Hubpage Stats Addiction

Hello. I’m a Hubpage Stats Addict. I’ve been with Hubpages only 3 months and already I think it’s out of control. I’m sure I am not the only one, but I haven’t seen any discussion about this debilitating addiction, so I thought I’d post these tell-tail signs of HSA.

How to spot if you are a Hubpages Stats Addict

1. The hubpage you have book marked in your browser is your stats page. You may not realise you have done this, but when you select the bookmark from your browser, do you go straight to the stats page? Not the hub front page or one of your favourite categories? Yep. It’s a tell tail sign of addiction that before you look at what is hot, best and new, you need to see how your articles are doing.
2. Looking once a day just isn’t enough. How long do you spend at your computer, and how long is your stats page left open? Do you find that over the day, you refresh the stats page? Clearly that first fix of seeing how your stats have done is no longer enough for your craving. Now you must check them several times a day – even though you know that they will not change that much.
3. You play with the sort order of the stats for much longer than you need. Hubpage have given us a nice facility to order the stats according to different length of time and page score. Now, there are many hubbers who use this sensibly, i.e. to get important information, and then move on. This is fine, and not to be confused with the abusive use of an addict. The addict needs to know what order the articles will be in when sorting for each and every column – both ascending and descending.
4. Looking at the stats gets in the way of writing articles. Stats addiction can be very time consuming. When sitting down to write an article, the stats just gets in the way – time flies – and you wonder why that 100 page score article you were going to write, still is not published.
5. When the hubpage stats server goes haywire, you start to panic. You looked at those stats, and at first you think there’s a national holiday somewhere, everyone is outside rather than at their computer, reading your articles. Then as the numbers stay the same, doubts creep into your mind – “How long ago did I check the page? Surely it was over an hour ago”? Then, perhaps after a few hours, the final realisation that the stats are not changing. If this has happened to you, then it is important to realise you are going through ‘cold turkey’ – nothing more, nothing less.

If you can identify yourself with 3 or 4 (or even 1 or 2) of the above*, then you could well be suffering from HSA. At present there is no known cure (squidoo and helium do not offer adequate relief), and without a concerted community effort, the hubpage developers will only increase the stats facilities without thought or consideration to the effects it is having on some of us.

If you are, or know, a sufferer, or if you have found a cure, please leave a message below (just so I know it's not only me).

* If you do not find any of the conditions apply to you, then you are clearly in self-denial, and beyond all hope – our thoughts will be with you though.