by D. Victor

Created on: January 07, 2009   Last Updated: October 19, 2009

Rating articles on Helium is subjective and contentious. In fact, several Helium members have complained about the system of rating at Helium. Even if Helium decided to employ staff or expert editors to rate content, it is likely that some writers would deem the rankings unfair as well.

Some may point to articles that are considered poor being on top of better quality articles as evidence. The problem with this view is that Helium's rating system is based on specific factors. Systems created by humans and for humans typically rely on some human input. Assessing whether Helium's system is fair is premised on unknown rating algorithms, rating frequency, rating integrity and member competence.

i) Rating frequency

Some writers have few rating stars, but they would like to see their articles rated fairly. Helium's system assumes that everyone would participate and rate consistently. The corollary of rating nfrequency is that the results are not representative of the majority of Helium's members.

An apparently unjust ranking could be a result of a title group being rated only 6 times (by raters of dubious quality as well). To cast judgment on the rating system while it is still trying to settle articles is premature. It needs more rates for a fair decision to be reached, but we don't even know if groups are sufficiently rated, do we?

ii) Rating integrity

Rating is highly subjective and the priorities of raters may be questionable or just different. Some may be heavily influenced by a good introduction, while others may look at overall content. Two articles may either commit different sins or be of similar quality. How we differentiate is based on our limited perceptions. Even though we may try to be fair, our inherently subjective rating is a flaw that is not entirely Helium's fault.

iii) No rating or writing standards to assist raters

For Helium's rating system to be fairer, all raters will have to rate according to the same or similar criteria. Helium tries to advise raters how to rate on the rating page, but this information is limited. Perhaps Helium does not wish to interfere with how members judge articles beyond broad guidelines. Although well-intentioned, this actually exacerbates the apparent unfairness of the system.

There is no set standard for rating or standard for how articles should be written. Given how nebulous or ambiguous some titles are, two articles may actually be based on completely different interpretations of a topic. For instance, the title

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