I kept silent.
Not because I feared any kind of vengence from someone on there because of my writings. Not because I did not have anything to say.
Just because I did not feel the need to post or vent about the event that I predicted long ago and knew that would happen.
I will not pretend that I did not participate in forums and Facebook groups and did not post my thoughts of the moment. I did and a lot! But I did not feel the need to aggressively blog about that.
So Squidoo is over...
So HubPages acquired "key content" - as per both companies' words - from Squidoo. I hope, wish and cross my fingers for not being a mistake that would cost HubPages its life. But I do not think so, it is a site that I joined almost 7 years ago, when I was a baby Squid and I know that it faced lots of disagreeable online events and always found its way to overcome ALL of them. It might have cost some accounts to Hubbers, it may have cost traffic to other Hubbers (like me) when we were moved to our subdomains but the site as a whole always survived.
There is no need to say that the editing staff is far better than the one on Squidoo. They know their job, they know how to manage a site of that size, they know what to do search engine wise and they also know how to communicate with their members. Respect is also HubPages' strength. All theses qualities were not found on Squidoo where members were considered interchangeable. Not to mention the change in the staff that led into the end of the site.
As a matter of fact, you cannot ask a crocheter to convert into an oil digger in the blink of an eye. This needs some kind of formation. It is somewhat what happened on Squidoo these past two years with a trained manager leaving the site in hands that did not have the needed experience. They thus took the lead of the ship and drove it straight away in the gigantic iceberg named "search engines, traffic and money". Sadly, it took 18 months for the boat to completely sink.
Squidoo and its 18 months agony
In the meantime, makeup was put on the site's face, and we were asked to jump into more and more hoops as time went by. Many agreed and played the game, some because they thought they would get a benefit from it (cheerleaders and other hypocrits), some because they really thought the site would get better with efforts on their part.
However, death was already roaming and making plans.
From the new policies related to unique content - a policy that existed already long before - to policies regarding the number of commercial links. From policies about personalization (including personal photos and other more than silly requirements) to policies about backlinks we had no control over. From the new gianthood requirement of making 5 lenses in a year to the gianthood requirement to build 3 useless "lenslets" in order to keep our status. From so many silly, worthless, useless, nameless policies to even more silly ones, nothing worked, and everything was speeding up the crash.
All in all, these changes were more plasters on wooden legs than actual action plan. HQ never agreed to listen to the wise advice from people more experienced and knowledgable than they were. But they might have had plans on running out of business for long...
I can't say that I'm feeling bad, I can't say that I'm feeling sad, I can't say that I'm feeling misled.
All I can say is that I'm feeling... relieved.
My question at this point is... who approached who? Paul Edmonson going to Seth Godin or Godin approaching Paul Edmonson?
Not to mention that, for me, the most astonishing surprise is the fact that it is HubPages that is acquiring content from Squidoo.
Two different platforms, two different types of writers, too different one from another.
I guess I will never know and, finally, it does not frustrate me.
Posted by Holly Day a WAHM who is able to turn any day into a holiday.
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