Just as there are sure fire ways to get my vote for an article there are a host of ways to lose my vote as well. Let's face it, everyone would ideally care about their work being received well, but at times there are submissions that just make you stop and scratch your head. As many people complain ratings are too random, I tend to think they are generally accurate. In no particular order the following are the easiest ways to lose my vote for your article and it would do well to remember them as they will lose the votes of many others as well.

Perhaps the single most annoying thing is seeing an article in all capital letters. As soon as I see this the flag button is visited and my vote is gone. You have no hope of attaining my vote. Writing in all caps just screams the writer does not care. If the writer doesn't care enough to take the time to notice this they probably don't care about a host of other aspects of their work and by proxy it's hard for me to care either.

When it comes to citing statistics or facts, especially those that are not commonly known you better have a source to back it up. For instance if you say Rod Carew hit over .300 for his career, almost every baseball fan will accept this as it is common knowledge among fans of that sport. No problem there. However if you say that 75% of all gay people commit suicide that seems pretty nuts and better have a source to back it up. Use a little common sense.

If you don't even come close to meeting the original Helium word count requirements my vote has flown away. I tend to get annoyed when a submission fails to meet the word count. Wouldn't you think if you care enough to write to a title you also care enough to at least try to meet the most basic requirement? Is coming up with four hundred words really that hard? If you can't do that, I can't vote for you.

When formatting goes by the wayside so do I. If you are in such a big hurry you cannot form paragraphs I cannot vote for your article. This is a writing skill learned in elementary school. How do you graduate an English class without grasping this very simple concept? It demosnstrates a lack of care and attention giving the immediate impression that a submission is thrown together.

One of the most annoying things is seeing someone write as if they were typing a text message. Abbreviated spellings riddled with symbols turns my stomach and brings on the sensation of ga-vomiting. For those unaware of what ga-vomiting is it is

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