by nissa_amas_katoj

Created on: November 25, 2008   Last Updated: February 27, 2010

Rating is one of the things that sets Helium apart from other similar sites. Each article is rated against others on the same topic, allowing the best to rise to the top. Rating stars reward those who participate in rating. To earn the coveted rating star you must rate in quantity, and your rates must be quality- that is, your rating is compared to that of others. This is to prevent people from rating without reading the articles.

How do you go about earning your rating stars? The first rule is that you should only rate when your mind is relatively rested. Don't try to rate one hundred articles at one sitting, or your rating will decline in quality. Rate only a few at a time, do something else, and rate some more.

Don't even try to rate articles on topics you find so boring or unpleasant that you can't make fair evaluations. Use the skip button. That's what it's there for.

Should spelling and grammar count? Yes, because an article with a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes is less readable. You should make a distinction between those spelling and grammar mistakes that are common even in the writing of highly educated people- grammar rules, for example, that have been going out of fashion for decades- and those mistakes which mark the writer as ignorant of the basics. But spelling and grammar should not completely trump content- sometimes an article with a few bad spelling or grammar mistakes still outshines the others.

Another problem is the article which is wordy, long-winded and filled with long and obscure words, and thus conveys little meaning to the average reader. Don't be intimidated enough by the sheer verbiage into giving such an article a higher rating than it deserves.

Opinion is another difficult matter. In an ideal world, we would rate articles written by those we strongly disagree with purely on their quality of writing. But in the real world it's very difficult to give the better rating to an article in which the author is spitting upon something you hold sacred. This may be a time to reach for the skip button, unless the offending opinion is very rudely expressed, irrelevant to the topic at hand, or both.

Leapfrog articles are especially difficult to rate. All too often I have scrolled though the two versions of the same article to find they seem word-for-word identical. I don't care to spend an hour trying to find a difference, I just rate them the same.

What about an article with a serious mistake about the facts? If you are quite sure that this is a mistake on the writer's part and not a lack of knowledge on yours, or a difference of opinion, it is quite acceptable to rate the mistaken article down. In the case of a mistake that is a very common one, this can create a moral dilemma- if you rate down an article promoting a common misunderstanding, your rate on that article may not be considered a good one.

Earning rating stars on Helium is can be an enjoyable part of your Helium experience. Just take your time, and don't forget the skip button!

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