As Helium writers, I wonder how often we think of the effects that rating has upon not only our own experience but the experience of other members. The effects of ratings are widespread and make a great deal of difference to everyone's experience of the site. This article sets out the different effects of scenarios faced by Helium raters, and demonstrates the different approaches which make a difference to our experience and that of other writers.
*Honesty.
*Integrity.
*Inspiration.
*Giving inspiration to others.
*Approach to member responsibility.
*Approach to fairness.
Honesty.
How often do you sit in front of a screen and click that rating button? Every time you do, someone's article goes up, and someone else's article goes down. When you consider the significance of your rate, it makes you think of the effect that has upon another writer. We all rate, and now with incentives in place, more and more members will rate in order to have their participation recognized. Honest appraisal of other people's work is the only way to get the best effect on the site presentation, and also in recognizing those articles which are well written, informative and indeed the cream of the crop.
If you cannot rate honestly between two articles and start to judge things simply based on a quick glance at presentation, take a closer look. An off topic article well presented may fool you, and at the end of the day, it is us, as members, who take the full brunt of the effect of those ratings, since off topic articles rising to the top of the pile make members look stupid. If you don't have the time to rate honestly by judging content, leave rating until you do, because that honesty is what makes the site work, and the effects of that honesty are imperative if the rating system is to seen as a viable method of sorting out articles.
Integrity.
If you read subjects upon which you have no knowledge, how can you judge? The effect of rating articles where your knowledge is limited can be a disaster, putting less informative articles on top and those well informed balanced articles which are factual at the bottom of the pile. Integrity is knowing your own limitations and in acting upon them, so that no writer suffers just because you didn't understand the subject.
The effect of ignoring this? Imagine someone looking for medical advice and being given the wrong information. Imagine a parent looking for help with a child related problem and being advised by an item which really doesn't belong on the top. It matters.
Inspiration.
One of the spin off effects of rating is that often you are led to areas which you didn't know existed, and tempted to write to the subjects yourself. Rating opens up not only a world of judging others, but one of deciding which topics you can contribute to that you may not have otherwise found. Around a quarter of my articles are written to those topics found while rating. These are spontaneous articles written by having the imagination and inspiration sparked by a heading found in the ratings page.
Giving inspiration to others.
Imagine that you read a wonderful article, and are too hurried to be able to say something to a writer to compliment that work, simply because you want to make your quota of ratings. Then imagine a few rates less and a wonderful response to that article you considered as special. It takes moments to compliment, but makes the world of difference about how a writer is motivated. That one email from the rating page can spur a writer into more contributions, and also getting the feel good factor they would have missed had you chosen two extra rates against helping another writer gain recognition. One only has to look at emails we receive which make us feel great about our contributions to realize that the impact of your feedback is support and solidarity for other writers.
Approach to member responsibility.
The effect of random rating may give you short term gain in number of rates, though what it results in is a serious miscalculation of what someone's work is worth. Each writer puts in their time writing their article in the hope that someone will consider it better than the competition. Bad writers rated up will get inflated ideas about their skills and write more bad quality work. Good quality writers rated down get discouraged when they find articles of lesser quality rated above theirs. Any member of Helium reading this knows what it feels like to be disappointed, and it is that disappointment which should feed your need to be responsible.
If we were all responsible in our ratings, and approached each article with the same respect, think of the long term effects it would have. Good writers getting reward by seeing high ratings would return. Bad writers rated down would learn to see what it takes to improve. After all, on no other site have I ever seen so much help available for writers with the Mentor scheme and also the workshop on the community forums. A bad writer can improve, though a good writer placed at the bottom may very well be discouraged, and the long term effect of that is that good writers will leave.
Approach to fairness.
Two articles sit side by side. Yours is the decision that says that one is better than another. Fairness in assessment is paramount to the success of Helium as a site. We all say we love the place, and yet many rate blindly and do not see the errors they make reflected. Those who do see the reflection of erroneous ratings are those writers who wrote their hearts out, and kept on topic, providing informative magazine style articles and then found them on the bottom of the pile, simply because someone preferred pressing buttons to fair assessment.
The effects of ratings on Helium are paramount to the site becoming bigger and better, and producing wonderful and deserving work on the top of each thread, with lesser work being rated in a downwards direction. It matters. We all have the opportunity to improve and grow, and honest and reasonable ratings have the effect of teaching writers whether they need to improve, prompting them to learn more about themselves as a writer, and thus grow with the site. Members and the site itself join in harmony when ratings reflect honest and fair assessment. It is this combination which will make or break the future of a site offering its writers the opportunity to shine.