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to the title given.

Judging between two informative articles.

I always ask myself which of the two articles is the one which Helium would want to display on this website. That's a very easy criteria to use but one which serves me well. I would never rate an article down for lacking the odd punctuation mark, or something of that nature. Here, adding a little comment to the writer would suffice. I look at the over quality of an article, whether it is on topic, and how well it is presented, introduced and concluded, as this really does matter to Internet content.

Judging between two bad articles.

Here, my rating may be biased. I get in touch with the writers, and encourage them to amend their article. I don't believe that criticism works. All writers want their work to be presented in the best light possible, though some people are less capable than others. This may be due to inexperience and by nurturing writers to improve technique, what is achieved is that they learn and grow as writers. What they gain from a critical note is disappointment and alienation. To me, the whole purpose of ratings is to let people know how to make the most of the skills that they have, and improve.

In a situation such as this, if faced by two articles of equally bad content, I contact both writers and then, feeling I have done my duty as a rater, skip to the next batch of two articles, thus giving no bias to my ratings whatsoever.

Judging articles which you flag.

In the old days of Helium, we had no manner of telling writers about mistakes found in their articles, and flagged errors with short and sometimes cursory notes limited to half a dozen words. These seemed unkind and often unfeeling, and with the addition of the email contact through ratings, we have a chance to make a difference to other people's work. Giving feedback instead of flagging them works to effectively help others.

Those items which are flagged for infringements of site guidelines are different. Here, do flag them so that staff at Helium can deal with them as quickly as possible. This helps the site to control content and to be aware of problems.

If you are angered by an article flaunting the rules, report it by flagging and then skip. By rating, you may actually be rating against others who think that the work is wonderful and lessen your chances of getting rating stars.

Quantity.

The quantity of articles which you rate responsibly counts towards your rating stars. Many members have reported that rating 10 sets a day is

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