Duplicate Content on HubPages and Elsewhere, Before and After Rule Changes (and Panda)

When I first started with HubPages, I'd found the site as part of looking for a place to do some spare-time writing, because after writing more than my share of stuff according to someone else's guidelines, I just wanted to write "for me". Since I didn't really know what I "should be writing", I'd use their "requests" (now "questions") section and just try to see what I came up with.

Before coming to HubPages I'd spent a lot of time on Helium (that doesn't allow people to delete their writing). Having been hit with a months-long "flu thing" that took ages before I got my normal work schedule back, I spent a REAL lot of time on Helium for a couple of months there, but kept writing there because the ready-made titles provided handy ideas for subjects about which to write in my off time. I liked Helium for my own purposes at the time, but it eventually took a direction away from one that allowed the freedom I wanted. It certainly wasn't that, for my own purposes and even with regard to earning each month, I had anything against Helium. In a lot of ways, Helium offered me opportunities that I never would have expected from "simple, spare-time, writing". It had just taken a turn for the "more serious about professionally written web articles", and web articles weren't the direction in which I wanted to go. The site had become very much focused on helping new writers learn how to write those "professionally written web articles" (and I wasn't a new writer, looking to learn how to write anything - let alone web articles).

It was also made clear that the site wasn't a "writing site". It was "a writing collaborative". Basically, the minute anyone brings up the words, "writing" and "collaborative" or "teamwork" in the same sentence, I'm phasing myself out. Personally, I find the aims of a site to improve quality and help new writers learn admirable. Those aims just don't happen to be right for my purposes.

That's when I came looking for HubPages.

The stuff I first wrote on here was about as far from a "real, magazine-style, article" as one could imagine. Because I had little on here and didn't want my profile to be "nothing but a pile of junk" (that I'd written in response to requests, and written as if I were talking to the person who did the requesting across the kitchen table), I dug out some of my better stuff from Helium (that was well buried anyway, because I'd never paid a lot of attention to search engines in my "hobby" writing anyway). It was just a handful of things, but I thought, if someone was browsing either my profile or HubPages, and found those things, he'd think, "Hey. There IS some good stuff on here." (as opposed to thinking, "What a pile of foolishness.") After that initial thing I did I didn't post any more Hubs that I wrote and published somewhere else.

I knew the thing about them "being allowed but frowned on" here. I knew the whole thing about how they would/might compete with themselves, and all the other reasons duplicate content isn't allowed or encouraged on one writing site or another. I didn't care. The handful of things (again, to clarify for anyone, that I, myself, had written but posted elsewhere) were writing that (among a bunch of my online writing that I don't think much of) I thought were well written, well thought out, pieces of writing that might actually help a reader. So, my main reason for posting them on here wasn't just to add a few good things to my HubPages profile and maybe add something to HubPages that someone would think was worthwhile; but it was because I didn't want those pieces buried somewhere, never to be seen by anybody (which is where they were essentially, in view of the fact that Helium, at the time, didn't even give writers a chance to add their own keywords or re-write titles, etc.).

Don't let the bit about making HubPages look better fool you into thinking I'm not in this for myself, just the way everyone else is. It's just that I'm among the many people who believe that if we sign up to be a member of something, part of the deal ought be that we have enough pride that we don't want to be one of "the big ones" for making the site/thing look bad. What's junk and what isn't is often a subjective thing. Sometimes, of course, it isn't. Within the context of a site that, at the time, essentially told new members, "Write whatever you want to write", I wrote (and sometimes wrote "whatever").

A few things I'd also posted on another writing site, or on blogs I was setting up as a "foundation for future, more blog-like, activity". So I've had that small handful of duplicate (but my own) content on here for years now. Since I often write about emotional well-being and/or children's emotional well-being (if not on here, elsewhere), there are times I do have writing that I think is "important". Those times may be rare (truly :lol:), but they do arise.

Since that beginning when I first posted that handful of duplicates that I thought (at the time) were "worthwhile" additions to my profile and to HubPages; I've a few times written whole, big, original Hubs but added something that I had elsewhere online as an "extra" to an otherwise original Hub. The few times I've done that it's been along the lines of a serious Hub that addressed one life issue or another, but then, as an extra and because I thought it might be enjoyable for some readers, I've added a separate text box with a story or a poem - that type of thing. As with those first few duplicates I'd posted here, whenever I've included something like a story or poem "just because I thought the reader may enjoy it", it's only been those stories or poems that I've thought are among my better (or at least, "most human" ) writing. I've always just thought, "Nobody who has read the rest of the Hub needs to be bothered reading them. They're there in case they anyone sees them as appealing."

With those that I've added in those "extras" on top of an otherwise original Hub, at least once (maybe twice) the Hub has been marked by HubPages; so I have my little row of red "c's" interspersed on my "My Account" page. Of all the Hubs I have on here, though, the number of "c's" is still a small percentage. The number of original Hubs (more importantly, perhaps, the number of words in those original Hubs) far, far, outnumber any of those previously published pieces. In most cases, they were long buried long before I even thought about posting them on here. In fact, it was because some were buried that I saw little reason not to post them here. As for those that weren't well buried, I just figured the rare Hub that contained duplicate content (of mine) wouldn't do well. I didn't care. I wasn't making a habit of duplicate content, and the only things I posted as duplicate were things I wanted people to see (even if only by browsing my stuff on HubPages, rather than being found by search engines).

That's primarily been the extent of any duplicate content I've ever posted on here over the years - with one exception: In the fairly recent past I got particularly dismayed by running into more and more opinions online about a certain subject. It's a subject about which I know my own opinions and beliefs are well founded and well informed. It affects children, so it's a subject near and dear to me. So, in a moment of feeling as if "the world" needed to "once and for realize this", I dug out everything I'd ever written about this subject (not posted, posted, whatever I had on it); and posted the whole business as a Hub. My thinking was that, worst case, I'd add one more "duplicate-content" Hub to the relative few I already have on here (as opposed to adding more than one duplicate-content Hubs). My thinking was that this one Hub had lots of substance and "legitimate" writing, regardless of who agreed, or didn't, with the ideas offered in it.

I realize that any "fine, upstanding" motives I've had whenever I've done what has never been recommended aren't something search engines aren't particularly interested in (if search engines could indicate true interest). Apart from the nuts-and-bolts aspects of search engine aims (and apart from how x percent duplicate content across a site can affect the whole site), one thing I've always appreciated about HubPages is that, as a writer, I have that freedom to do what I think that may make my own contribution a higher-quality one here. I came to HubPages for the purpose of doing spare-time writing. Even though I aim for a certain degree of quality, I've approached my writing here in a more relaxed way. Some of it is writing with which I'm fairly satisfied (in terms of quality). Some of it isn't. It's not that I haven't taken what I've written seriously, and it's not that I haven't aimed for solid grammar. It's just that each Hub can have a completely different purpose, and the purpose of many of them has often been more about sharing than about being "technically" perfectly formatted or "conventionally perfectly professional". Some have been more along the lines of an informal discussion. Others might be said to be opinion pieces. Either way, a lot of my Hubs aren't what would qualify as "strictly professional articles".

The thing I've liked about that freedom to have the occasional piece of my own writing re-published on here is that it has allowed me to enhance the quality of my overall collection of Hubs by including those few pieces of writing that I think have just a little extra redeeming value to them, apart from whether they earn or not. Whenever I've posted anything duplicate I've always thought how I don't care if the piece earns me any money, and I wouldn't care if any duplicates never see the light of day. One of the only reasons I've moved some of them here is that they weren't seeing much light of day anyway. My thinking has always been that any duplicate material I've posted here is only material that I deem might have that extra bit of redeeming value for the reader.

Scores-wise, some of the duplicates have had Hub scores in the high 90's. They get some traffic. They get a good response. They aren't my big earners. I don't care. The point is that not all duplicate content is the result of a writer's tryng to multiply his financial or linking results with multiple postings. There are a couple of Hubs that I wrote in response to someone's asking about ways to deal with one difficult life situation or another. Those are the ones I've received the most meaningful responses to, when readers have e .mailed or commented that one of those Hubs was "just the kind of thing they were hoping to find". It's not like the majority of my Hubs are that kind of Hub; but those few I'm referring are Hubs that aren't about me or my writing or earning or HubScores. They're that rare piece of writing that does what so many writers hope they may do one day, and "if only for one reader". They're that occasional piece of writing that, because of the serious subject, I've written not as a writer and not as a stranger, but as if I were the reader's friend.

As a writer, I'm pretty harsh about judging my own writing. I recognize crap when I see it, even if I'm the one who wrote it. On the other hand, I've also had those times when I've recognized "redeeming value" when I've felt it as a writer, and later sensed it in a reader's response. When all is said and done, and in spite of writing thousands of words that have no particular meaning or impact for me or readers; the thing that most makes me feel as if I'm using my spare time wisely is that rare time when I've come up with a piece of writing that I see, and feel, has enough of that redeeming value to make me disregard recommendations and "frowning-ons", and go ahead and post it as a duplicate.

When I mention how I think that if whatever is attached to my HubPages profile makes me look better as a writer (to anyone browsing my stuff), and how if I look a little better that's just one more Hubber who helps in trying to make the site look better; I'm sure a reply might be, "Well, instead of writing so much stuff you don't see as up-to-snuff why not just write your best stuff, and leave off the duplicate stuff?" Good point, of course. I have, in fact, been trimming out a lot of the stuff that "seemed like a good idea at the time", but no longer does. As with so many things in life, though, the best writing isn't always planned.

Oddly perhaps (although, then again, not really oddly at all), it has been some of my duplicates that have gotten me e.mails and comments where people have said things like, "I lost my 'whoever' last year, and I've been looking and looking, trying to find something like this. I'm so glad I found this." Ironically, I guess; while each article/Hub is not unique in terms of how many places it can be found online, these occasional pieces I've managed to come up with seem to have turned out to be unique in terms of how many other people have written something similar.

I can also imagine people saying/thinking, "Well, thanks for all the altruistic motivations; but duplicate content, on the whole, makes the site look bad." That thinking isn't lost on me, and I'm not here to say that the realities of a massive, site-wide, duplicate content don't exist. I'm not even one to refuse to acknowledge that thousands of people with "only a few" pieces of duplicate content don't add up to a "massive, site-wide, situation".

In fact, I'm not here to lobby on behalf of duplicate content at all. Most of us on HubPages have been expecting the day to come when duplicate content would no longer be allowed. That’s fine, and it’s understandable. It’s been kind of nice that some of those duplicates that were kind of buried on other sites were read by more people once they were on HubPages. It’s also kind of handy that when we see the copied content symbol now, we’ll pretty much be sure our content was stolen and posted by someone else online. One irony may be that on those Hubs that have been copied by someone else, but that we’ve also re-posted ourselves, we’ll be the ones to delete our duplicate content while someone else online gets to keep it on his site. Another irony is that if there are many other Hubbers who have posted some duplicate content for the reasons I have (which are essentially that the writing is among their higher-quality pieces and/or potentially has some meaningful value to readers), HubPages will have trimmed out some of its higher-quality content in an attempt to improve its reputation when it comes to quality. Google, of course, doesn’t want duplicate content showing up; and these days more efforts are being made to offer users better search results. Personally, I can’t help but think that Google, HubPages, searchers, and writers all would have better off if Google were able to find a way to, say, bounce all but the earliest “copy” of an article completely off search pages (which would get rid of a lot of people who steal content but don’t use Google ads on their site, I’m assuming), while leaving the oldest article to find its ranking, independent of the duplicate-content factor. Of course, I don’t pretend to know such a thing could be arranged. I’m just thinking from the standpoint of an Internet writer.

My point here is to simply that not all duplicate content is junk, and that writers' motives for posting it aren't always a matter of disregarding writing quality or a site's overall image.

Not all duplicate content is always quite what it may appear to be. Some are, of course, but sometimes even the most rule-abiding writer is faced with a little gray area amidst otherwise black-and-white rules. Honestly, I'm about as far from the type whose claim to fame is being wildly creative but someone who has trouble following rules. I don't have a creative cell in me. Some people tend to equate writing with being creative. My best writing is more a matter of knowing how to arrange words well, as opposed to coming up with, say, imaginative material. No, I'm not someone who has trouble with rules. I'm someone who pretty much follows them just about all the time. It's just that, once in awhile, absolutely adhering to absolutely all rules can involve other factors and make such absolute adherence just a little more challenging.

A few days ago, when HubPages introduced the new feature that allows Hubbers to run a "scan" (or something) of all their Hubs in order to detect any rule violations, the total number of Hubs in my account was 330 (and something), including both published and unpublished Hubs. I was kind of nervous to run the new feature because I imagined discovering "a zillion" inadvertent mess-ups in my Hubs and needing to fix that "zillion" mistakes. I ran the feature and discovered that one Hub may/may not be in violation of an affiliate-link rule. It may be an inadvertent thing on my part, or it may actually be a "false positive". I need to find that out. In any case, I was relieved to know I didn't have to fix "a zillion" problems. The point is, that as much as a follower-of-rules as I've always been, it was good to know that I hadn't inadvertently broken a bunch of them.

Now, getting back to the subject of duplicate content (and gray area and conscience and whatever other "complicating factors" may be involved).... (By the way, I'm going to divide up this Part 2 into a discussion about HubPages' rule change, followed by my own response (with regard to duplicate content) to Google's Panda roll-out.

Approximately Four Months After HubPages' Duplicate-Content Rule Change

I have 20 or so Hubs that show up in my account as copied. Of those, several were copied by someone else and remain on sites where a report does no good. Besides those, I have some (and especially those that obviously do well) have have been stolen and posted in several places that don't show up in my account as copied. The only way I've found some of them is to do searching myself, and to figure out (or have the energy to) search different parts of them. Just a day or two ago I copied a whole search page full of one of mine. It was individual blogs with no identification or Turkish, Korean, or whatever newspapers/blogs etc. That one page I took a screen shot of was for one Hub and one set of words from it. Last night I actually deleted the copy and thought, "Forget it. Don't bother."

Of that total number of copied ones, there's a handful that I put on here back when I first signed up. At the time duplicates were allowed but the deal was that people knew they weren't likely to do well. Because I wanted to have a few things in my profile (other than Hubs that answered requests), I posted pieces that I saw as my better writing and/or that I thought were really helpful things to readers in a meaningful way. So while I was partly wanting to make my profile look better (and also, believe it or not, actually hoping the better stuff would help contribute to making the site look good as well - win, win, win for me, the site, and any readers), I didn't expect either a good score or good earnings for those. Of those, some have since been copied by thieves as well.

When HP made the fairly recent rule about duplicate content, I deleted some from my earlier days, but I left up the ones that have also been copied by other people. I figured I wasn't about to delete something that someone else has already copied, especially if it was a piece that has since proven itself (via e.mails, comments) to be very helpful to people at times when people often feel most isolated and in need of support. That's only a couple/few of the total copied Hubs, but I made the decision not to delete them because of the number of readers who have found them helpful (and said they couldn't find anything else like it online). One example of one Hub is a mother who said she'd lost her child a year ago and was searching and searching to find something because she was feeling so horrible at one year after the loss. She said the Hub described exactly where she felt she was, and how it was exactly what she'd tried to find "somewhere" and didn't. She said she "only found the Hub by accident". I didn't delete that one when I was deleting some of those original duplicates, because THAT is one of the primary reasons I write online at all.

Other than those, there were a very few (three, I think) that I'd added after being here awhile but before the duplicate-content rule happened. Those are entertainment-value only Hubs, but I posted them because I think they give the reader "a little ride" (and, again, that's one of the main reasons I write). I've been planning to take them off, but it will involve getting some of the other stuff from capsules, so I haven't gotten around to it. They don't earn me any money and don't get traffic. I've never cared. I've figured they contribute to my "overall pool" of writing and make me and the site look like there's some quality writing being added. Actually, one of those may have at least some redeeming value in terms of possibly being encouraging to someone who has gone through one kind of loss. The other two? Fluffy little stories that I thought might be fun, or moving, for a reader or two to read. (Yes, I do tend to play the "altruistic motives" card fairly frequently. Then again, a good part of my writing is actually rooted in altruistic motives (Internet wacko and freak that I so often feel as if I am). In any case, since there's really only two fluffy stories that have "no redeeming value" (and we all "know" that something that doesn't get traffic and doesn't get a high score, of course, is of "no redeeming value"), I haven't seen taking the time to "re-get" the capsule content, and delete the Hubs, as a big emergency. To my mind, those two stories aren't really bothering anyone (including me).

I've known they may get unpublished, in which case I'll just delete them without trying to save the content on the non-text capsules. Ideally, I've been hoping to be able to "re-get" the content from them before I delete them. While I'm not usually the type of succumb to the temptation to try to justify my own wrongdoing, in this case that's, I guess, what I'm doing when I make the point that - really - on a site full of so much questionable and out-and-out awful content, I pretty much think those couple of fluff pieces are the least of anyone's problems.

So, at this point, I'm look at 20 or so Hubs that have duplicate-content warnings on them, of which several have been copied by someone else but not I. Some of what's left are Hubs that were duplicated both by me and someone else. In those few instances, my thinking at the time of the rule-change was that they were already duplicated by thieves anyway. I wasn't about to delete my own writing and "hand it over" to those had already stolen it. Basically, since HubPages told people that they wouldn't be penalized for material copied by someone else, and since I was under the impression that no future posting of duplicate Hubs was the primary aim of the rule change, I saw those couple/few Hubs as "already damaged anyway" and saw my "right" to try to "keep them as mine" as "legitimate". Since, of this relatively small group of Hubs, the only reason I'd duplicated them myself had been what I described about being new on here (and about the fact that I thought they were worthwhile writing), was that they were well written enough; one reason some had been copied was that, in fact, they were well written enough.

In any case, while my most frequently, and unrelentingly stolen, Hubs don't even show up as duplicate content, I've been looking at, I guess, maybe, fourteen duplicates that were copied by someone else and may/may not have also been duplicated by me. Of those copied only by someone else, there's no hope of getting anything done about them. It's that simple.

Now, I have two Hubs (one put together when duplicate content was frowned on, but not prohibited) and one that I created in spite of knowing that duplicate content wasn't just "frowned on", but against the rules. The former Hub is about a serious social issue, and any duplicate content in it is a part of several larger pieces of content, put together as part of a big mix of content aimed at addressing the issue. I didn't delete that Hub because the issue is important, and I don't care if the Hub does or doesn't get traffic or money.

The latter of those two Hubs is a parenting issue, and a serious one (at least in the case of parents who are extremely misguided in their approach, as opposed to parents with a differing, but less extreme, approach). That particular Hub isn't just one piece of writing. It's one Hub into which I put several pieces of writing, most of which (if not all) are duplicate content. I'd gotten so tired of seeing the numbers of people who are, in fact, so extremely misguided (and, again, I'm not talking about different, but not extreme, thinking) about this issue, that I went around the Internet, found all my own stuff on this subject, and loaded everything I've ever written about it, into the one, multi-section, Hub. Since I created this Hub after the rule change, I posted an introduction/author's note at the top and said (essentially), "This Hub breaks a rule, and I don't care. This is an important subject." I figured, "Let HubPages give this one a zero for a Hub score. At least it will be published, and at least someone may run into it somewhere along the way." I even figured, "Let someone flag it. Let HubPages staff look at it and decide if it should or shouldn't be published." So, in one attempt to educate at least a few extremely misguided parents out there, I blatantly disregarded the duplicate content rule several times in that one Hub. Basically, I figured the Hub actually might be sort of acceptable enough because, in the many duplicates posted within the one massive Hub, an important point was made, backed up, and driven home over and over again. I guess I figure it made up for "in importance" (and even "power", for lack of more appropriate word) what it lacked in "non-duplicate-ness".

So that's it. Of the twenty (give or take, it's hard to keep track or track down sometimes) Hubs marked as duplicates, I can think of two "social conscience" Hubs that I've knowingly left/put up, the two fluffy stories, and, maybe four or five "altruistic motives" duplicates.

That's the story for any duplicates I have on here, but there's also a story with regard to me, as an online writer, particularly after Google's Panda rocked the Internet world:

By the time Panda struck, I'd already been pretty de-motivated as a writer for quite some time. Among a bunch of Hubbers who were either here with SEO/marketing aims (nothing wrong with that, but it wasn't something on which I wanted to devote my writing energies), and another bunch of were here to "only write" (without caring about any earnings at all), I'd figured out how to straddle some line, water some things down, write a good mix of Hubs, and earn from my writing (even if it wasn't really the kind of writing I can do, wanted to, or would be proud of). The trouble was, thefts, spinning, and out-SEOing me, dramatically cut down on my earnings. Sometimes I wouldn't discover something at all. Other times, I'd discover some things only when I'd see my usual good earnings drop dramatically and go hunting around for what had most recently, or most effectively, stolen.

In any case, my Hubs were a mix of good performers, "iffy" performers, and poor performers, with the good performers being the kind of writing with which I was least satisfied (and which was, in fact, the kind of writing that was far lower in qualilty than a lot of my other material was). The "iffy" and non-performing material was mostly watered down, so even if it was better writing than the better earning Hubs had in them, it wasn't writing with which I was particularly satisfied or of which I was particularly proud. BUT, I was earning more on this site than many other people were earning, and I was earning many times from this site what I earned from some other, similar, sites (and that was primarily Ad Sense earnings, because I didn't have the time or energy to really devote to other affiliate programs).

In any case, I had a bunch of writing that had earned me a fairly good amount each month but that, as the numbers of articles/Hubs had grown, had become increasingly unsatisfying. I cared about earning and needed the money, and I was earning fairly well (not as well as I could have been, but better than I'd ever expected). I wasn't, however, a "money Hubber" as the SEO-focused/product-Hubs people have become known. Neither was I a "writing-only" Hubber (as people interested only in having their material read, or in writing it) have become known. At times I felt like I fit into both groups. At other times I knew I fit into neither.

Either way, when Panda hit, my performing Hubs seemed to drop off the face of the "Internet-Earth", so I had neither satisfaction nor earnings. So, after years of trying to straddle lines and water things down in a way that would either "please" search engines (or Google or HubPages or anyone else who had little respect for material that didn't "earn big" because of the "business-minded" approach of focusing on SEO, and who pointed out that it was the earners who "kept HubPages in business"), I just thought, "You know what? I don't care if I'm 'dead weight' or not. I don't care who likes what, who respects what, or who doesn't believe that I'm actually earning more than a lot of people are by doing my own thing; I'm going to do what I want to do."

So, the first thing I wanted to do after Panda hit was to try, in some way, to start re-claiming everything that was mine, and aiming to make it clear that it, in fact, WAS mine. I went around to any sites I'd written on and copied whatever I'd written on them, and then I started posting the duplicate stuff anywhere it was not prohibited. Because it was prohibited on HubPages, I didn't, of course, post any of it on this site.

My thinking was that between thieves and the Panda "chaos" on this site, I'd lost earnings and even material that otherwise would not be duplicate content. I was sick of everything, so I decided I'd re-claim everything I'd written, turn it ALL into duplicate content, and maybe make it that much less appealing to anyone who wanted to steal all, or part, of what I'd written. Not long after Panda, Google came out with its emphasis on "authorship" and with its profiles, which allow writers to, in fact, establish authorship to their work. So, I set up my Google profile and "established the hell out of" my authorship of each material. Have I since removed duplicate content? No, and I'm not going to. I'm through trying to straddle lines and water things down in order to do "what Google likes". I won't knowingly break TOS, but I won't relinquish my right to copy and post (unless prohibited) my own material if that's what seems right for that piece of material at the time. Google can bury it if it wants, but it's my choice to do what I want with my own stuff (whether or not I choose to risk, or even assure, that it won't be found in searches).

After Panda, my reaction was to, once and for all, just relax and write whatever kind of Hub I felt like writing, without worrying about "what a Hub is supposed to be" or "what Google wants". What I do, or what I write, from here is something about which I"m not really sure.

In the meantime, if anyone were to check through my Hubs and/or check any of those links I've deliberately placed on my Google profile, he'll see that I have a handful of Hubs that are "duplicate content" (for one reason or another), and that I have "tons and tons" of duplicate content linked from my profle. I don't expect too many people to be interested enough to bother reading the above, whole, explanation as to why I have duplicate content anywhere. Still, I, personally, feel better to know that I've at least explained what wouldn't look good to anyone paying any attention to this issue.

One final note: As I said before, I'm generally a follower/respecter of rules. I know why rules exist, and I'm not one to resent them (even if they aren't convenient for me). There may be times when I don't LOOK like a follower of rules because some people see "what everyone else says" as "a rule", rather than sort out what, exactly, is a rule and what is, instead, "just what everyone says or thinks". As a result, I know I can look like someone who "just goes around and does whatever she wants". In fact, if anyone had access to my personal accounts/files, he'd see what a follower and "adhere-er" to rules I actually have always been. The trouble is, though, that sometimes (particularly when we're dealing with our own work, our own efforts, and our own wish to produce something of "quality"), matters of conscience or choice or things included in our own rights, can factor in and make some choices just a little less black-and-white than others.

When I see what seems to me like over-simplifed assertions about duplicate content, it irks me. In fact, it sometimes can make me a little "squirmy" because I know I have my 20 (give or take) duplicate-content Hubs on here. Also, I'm aware that if anyone else were to notice how many things I have on other sites that are duplicate content; best case, I'd look like I don't have a clue about "what Google likes" or what will do well in searches. Most people don't want to look clueless or like wild-and-crazy rule-breakers.

When it comes down to it, I've been in the process of deleting some pieces of duplicate content, as I've replaced them with new Hubs. If they get deleted before I get around to replacing them with new Hubs, so be it. I don't really care. I've dragged my feet on those few that I, myself, caused to be duplicate because I do hate to delete the few pieces of writing I have on here that actually do seem to have redeeming value to them, in terms of reaching out to readers who may most need what each of those few Hubs offers. I could easily publish them elsewhere, but they'll lose some of the comments that have contributed to making them that much more worthwhile/helpful to some readers. So, I hate deleting them and prefer not to.

All that aside, however, there's also that part of me that gets irked, not because the subject makes me uncomfortable, but because, when all is said and done, I really do think that my few duplicates on here, or even my many duplicates in other places, are kind of the least of everyone's problems when it comes to quality material on this site or on the Internet in general.



That's my explanation, my reasoning, my reasons, and my story - and I'm sticking to all of them.