The rating structure at Helium is fair if my piece of writing is in the rating roundup! There is no way for me to know if my work is included in the articles Helium shoots out for rating. I have no idea how Helium decides what items end up in those two rating boxes. Maybe it is just the luck of the draw. Perhaps a computer program scrolls through the submissions in search of things to rate. Helium staff could perhaps be deciding what article to chuck into a rating pool. It really makes no difference how the articles show up in the rating boxes. What does make a difference is the impossibility for all of the articles at Helium to be rated on a daily, or even a weekly, basis. Therefore, the stagnation, or standstill, of a well-written piece will hold its place simply because it has not made its way into the rating box.

Helium has the opportunity of informing me that my articles lineup for rating only after I do a fair amount of rating other writer's work. The result would be additional rating and not as much reading and writing. In the past I attempted to rate a minimum of ten articles daily. While employing the method I could not help but notice that most of my articles remained idle, while a few slowly sank into the depths of obscurity. I felt that I was wasting my time by rating every day, doing so was not at all beneficial to me. I then stopped rating altogether. Surprisingly, a few of my submissions climbed in rank. This only renewed my feeling that rating is a misuse of my time. The only way I can tell if my article, or at least the category my article is in, has been rated at all, is by its movement. Even the up and down movement does not confirm an article has been rated. It only demonstrates that some articles in the category have been in the rating procedure.

I have read scores of articles at Helium. There are some excellent things written here that remain buried beneath a heaping stack of less significant work. I believe that the well-written information stays buried because Helium fails to incorporate them in the rating listings. There might not be a way to fix this. I have no idea how many articles are in the Helium site. I have an idea, however, that the number of articles far exceeds the number of raters. I cannot expect a rise or a fall in my writings if what I have written is not even in the rating competition. What I would like to have is some reassurance that my articles will be included in the rating process if I devote a reasonable amount of time rating articles at Helium. The concept is a simple one. Rate to get rated!

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