I have a big announcement today that will affect many writers on HubPages. It is my sad duty to announce that the HubPages Q&A feature is being discontinued.
Q&A earns less (both for you and for us) than any of our sites and takes a significant amount of engineer and moderator time to maintain. This section of the site never generated the level of traffic we hoped for at its inception and traffic has been steadily declining in recent years. We believe the resources that go into maintaining Q&A are better spent on improvements to HubPages and its Network Sites, where they will go further and do more good, and that a roughly equivalent user experience can be had by posting in the topical forums instead.
In 30 days (from today), you will no longer be able to make new Q&A posts. Posts that would previously have been Questions should now be posted in the appropriate topical forum. But don’t worry; existing Q&A content is not being deleted. In 60 days (from today) all Q&A posts will automatically be converted to forum posts.
If you would like to keep your Question URL and continue to earn from it, we are also giving you the option to write an article about it. We will provide a redirect. Simply write an article that asks and answers your Question and then email me. We will redirect the Question URL to the new article once the 60 days are up. Keep in mind that writers who choose this option will not have their Questions converted to forum posts (since the URL will point to an article instead).
Do busy authors need to do anything about this change?
No. Taking action is not mandatory. If you do nothing, your Questions will all be converted into forum posts 60 days from today.
Will I still earn from my Questions when they are converted to forum posts?
No, unfortunately you will no longer be able to earn from Questions (and neither will HubPages) when they are converted, which is why we are giving authors the option to write an article instead and retain the Question URL (and therefore the traffic).
Can I ask questions in the forums when I can no longer post in Q&A?
Yes. Anything you would previously have posted in Q&A should now be posted in the appropriate topical forum instead.
HubPages Blog 
Christy, having one site rather than two for these types of things seems reasonable to me. For a long time I’ve wanted to have a way for creative writers here on HP to have their works peer reviewed prior to posting. This could improve the quality of our fiction, essays poetry etc. would the forums work for this? I’m thinking each person requesting a review would have a forum topic all their own. Stories would be posted offsite with a url in the forum. Any thoughts about this idea?
You can definitely use the forums to post about getting feedback for creative works, including those already moved to Network Sites. Does that answer your question?
Christy, thanks. That is helpful. I’m thinking more about using forums to review prior to posting anywhere. If our work is excellent when it is initially published, readers will learn to trust us to always put out good work. I’m going to try to round up some of the creative writing crowd about this.
I guess if the Q&A feature is not doing well removing it makes sense. I kind of forgot about it for the most part until I see the questions show up in searches.
RIGHT MR Eric Farmer
This is an excellent change and one that many experienced Hubbers have suggested over the years.
Yes, a wise decision. I learned a long timeago that the forum is a better place to pose questions and discuss topics…the restriction of 250 characters for reply is too limiting. Thanks for making this change for the better.
Thanks for maintaining it for the years that you did. Hubpages is getting leaner, and the evaluation of what pays and what doesn’t is what makes the site stronger. In the old days, Q&A powered most of my writing ideas. It seemed like often, Paul would pose a question and I would answer it with a hub.
This a definitely a wise decision for both the authors and HubPages, so we can put more attention to our articles.
no more questions just article, i think you do best for us, subject will be more informative and question there will surround with more information.
I find this disturbing. Previously the Ebay capsule was retired. I worry about items being retired without items being added.
Nice.. Thank
I agree with this change because I have published articles that have not been featured and I have traffic because the reader is interested in the content.
I think for the most part this was useless.
Can we still earn money by writing articles??
Yes, absolutely!
Chrsty…….My only question is why it’s taking so long to rid our site of the Q&A. Granted, at one time it was interesting and helpful to us and we enjoyed using it. For the last year or better, can’t Imagine what has happened to Q&A!! It’s disgraceful and beyond a huge joke. You say Q&A’s will be transferred (or incorporated) into the Forums. We can only HOPE there will be a group who takes care of this job and pays CLOSE attention I mean, really Christy…will they be transferring some of the asinine, ludicrous, non-English, NON-Questions, garbage….like
“What I say to my mother?” “How I to make mony by doing on this page?” We’ve had SPAM after SPAM after SPAM along with all this other garbage. “Who can tell me my name & my dog name?” How totally embarrassing for HP!
It’s not as if I haven’t been disgusted enough with what HP has done to me personally, now we have to be insulted by what is allowed to be left up posted THST’s ENOUGH TO MAKE OUR EYES BLEED!
I’m interested for my fellow writers whom I dearly love. Certainly not for myself. While I intend to leave my site up, my participation on HP is all but finished before the New Year, when I will be moving on to bigger, better activities.
For all of the questions I have written in and received either NO response or an automated response which never answered my question…..for all the unjustifiable treatment I’ve dealt with, and every other disappointment I’ve experienced, HP does not even deserve the courtesy of a “Good Bye.”
BTW……yet another wise move by the confused powers that be……..SO WHAT happens to all those who were unjustifiably (as well as thoughtlessly) BANNED from the forums? Just an entire segment a writers making money for YOU who cannot participate in the new forums.? or WILL THERE FINALLY BE A BLANKET FORGIVENESS FROM THE HP GODS? I’m aware there are “some” who have had their alleged LIFE LONG ban from the forums recently lifted. I also know it’s because they’re the big money makers for HP……..has nothing to do with anything else. Money must be the key to those of you who sleep well each night despite being not-such-nice-people…..
I do not expect a response nor do I want one. I’ve heard more than I can tolerate of lies, bullshit and contrived, USELESS responses from HP., beginning with the 2 month I joined…7 long years ago.
This is an excellent change and one that many experienced
This is unfortunate. I actually got far more responses in the Q & A section than in the Forums.
I got an email stating HubPages is teaming with Maven. Do you think this will offset the loss of Q & A?
The two are unrelated, and in fact, the retirement of Q&A is a gain for HubPages in terms of engineer time,rather than a loss. We do hope the merger will also be a positive change.
Thank you,