To be sure, I appreciate the effort that went into creating Helium; The work involved in creating such a system is certainly worthy of recognition. That being said, I have found that mediocrity is the ultimate winner.

I've been a writer for twenty years and have found the best articles demonstrating excellence in the craft of writing are always found in the middle of the ratings. For those who hate such declarations for their elitist tone, I apologize.

Writing is not an innate gift that blossoms like a mole on the skin, some autonomic reflex that you are simply born with that infuses all your thoughts with poetic frills. Certainly, there are some that have a natural affinity for storytelling, others with a powerful love for language and its many vagaries. Even with such natural affinities, writing is a craft and art. Writing a byootiful sentense about the pritty cumber-buns adorning jake's kat does not a righter make. Part of the art is language; part of the craft is structural. Both are needed to be considered writing.

Too often, I find that the ratings reflect ideological popularity, rather than the quality and rigor of the writing. I have experimented by writing what should pass as, at least, a mid-level article. Instead of expressing a conventional view, I expressed an unconventional, or contentious one. Straight to the bottom it went, even though it was clearly a superior piece of writing than those ranked higher. Again, I beg your indulgence; I would like to think after twenty years of doing something, I've picked up a thing or two about evaluating the written word.

Helium tends to raise conventional, utilitarian prose that could have been written by computer programs. That and anything with a bullet point.

Some of you should visit a few freelancing sites for a look at the ugly side of this chumming for popularity. There are writers so desperate for "ratings", they pay folks, typically from India and Pakistan, to join Helium for the purposes of rating their writing highly.

How it works: The writer/employer submits an article to Helium. Once submitted, they notify their "raters" and provide them copies of the submitted article. The employees rate (typically teams of them) whatever articles Helium presents. The assumption, probably accurate, is that the employer's writing should appear for rating sooner rather than later. Once the "employers" work is presented, they are to rate the article as high as possible above the competing article. They are typically paid 1 to 2 pennies per rated article.

Though I do enjoy perusing Helium, occasionally writing an article or story, I would caution anyone using Helium as an accurate barometer of writing prowess, yours or anyone else's.

Learn more about this author, James Wigal.
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