform for all of the writers here at HubPages.
What are the best practices for open publishing platforms due to the recent Panda update? In particular, where high quality content on a domain has been negatively impacted on average as much as any other content? Is it a question of content moderation, site architecture, both or something else?While we believe the democratization of publishing and earning potential is an important part of the progress of the Web, we want to avoid a situation where a portion of content negatively impacts the rankings of high quality content. It appears HubPages has been impacted by this while YouTube has not, despite HubPages having a more strict content policy. In Google’s view, what is the recommended moderation standard that open publishing platforms should enforce?
Open publishing platforms tend to use one of two domain models. WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger organize mainly by subdomain, while HubPages and YouTube organize all the content under a single domain. Is there a recommendation on the best practice for open platforms regarding architecture?
In an effort to give Google clues, HubPages’ internal linking structure promotes the best content. For example, we program the “related articles” suggestions with content that we think users will find useful, and we submit sitemaps with a set priority so Google knows the most important content. We also understand the challenges of fighting off spam, spun articles and various forms of attacks; we believe we do the industry’s best job of fighting spam in an open publishing environment where every individual can have a voice.
Feedback from Google on open publishing platforms best practices is greatly appreciated.
HubPages Blog 
I am looking forward to hearing what Google’s answers will be…
Good luck Paul, and thanks for looking out for us! I want HubPages to gain (and keep) the great reputation it deserves.
Intriguing questions, and I really wonder whether you will get cohesive answers – one can hope so!
I’m very interested to hear what Google has to say. I’m sure HubPages will pull through this and become even better because of the Panda update. Best wishes to us all.
You are right Paul, actually for open publishing platform have been abuse by spamming marketing in the past and hungry marketers who does not care about what they are giving their loyal users. That’s why Google has is trying with the Panda update to give quality article some new light on their Search Engine.