by Gene Patterson

Created on: September 25, 2010   Last Updated: February 02, 2011

How to rate a Helium article?

Rating is an individual process.  At least to a point.   There are a lot of standards that everyone should look for.  The individual part is really weighing these standards.  Every single person will not think the same things are important.  That is the beauty of a large group rating.  Different people will like different things, but in the end it all should equal out.

For learning specifically how to rate a Helium article the following is a list of all the things to look for.  Some are more important than others, but exactly which are more and less important is individual preference.  Since so much is personal preference all I can do it tell you how I rate articles. 

…And yes I got 5 rating stars within 3 weeks of being on Helium, and have not lost them yet.

♦  Didn’t you learn that in school?

I am not a grammarian, a spelling master or any sort of savant for the English language.  So If “I” notice an error I consider that it must be glaring and something that would have been caught in a once over proofread.  Usually I will let ONE go, we all screw up sometimes.  But multiple errors of this form must be penalized.  If the other article is really good, then severely penalized.

♦  You are wrong, just plain wrong.

If you KNOW information is wrong there are a couple ways to handle it.  Flag the article if it was really bad.  Send a message to the author and let him know the article is not right.  Or simply knock I down a couple of pegs.  What I do here is usually base it on HOW wrong the information is.

♦  Off or On Topic?

Look at the title.  Sometimes people try to cram in articles that really are not what the title asks for.  If it is far astray it is cause for a markdown.

♦  Compare information, compare style

This is a big one for me.  If I know something about the topic I want the one with better information to be rated higher.  If I were to read it; that is the one I would want to read.  After information the style of both comes into play.  Is one just more entertaining?  Is one easier to read?  Points go to the one with the better content and style.  These are two big ones.

♦  The first paragraph.

Just like Google I believe in the importance of a first paragraph.  In the first paragraph there should be a stated

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