The Downward Spin of Hubs
59Coming Right OUt
Something strange is happening. And I don't like this strange that is happening. I think I know, why it is happening, but I am sure these results were unintended.
From the moment I joined hubpages I loved it. Actually it took me a little longer than that. But not much. I found the interchange from hub to hub, from hub writer to hub writer to be warm and friendly. I found it easy to become a fan of many, and felt honored - correction - feel honored, whenever someone decided to become my fan. This is such a great place for social networking on a different level.
Fan Clubs and Comments
Lately this seems to have changed, and this is the strange thing I just mentioned. A few new fans have joined my club. I don't expect someone I become a fan of to automatically become a member of my fan club. After all I may not be writing about things or in a style that is compatible to the one I decided to become a fan of.
But there is another strange thing happening. At least on my hubs, but I see it also on others hubs. There are fewer and fewer comments. On my hubs it could just be that what I have been writing lately is not up to standard or of no interest to my fans or others. That I can accept. After all I will never expect that all will like my writings all of the time.
The number and the quality of comments have gone down. A comment, in my opinion, should not just be "Hey, great hub", or "Really cool topic you chose". A comment should be about writing style, about quality of content, I would even say about general layout of hub. It could also be about personal experience related to the subject. Oh, I am sure you know what I am talking about (if you are still reading).
I am guilty of occasionally leaving low quality comments, but lately I see a lot more. Maybe we are just getting tired of commenting?
Sorry State of Affairs
So the question I must ask is: Why this sudden change? Actually, it is not so sudden. It is a process that seems to have been going on for the last couple of weeks. Yes, I can even put a time on it.
This sorry state of affairs began soon after the hubchallenge was started. I completely understand why. In this challenge some are producing one hubs per day, other three hubs per day. That can take a lot of time, and so there is no time for quality comments. Also there seems to much less time for interaction.
The purpose of the challenge was to create more traffic to hubpages in general but also to the specific pages. The traffic was to come both from within, but also from without. It seems that the challenge is defeating its own purpose, at least on the internal basis. I don't know, I don't have any statistics.
Don't Want to Cry
This is so sad to me. Hubpages was not only a place to write and express myself. Hubpages was and is for me a place of social networking on a different level than other social networking sites.
I will no longer be part of the challenge. I will continue to write and create hubs, maybe even every day. But I refuse to be part of the decline in the quality of relationships and comments.
Change in Comments
Have you felt a decline in comments lately?
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BirteEdwards, I agree with you. It's a misunderstanding of the marketplace to think that if you manufacture more of something that used to be rare that you will make more money.
By proliferating hubs, we are reducing the quality and value of each. I'm glad that you had the courage to speak up.
I have been complaining in the forums about this issue. I have had to start scanning hubs that I don't have great interest in and I don't like that. I just can't keep up with all of them. I guess we have a week or so left and then I hope things slow down a bit. Hang in there my friend.
Thank you my friends. All of your comments are quality. Someone had to speak up, and maybe there are others.
Yes, TG, only one week left, and then quality will come back to hubs
Hi Brite, I did a hub on this very issue near the beginning of the hub challenge which generated heaps of comments from both sides. Not sure if you visited that? I did manage the 30 in 30 but was determined not to dumb down my quality just to churn out hubs. No frigging way would I have been able to do a 100 in 30. Some of my hubs during the past 30 days got over 100 comments, and then there were others that didn't get much attention at all. Sadly, the hubs I put the most work into got the least attention.
Cindy, I will look at your hub. Early in the challenge I voiced my concern also.
I have similar experience - hubs I put a lot of effort into on all counts, get few reactions. I wonder - seems there is room for a topic here
Definitely Brite! The more effort you put in, the less views.
So many hubs...so little time! Hub Challenge aside Birte, there is just so much to read out there that people probably tend to spend less time on comments so that they can read more. Don't let that put you off writing though! :)
Feline, I say so in my article, I will go on writing. Comments to me is feedback, and I welcome all feedback. Silence is a kind of feedback. The question is: why the silence?
Birte,
I would say keep writing quality Hubs. Your comment today inspired me to spend time I normally wouldn't have spent writing a Hub which I hope is beneficial to others.
I don't comment that frequently on many Hubs because I do want my Hubs and my comments to be quality and that takes time.
That is what's great here. I do treat hubs a little like social networking, and that's why I comment. But not on all hubs. I also don't read every hub. I do have other things to do in my life :D
I have experienced quite the opposite. Everything has improved for me as a result of the hub challenge. My writing improved, my hubscores improved, my fan base improved, my comments grew, my pageviews have doubled. I think I have produced some of my best work during this challenge.
KKC - that's great to hear, and it is feedback for me as well. Maybe I need to look at what I am writing, and how I am writing to get more feedback.
It was a good learning process and what harm it did will right itself is my suspicion. In the first few weeks I saw traffic and comments go down and quality of "some" go down, but not all. Those who write well, still write well. And some did improve their writing, just by writing more. Don't think we should do it again, as it may have cost the community some respect.
I must admit I too was concerned that quality of the hubs in general would drop simply because everyone partaking in the challenge (especially the 100 hubs in 30 days), would be frantically churning them out so fast that they would pretty much write about anything and to a substandard level. I also found it annoying to suddenly find my inbox inundated with notifications of newly published hubs which I then had to skim through to get to the ones I would genuinely find of interest. I know I could have simply turned off the email notifications, but then I would risk missing a hub that I would want to read.
It never even occurred to me to take up the challenge as I would only want to feel I was producing my best work, plus I would expect to see my page views dropping if I was turning out a hub every few hours as I don't expect my fans to want to spend all their time trying to keep up with reading my hubs.
I think this was a general feeling all the way around. A few exceptions, but on target for the most part.
People don't seem to even be able to check a box in a poll, let alone write a comment.
The only hubs that generate a lot of comments are ones based on subjects that people can argue their viewpoint.
Thanks all, again important imput. I agree that in some cases writing quality went down, but the real writers kept their quality.
I know for certain that I will not do another challenge, on hubs or anywhere else. This has been a great learning experience on all counts, and in a short while when the challenge is officially over we may get some information. I just hope the information will be complete open and honest, including anything that could be perceived as negative. It will never be negative if we learned something from it.
Hello Birte, I have to admit that I struggle enough sometimes to make sure that the hubs I'm putting out are of their top quality, I certainly wouldn't have been able to do the Challenge and keep up with any type of quality! I've only been here on HubPages a short time, but I was here for the beginning of the challenge. And I do think the original idea of the Challenge was great, but maybe next time there could be some things in place to HELP the quality? Like maybe a total word count or number of photos requirement? Just a thought. Either way, I'm sure I won't be part of it, but with all of the great writers here, I'm sure the problems with this Hub Challenge can be ironed out. And as far as the comments go, I'm aweful about leaving short comments! I should look at the comments more as just part of the writing I do here on HubPages. Great hub!
Hi Birte, I am reasonably new to all this, but quite often I don't leave a comment on a Hub that is well written because it already has so many comments and what I wanted to say has already been said far more eloquently than I could have put it! I thought that I didn't just want to leave the 'Great Hub, hope you are having a nice day' type of comments, but maybe I should?
When the hub challenge started I seriously tried however I backed out and returned to somewhat normalcy. Due to my husband's illness I have not been able to comment as much as I should but I am trying to get back into the swing of things. HubPages did change in the last month or two and we have ended up losing a few good writers due to it all. Hang in there as you are a great writer!!:)
AEvans, thanks for this. Even though the challenge finished quite some time ago, I realized that the change had as much to do with me.
Sorry to hear about your husband.
Since I truly respect your writing, your compliment is very important to me
Now I understand the fall off of traffic during this current challenge. Thanks for taking the time to write this during the last one. From the comments and the vote, it seems a lot of people noticed.
I began in Hubs without expectations. I wasn't even sure I'd contribute any hubs. I simply was invited to try it by a respected friend/writer whose work I intended to follow and support in any way it turned out to be possible.
He, however, saw that I would fit in well here and that my writing would be a contribution. As I became involved, I loved it and it has continued to be a pleasure and fulfillment, though my expectations remain simple: to be able to write and share mine and read and share others' .
There may be some variation in overall quantity overall but I surely find none in quality in my experience here. I must mention that the only challenges I've participated in were introduced by fellow hubbers, one for Halloween hubs and a couple for writing about rather far-fetched subjects. Both were for fun and were not a habit or condition of writing which inspires a lot otherwise.
Interesting article. I also have seen a decline.
C.Ferreira 2 years ago
I'm glad someone said it! I didn't want to do the challenge because it would merely have caused me to publish subpar Hubs. This seems to be the case for a lot of the Hubbers that joined the challenge. I know I lost a ton of interest in reading after my inbox was flooded with Hubber A publishing 16 hubs today and Hubber B publishing 20 in one week.
It quite honestly got annoying. Hopefully we can get this back to normal. I've only been on here a short time, but I definitely noticed the change from the beginning of my time here to now.