An internet artist's place to write.
Apparently Squidoo has arbitrarily locked/deleted over a hundred of my articles, including most of my art 'gallery' pages, my art commissions page, pretty much all the LGBTQIA stuff, my zoo photography (one of which was once featured on their front page), my bird sketches article, most of my fandom pages (e.g. Mother Gothel - I had several lenses on her!), pretty much anything about a collectible, my lens rounding up Brony fandom songs, my Squidoo tutorials, my basic HTML tutorial, some of my how to costume lenses, pages on people like Dylan Moran, my huge page on Utena, my colouring page guides (to my own drawings), a cake recipe, some of my geeky gift guide stuff, and pretty much ALL my tutorials and pages about ArtRage. Some of them were dead pages, others got regular traffic and sales. And hey, I lose all the money from them! How nice!
I discovered some of this last time I logged in during Feb, sent them an email as per their instructions (after backing everything up!) and never received a reply. Looking at the dates, it appeared that someone came back a few days later and just kept locking stuff.
I don't have the energy to hunt through a hundred blog posts, comments and forum threads to piece together the exact latest glitch or filter or idealogy that caused me to lose my stuff. And to be honest, I shouldn't have to.
Anyway, I assume that the stupid mess they made of things last year has FINALLY reached me (I think I was one of the only people with more than 50 pages who wasn't affected, so it's not as if I'm this crazy spammer who was writing outside the rules). I am SO GLAD I have been taking the last few months off to see if they sorted things out or not. Because obviously they haven't. They haven't fixed the automatic lockings based on unknown triggers (or else they locked my stuff on purpose?). They haven't fixed the system in which you try and get your stuff pardoned (no response. In over two months from that original email. I'm not even bothering this time - it's probably too late anyway). No solution for the fact it's impossible to "fix" 100+ pages in the week or two you are given (it doesn't always match the email warning either). And no clue whatsoever as to how to fix it other than the most generic things that I have not run into before in four plus years in the same old rote email.
I don't really care anymore. I'm actually glad my good writing isn't on their site, earning them money. The earnings from Squidoo have crashed and crashed and crashed, and writing for them and trusting them has gotten harder and harder, so I walked away emotionally a while a go. Now I just have to try and find time to repost stuff on my other sites (which are doing just fine, thank you, despite being mostly ignored as well. THEY don't have tantrums and randomly delete stuff to get my attention).
Anyway, if anyone out there is wondering why my pages have vanished or there is a message about how it got locked for something: Squidoo be inept and untrustworthy. Don't put content there if you care about it (expanded on here).
Most of my Squidoo stuff was being moved to the following sites anyway (all relatively neglected for a while, cause internet is not something I have had time for lately. Finishing off a qualification and starting my first full time job in the same week, then moving house, means I haven't really had a break for the last few months. And I still have carpal tunnel issues, so I'm avoiding any place I might end up accidentally typing giant essays. Like this post! Or have to edit lots of fiddly code, or go in and out of modules that I can't dictate at, like Squidoo was).
Ahem. Anyway. Niche sites:
http://wearthelilac.blogspot.com/ (they deleted my Wear the Lilac Day lens! AARGH).
http://geeky-gifts.blogspot.com/
http://robinhoodfilms.blogspot.com/
http://rainbowreads.blogspot.com/
http://colouring-page-art.blogspot.com/
And with that, I finally move on to the next stage of internet life. In many ways, it was my student job. Now I have a real job, and I don't need somewhere to pour all my creativity and urge to research stuff, and I don't need the extra money. And my real job involves so many of the same skills that I don't feel like they're getting rusty anyway.
(to clarify: Over a hundred lenses is NOT my whole account. I had about 250 or so in total, I think. So I still have lenses up).
(to clarify: Over a hundred lenses is NOT my whole account. I had about 250 or so in total, I think. So I still have lenses up).
Your Wear the Lilac Day lens was among my favorites of your many excellent lenses! I've wondered (along with many people) what you've been up to. Congratulations on all the other good things going on in your life (including your first full-time job). I'm "kajohu" on Squidoo.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm putting that one up as its own site, because it deserves a place to go (and it's nearly May!)
DeleteI do forget that people might actually notice when I'm not around :D I really do have a lot of loose ends to tidy up around the web.
May 25, my older son's birthday, AND Wear the Lilac Day. My son was the one who introduced me to Pratchett's work, and then either him or my other son alerted me to the fact that Pratchett has Alzheimer's.
DeleteIn the past I've forwarded your lens to him on his birthday :-)
Sad to hear that they locked your lenses, (I'm guessing you may have missed the email about re-applying for giant squid?) Anyway I am really sad to hear of all your hard work being deleted and wish you loads of success in the future :)
ReplyDeleteProbably. I've been ignoring the internet stuff pretty hard while I focus on real life stuff, and even if I saw it, I may have blanked it as yet another Fun Yet Meaningless Initiative.
DeleteThank you for the good wishes ^_^ I'm not too sad, as it's a good kick to actually get back online and sort some stuff out.
Absolutely effing stupid. If anyone from HQ ever reads anything, have the grace to admit your mistake and reinstate Flynn's lenses.
ReplyDeleteAnd stick them all in tier one while you're at it!
DeleteIt's too late for many of them anyway. I'm just glad that many of them had been pointing at some of my new sites for months before they went - those were all "I'd delete them but I'm getting extra mileage and backlinks out of them muahahaha".
Glad to learn you've got a full time job and don't need the online money your former account brought any more. After all it's their loss... I'm sorry this is happening to you... As far as I know you've never produced junk or lockable stuff. Only huge great solid content.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Oh, there are a few junky lenses floating around in there, but they weren't singled out, so it clearly wasn't a quality call. The money was nice, but it had crashed majorly even before the lens lockings (my last payout was $100, nearly half of which was sales, and dates to before the locking spree, I think. Which was stunningly unusual - my old average payout was $500-700, and sales were only about 10%. Even last year, I was still getting over $200, though it was getting pretty bad).
DeleteThe one before was similar. Christmas was pretty pathetic too and I made most of my affiliate sales from my new blogs!). So I haven't really lost much, except my patience, and some traffic.
Sorry to hear about that. But at least you have places to move your good lenses. i wonder what squidoo is thinking, or trying to do. you had so much unique and original content. It's totally illogical
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm sure they all fell foul of some rule or filter I hadn't kept up on (or that was tweaked enough to catch me!). The sad, stupid part is that I don't know which, and I actually read the "YOUR LENSES ARE LOCKED LOL" emails. Maybe it's just because the only lens I've ever had locked was a pure technical error; I just don't know what to look for :D But then, that's a problem on it's own. I shouldn't need to be an expert in getting my lenses locked!
DeleteNo one is at the helm
ReplyDelete"The earnings from Squidoo have crashed and crashed and crashed, and writing for them and trusting them has gotten harder and harder" - that applies to so many of us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Susanna - no one is at the helm. Any organisation that is run by Committee is doomed to founder at some stage.
I do wonder if HQ found your brand of honesty too much to take Flynn and it does seem that those well known members who declined to reapply for Giant (again) are gradually being picked off.
I have no doubt that if I had not left when I did then I too would have become the victim of uncalled for lockings, because they did not like my brand of honesty either.
Your Artrage lenses were of great help to me when I was first looking for a Digital Art package and for that I thank you. I cannot believe that they got locked. Search for Artrage on Google and your lenses would come up time after time. They were a great example of quality, useful and original content and what used to be good about Squidoo.
Good luck in your future endeavours and great to hear about the job. It's just a crying shame that too many people who have been shafted by Squidoo find themselves in far more difficult circumstances than we do.
On the plus side, those lenses got me a job >.>
Delete(To be honest, I think they were pretty out of date - they're TWO editions behind now, though you can still buy that version with some tablets, because the tablet company is slack. I kept thinking I should find time to redo them - didn't realise so many people were using them).
I don't know if it was deliberate - I've never really seen evidence that they went after people's lenses specifically, just shut them out of communication. I am pretty sure it was just a new (or old) filter or spam detector that I fell foul of. A very stupid one, obviously, but it seemed pretty automated. If the giant status thing IS to blame, then it just shows how many decent lenses are only alive because of that status, which shows how badly the filters are set up, and how hard it is for new writers.
If Squidoo still paid a decent amount, if I trusted them to fix it without hassle (or that the fix at my end would be straightforward and easy), and if I respected them enough to want my content associated with them, I'd still be fighting to get them back up. But it doesn't, I don't and I don't, so I'm walking away.
I was guessing that anyone who didn't take the pledge (re-up for giant) would be under the gun in 2014. I bought myself some time by jumping through that hoop.
ReplyDeleteIn general, I despair over the way the site has been going.
I had never had a lens locked and only a handful flagged here and there, then one day my entire account was locked, too. My lenses weren't great, and many were lacking quality content, but I know of others who had marvelous, original, content packed lenses, and they got their accounts locked, too, and others still are. I just don't get it. I think it will come down to anyone who is making significant money, will find themselves booted eventually. It's sad...sorry to hear this happened to you, too.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find how to reply to your reply...
ReplyDeleteMy mums whole account was locked a few months ago, mostly crafts and coloring (it was her original art etc and crafts she had made). She was devastated, tried and tried to contact them and even ranted on one of their blog posts, to no avail.
She re made the lenses in a new account and now some the same lenses that were locked have been LOTD, and been placed in their new 'Best of' catagory. !!! One minute they are 'trash' the next 'treasure' in the eyes of SQ.
I just noticed that we have the same cute virtual fish on our blogs, yours are funkier though! I spend a lot of time feeding mine when I should be writing!