When, What, How To Flag Content And Profile | How To Report A Forum Issue
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There are two topics here. (1) When, what and how to flag content and profile, (2) How to report a Forum issue. I decided to write this hub because there have been a lot of abuse on HubPages and many newbies don't know to to deal with the abuse. The first topic on flagging is just a reminder or guide about what content to flag including when and how. Many hubbers are afraid to post in the forums because there are hubbers who make it a point of duty to be nasty. There are also hubbers who do not know how to flag or are unsure of what to flag.
What happens if we don't flag content.
When I just joined Hubpages I used to hub hop every day, my first accolade was the one about moderating and flagging content. I don't have that accolade anymore because I stopped hopping for a while. During the past couple of months I started hopping again especially through my other account.
I have had several hubs flagged and when the reasons were explained to me they were all justified. When I was a newbie I had no idea I could not post my work here and on another site at the same time. I have been flagged for too little content (less than 300 words), duplicate (song lyrics with not enough original content and a poem on Helium) and explicit content (a short story I wrote with a little hanky-panky). Oh and one that was purely personal titled "Disappointed with HubPages." All of which I rewrote and republished. There was one that my ads were disabled on and I since removed that article to my blog.
Not flagging content means that we are doing injustice to the author and to HP, in the sense that the author has no idea they are in violation and HP staff has no idea a hub with violations have been published. HP does not have the resources to read every hub that is published so they ask us to help. The writers here need to know when they have a violation so that they can fix it and move on.
If spun and copied content are not flagged then the site will start to lose search engine credibility and we all suffer. HP may lose their affiliations with Adsense, Amazon and Ebay. We don't want writers to be sued by photographers and online photo galleries such as Shutterstock for copyright issues. When a writer of photographer sues someone writing on HP they will mention the site the content was posted on and that "spells" bad for all writers here. We want HP to have a good reputation on the web.
The When, What and How
I am not perfect and I would love my hub to be flagged if I violate TOS here. When a hub is flagged, it only alerts HP staff for them to check the hub. They will determine if the flagging is warranted or not. So flagging does not automatically unpublish a hub, only HP staff can do that.
When
Anytime, hub-hopping, reading from your mailing list or just browsing HP in general. I warn you not to flag contents unnecessarily as this can only hurt you. If you randomly flag hubs for revenge, the system will know and your personal score will suffer. Same thing applies to voting down a hub. If you keep voting down a particular hubber's hubs or a specific hub, the system will penalize you for it. If you don't believe me ask a staff member. Remember only flag hubs you are sure are in violation.
What
Hubs with prominent watermarked photos, copied or spun content, nudity, foul language etc. Click here for complete information. If unsure, check first before flagging someone's hub. Remember there are people here who their first language is not English and may find it difficult to write perfectly, so be careful not to keep flagging those hubs. As I said, make sure you are sure.
How
It's pretty easy to flag a hub. Just below the article (maybe below an ad) just above the comments, there are some buttons. Vote up (green), vote down (red), share (black), print (grey), flag (grey). When you click on flag a window will pop up with reasons for flagging listed. Click on the closest reason you can find. In the capsule marked "brief explanation (optional)", state your exact reason. If the hub has copied content, place the url there. If the hub was spun place a paragraph from the spun content there. Giving exact information will help HP deal with the problem more easily. I encourage you to always give a reason for flagging even though it is optional. This will tell that you have a real reason and HP staff will figure it out faster.
Flagging a profile or repoting a forum issue!
This is a serious issue and should not be done lightly. This should only be done if you have proof that the person has been abusive. Personal attacks are not allowed on HP and should be reported. Flagging the persons profile is one way of doing that. When a profile is flagged two things may happen depending on the situation, they may be banned from the forums or banned from HP.
If you have been receiving abusive comments, personal attack emails, abuse in the forums you should consider flagging the profile of the offender.
to report forum attacks, abuse, offensive language, offensive or nude pictures, go to the specific thread, click on more, then report and a window will open, choose your option and you are good to go. A staff member will moderate and decide to close the post or ban the offender(s).
NOTE: These are all serious actions with serious consequences, think twice before flagging or reporting someone!
More HP Tutorials
- What Is Article Spinning And How To Identify Spun Content
Article spinning defined. How to spot articles that have been spun. What to do when you see spun content on Hubpages. - What NOT To Do On HubPages - To Newbies and Spinners
What not to do on Hubpages. Advice for newbies. Flagging violations on Hubpages. No spinning allowed on Hubpages. - Simple Hub Etiquette For Newbies And Old Fogies Alike!
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Thank you Dexter, I guess I am just being selfish by me not wanting to lose HP to people who would jeopardize the site with bad content.
Stopping spammers and people who just write hubs to pump up the links to their spam sites are destorying HP for everyone who enjoys Hubpages for what it is.
Imperalis, you are so right!
So far, I've never been flagged.
As for voting hubs down, I rarely do this. If a topic is something that doesn't interest me, I skip that hub without doing anything about it. I have no idea whether my reaction to hubs on video games, for example, has to do with the way the hub was written or if I simply don't care about them unless you are talking about how violent some of them are.
And finally, for some bizarre reason, when I was hub hopping earlier today, I came across my latest hub. That is the THIRD TIME that has happened. I think there should be some mechanism by which the hub hopper can "read" if a person is hub hopping from the same IP address that published a certain hub. We should not be coming across our own hubs when we hub hop. What does the hub hopper expect us to do, vote our own hub up or down?
A well written hub and very informative. I'm a newbie here and wasn't sure of the difference between flagging and voting down or when it is appropriate to use them.
I love this hub.
Do you know something Cardisa, I went into the forums once only when I first joined. The subject was religion. I got a reply to something i said with the word 'drivel' and never went back. Its only a little thing I know but I looked at this hubbers profile and noticed that he's rude very regularly and spends a lot of time in the forums, hence I don't. I don't mind people having different points of view, that's how we learn from each other, but I just thought it was an unnecessary manner to let me know that he disagreed with me. I don't want to do things that make me feel bad and that did.
Thank you for such an insightful hub on flagging.
I also didn't realize that you could have your accolade taken away if you stop doing the thing that you were doing to earn it.
Flora, who on earth would want to flag you! You are one of the most pleasant and active persons on HP. A profile should only be flagged when the person has been abusive and mean.
Coming across my hubs has happened to me too, though not recently. I wonder the same thing. We could suggest they do something about that. We'll suggest it in the forums.
Welcome to Hubpages Debbie. Please feel free to ask any question and go to the help and learning centers for help.
Lesley, about the accolade, I think that the hopping accolade might the the only one. Not sure. I just mentioned it because I noticed I did not have it for a while.
Next time, you could flag the person's profile especially if they are continually rude.
Cardisa-I was thinking of duplicate content-when I first published my Beatles poem I was half expecting to be told that I didn't really write it as I was arranging Beatles titles and adding words here and there to make the poem. I felt sure I would be told: you didn't write this, Paul McCartney and John Lennon did.
Interesting Hub Cardisa. I have only flagged a hub once because someone was giving out serious medical advice that I knew could prove to be dangerous. The author was not a doctor, nor did he post a disclaimer. As for the forums, Hah! I quickly learned to stay away from the religious and political threads. They are snake pits :O
Flora, I suppose because you did add original words as bridges to each song, no one would say that you copied it. It looks totally original and it's not like you have the complete lyrics. The titles can be thought of by anyone.
Green Lotus you are right to flag that hub/hubber. When we write about health we should be careful not to give medical advice. I stay clear away from those forums too...lol
Hey, I'm learning. Good of you to do this..Thank you. Smiles....
Thanks Ruby. I guess those of my friends who don't frequent the forums may not realize how dangerous it is there...lol
I've just posted a forum question in the Hubpages Staff forum asking them why we can see our own hubs while hub hopping.
Maybe we can come up with a suggestion and post it in the Suggest a new feature forum. We could suggest the IP thing you mentioned.
I was looking for a series I'm reading from you and ran across this. Another awesome helpful hub Cardisa! I do remember reading about some of this in The Learning Center but a reminder is great. It is a lot to learn and I learn best by repetition:)
I admit I don't go to the forums often because I don't like when things turn ugly! I saw a few things and decided that part is not for me!
RH, many of us don't go to the learning center often enough and we sometimes forget what to do. The forums can really get nasty, I suggest trodding with care!
oh, yes. The forums. I posted a question on the forums because I was curious why the people who usually respond to most comments will sometimes not respond to one or two. The question was not directed at people who never comment. But somehow the thread has gotten out of hand where people who don't comment or get hundreds of comments a day feel like those who do respond to all of them are laying guilt trips. ummmm- not what I intended.
The forums seem to be a place of misunderstandings and fireworks...it reminds me of a serious called "Lost". I feel lost in the forums at times...really.
cardisa - this is great information. When someone starts on hubpages there is so much to learn and it's easy to miss things. Thanks for sharing. I think it's good for people to hear also that improper voting down and flagging can also hurt them. Great hub! voting up and across and shared.
Great hub--I haven't hub hopped a lot recently, but I often came across questionable hubs when I did, as well as a lot of content from new hubbers. I love welcoming people to Hubpages. I also think it is interesting to see content that isn't from areas I'm familiar with. The only violation I've dealt with is posting stuff I had removed from my blog but somehow the removal wasn't processed yet. So now I wait a bit before publishing and I don't seem to have problems. Voted up and useful!
Thanks for putting this together Cardisa. I was unaware of all of the reasons to flag while hub hopping and have only done it when a hub is extremely short. This was very informative.
Cardisa - what about pictures? There are so many pictures not annotated properly. Is something being done about that?
Great and informative hub, Cardisa. Voted up.
Homesteadbound, you are so welcomed, and thanks for reading. I figured that I could help you not make some of the mistakes I did while helping you to understand HP better.
Virginia, it's going to take a while for you to post articles to had somewhere else because HP system is very strict with that and it takes weeks for a site or url to be removed from the search engines.
You should flag violations when you see them, it can only help all of us.
Ktrapp, the most serious offense I have seen is articles that have been spun, everything else seems minor to me. I guess I get angry because real writers put in a lot of time and effort to do a good job then someone like that comes and want to spoil everything.
Homestead, if the photos have a prominent watermark or are pixelated and cannot be viewed properly then by all means, they are to be flagged.
Thank you Daniella.
Really interesting hub. I have flagged a few hubs but mainly because they were obvious spam or because of distasteful photos(one yesterday about animal abuse with a photo which made my stomach heave). I don't vote down, I hope others will show me encouragement and I try to do the same.
I too don't like voting down, if the hub has a violation then I flag. If I don't like it then I ignore.
I have never voted down either. I'd prefer to leave it alone if I had any negative thoughts. This is quite thoughtful of you to share this valuable information. Thanks. Voted UP and USEFUL.
Thank you MsDora. A few months ago, maybe six, I voted down a hub I thought was in bad taste. The hub was about "some people who needed to be shot", not sure I remember the title. It was supposed to be a humor hub but I certainly didn't think so.
Very informative hub. I'm relatively new and still learning. I appreciate the information in this hub.
Thank you Loi, I hope you really like it here on HP.
Excellent information and well-presented, thank you! I'm still recovering from the grief of losing all my work and time investment on a site that was destroyed by the Panda algorithm, and I certainly don't want to see that happen here. Thanks for the tips on how we can all help to maintain the site's integrity. Voted up:)
Donna, I have invested pretty much half my time here, I would hate to see that fail, so I have taken it upon myself to help maintain the integrity of the site.
Good for you! While it isn't a lot of fun to replace all that lost content, it is really no different from other losses such as those folks suffered when the stock market tanked or their businesses faltered. Fortunately, I did not have all my eggs in that one basket and was depositing regularly into my HubPages "savings account." Thanks again for such great tutorials, I'm looking forward to reading more:)
Donna, so sorry about what happened to you that's why we as writers here on HP need to come together to make sure the integrity of the site stays in tact.
God Bless and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Cardisa~ helpful, useful, excellent hub. Voted up. May the new year be bright, Debby
Happy New Year Debby. Thank you!
Thank you for these tips. I haven't flagged anyone or voted anyone down. I write down the hub info and jump to another hub. I do go look for that person and see if they have other hubs. Most of the ones I have come across may have a profile pic and no hubs or that particular is no longer there. This has only happened twice.
Mljdgulley354, just flag them. Most of the people who commit some of these offenses are here long enough to know better. Some of them are spammers or spinners. If they are rude they too need to be flagged. Sometimes that the only way they will learn. I used to send them messages but most times they would ignore me, so I just flag them let the staff take care of it.
Dexter Yarbrough Level 7 Commenter 7 months ago
Hi Cardisa! Yes, very good information here that I wasn't aware existed. The staff at HP should thank you for not only trying to help others play by the rules but also for looking out for HP as a company.
The only other thing to say is hey, hey, hey - voted up, up and away!