We have long emphasized that HubPages is not a blogging platform as it is not designed to be a place where people talk only about themselves or their personal lives or publish articles around a fixed theme (HubPages is instead a place to share informational articles that are not necessarily related).
For quite some time, we have actively moderated Hubs that qualify as being “Purely Personal” (we define “Purely Personal” content as that which would most likely only appeal to someone who already knows and cares about the author). Because our Quality Assessment Process now dictates whether or not a Hub gets prominently Featured on HubPages and made available to search engines, these moderations are no longer all that necessary, except for extreme cases in which the Hub in question also borders on being “Low Quality”, a separate publishing policy violation.
Why have we stopped worrying so much about Purely Personal Hubs? If nobody cares about a Purely Personal Hub, it will simply get low ratings, not be Featured, enjoy a peaceful life of solitude, and not run the risk of lowering the perceived quality of HubPages’ collective content*.
We are therefore removing the Purely Personal option from our reporting interface. This will save moderators’ time and spare you the hassle of reporting that which you think may be Purely Personal**. Worry not; those Hubs will take care of themselves.
*I do not mean to say that personal articles are inherently of low quality; they simply do not make sense on a site designed for sharing didactic articles. **We still very much appreciate your help reporting other Hubs that do not meet HubPages’ publishing standards. Thank you for having our backs!
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Oh, really? So, Hub Pages is actually an instructional site, not one for creative, thoughtful, introspective, intuitive, poetic, observational authors? So, we’re all supposed to write “how to” hubs? Since when? It didn’t appear this way in the beginning. Not until you became overly commercial. Now, so many of the articles you highlight are, predominantly, didactic. This is a shame. The most creative among us are those who write from heart, soul and intellect, not instructional. Don’t large companies hire people to write that kind of script?
Hey One Mother Hubber! We definitely want to be a place for creative, thoughtful, observational authors. The content we’re referring to as “Purely Personal” typically does not fall under those classifications. What we are attempting to do in all of our efforts is help people create high quality content that is likely to be found and appreciated by a wide audience. In those instances, everyone wins.
I’m guilty of it. Some of my hubs are with personal content. Thanks for reminding us. 🙂
Simone, can you clarify what you mean when you say that HubPages is not designed to be a place to “publish articles around a fixed theme”?
Many of us have one of more niches, or topics that we write about often, creating many hubs related to a single subject. Each hub addresses a different aspect of that subject, of course, but they could be said to be built around a fixed theme.
One of my HP accounts, for example, has around 20 hubs related to space exploration. I only write about two topics under that account – space exploration and Universal monster movies. Are you saying that this kind of specialization is discouraged?
Great question, Doc Sonic. People on HubPages are certainly welcome to focus on their niche- they simply don’t have to, and it won’t be awkward on HubPages to write a recipe one day and a very intellectual look at quantum physics the next.
We do NOT discourage specialization (quite to the contrary- we love it when people share their unique expertise); we simply don’t require it. 🙂
My last hub about my day with my daughter was unpublished for the reason given of purely personal. In that hub was also ideas and to how to give dogs their meds. Of course no one saw this I am suspecting. So I took almost all my hubs down and am slowly adding some of them back. I had three other sets of hubs that were not considered purely personal that did not get flagged. I would like some consistency in what and how hubs, not only mine but others as well, are moderated. That’s my 2 cents and ironically no matter what I do I can’t seem to cross the barrier of $30.00 per month. Oh and I hired a SEO and they gave me words to use and that didn’t work either. I don’t even think he is here anymore.
I was writing a replay and somehow got interrupted. My point was that I write first person, subjectively, but most often with a lot of embedded information, often, I think, more than in those hubs that are third person and informational. I think I must be on the wrong site, but I am using HubPages to fulfill a couple of very personal needs of a new writer. I am appreciative of that. Perhaps I will use the counseling on a different page about finding a better forum for myself.
I also want to say that subjective writing is not exclusive of valuable information, and I’m surprised that that is even in question.
I like the way HubPages is going. I started writing for this site because I love the professionalism, education, as well as the user-friendliness of the interface. I am getting ready to go into my fifth month as an Apprentice, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. Robin has been a superb teacher.
@Robert H. – I hope “subjective” writing is NEVER considered exclusive of valuable information, or we might as well throw out all the great philosophers and thinkers throughout history to present day.
And as long as we’re talking subjective or anecdotal writing – every stinking thing we do as humans is typically described in one form of metaphor or another. And how about politics? That’s one giant “subjective cesspool” these days. <—okay, okay – politics may be the ONE form of subjective content that is utterly devoid of valuable info. (Heh) Oh, that and Reality Television probably falls into that category as well.