Essay About Some Thoughts on The Hubbie Awards, 2016

On August 22, 2016, Christy Kirwan of the HP staff posted on the HP Blog concerning the Hubbie Awards for this year. I had been anticipating some changes and quickly went to see what had been done. Below is a letter I wrote to Christy and the HP staff that very day. I have not received an email response, but there could be several reasons for that, so I won’t worry about it. At the other end of the letter, I’ll have some closing comments.

Christy, hello. I was happy to see the Hubbie Awards announcement today. I want to make some observations about what you have developed here. First of all I want to say thank you for doing away with several of the awards that really didn’t pertain to writing. What you have put forth is much better.

Having said that, I am concerned that what is now proposed is aimed mostly at individual hubs and not the writers themselves. Yes, the hub is an extension of the writer, but It would be nice to be able to single out a writer on a particular vertical site and name them as best hubber on that site. This would be in addition to best hub. One writer might stand out for the quality and number of hubs, but another might be recognized for one specific hub. Those two examples are what I mean by Best Hubber of a site (the one with many quality hubs) and Best Hub (one particularly good hub). I’m not suggesting things be changed for this year, but maybe you could consider something like this next year.

Thanks for listening to my concern. You always have been helpful when I have contacted the staff.

Chris Mills/cam8510

I’ve noticed several comments recently about the categories of this year’s awards. I agree, this is not the format many of us want. The format of previous years had its problems as well. I want to encourage you to talk about this issue, think about it and write back to the staff with your ideas.

When I say, “Write back to the staff with your ideas,” I really mean just that. I encourage you to submit positive suggestions as opposed to negative criticism. The fact that many of us don’t like the current format implies that we have some better ideas, that we have expectations which were not realized. Well, what are the ideas and expectations?

I simply recommend that each of us who has concerns about the Hubbie Awards contact HP staff via email or the blog and communicate your ideas and expectations. There is no “Fourth Wall” between us and the staff of HP. We may communicate with them, and when we do, things will go more smoothly and everyone will be much happier.