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 reason for the article. You should be told what you are going to learn. Most importantly it should be interesting. It should make you want to read further.
♦ How does it look?
Some people think this is not important others think it is everything. I am somewhere in the middle. If a huge block of text stares me in the face, it is definitely going down. Other than that, layout and a nice LOOK to the way they present data is more for those, “tiebreakers”
♦ LOTS OF CAPS
That is yelling. I do not like to get yelled at. But I can sometimes forgive it when it is used for short 1-2 titles. I get that it takes the place of Bold. This is one of those things that can easily send a vote the other way if all else is equal, though.
♦ Completeness
There are sometimes articles where someone did the minimum and left and another person when to far greater length to give “complete” information. More information is often better. If it is words for the sake of words, though, and imparts no “new” information the briefer article will often get my vote.
♦ A Beginning and an End
Most articles should have a distinct introduction and a distinct closing paragraphs. Not having these may get a litte bit of points deducted. The more necessary it seems, the more may be deducted if they are not present.
♦ Leapfrogging
If one version is “clearly” better it is good to vote for that version. Other than that hit “same”. In case of a "tie" the newer article wins. I like to let the author choose their fate for leapfrogs, they should have spent time to figure out which one is better. If he or she corrected one single typo I am not going to stress out trying to find it.
As you can see rating is a lot of opinion. But it is a lot of opinion based on being a good reader. Not everyone has the same wants and needs in what they read. If they did a machine could write our books for us with a sophisticated program. Rating should ultimately reach a consensus and hopefully the best articles should rise past a poor rate.