by Leigh Goessl

Created on: December 28, 2007   Last Updated: September 30, 2009

In October 2007 Helium celebrated its first birthday and since that time has continued to grow by leaps and bounds. To date Helium continues this innovative growth and as a result gets better every day.

The community spirit and support system comprised of staff and members on Helium is pretty amazing and a strong camaraderie always present. It is this cohesiveness that is one of the great strengths of Helium that helps everyone strive to improve the quality of content published on Helium.

Quality writing on Helium rises, like bright colorful balloons filled with Helium gas will do. It is up to the Helium community to promote the bright and colorful articles to rise with grace like the balloon does. To make this happen it takes a combination of writing your best and carefully rating the work of other writers.

What else can you do to help maintain or improve the quality of Helium?

*Write your Best

Writing your best is a multi-faceted process. It includes proofreading, staying on topic, avoiding rants and creating articles that are standalone pieces of knowledge. Everyone has something to contribute and a key element is finding an area where you feel you can add value.

Taking the time to carefully craft articles and focus on quality is an important avenue to continually maintain and make improvements. Ideal articles should fall between 400 and 1500 words in length; if you keep within these guidelines it helps maintain quality.

*Be Diligent when Rating

When you rate, it is important to rate fairly, with consistency and by paying careful attention. It is said that the ratings system lies at the heart of Helium because it is the ratings that allow quality to rise to the top. If everyone does their part all, it places an important role in Helium's quality.

Sometimes it is clear when an article should be rated down, but as quality continues to improve sometimes it is difficult to choose the better of two when you're presented with having to make a choice between two well written articles. This is where it is essential to rate conscientiously because its only fair to the writers that raters give careful consideration before hitting that "better" button.

If a title is too difficult to rate for whatever reason, you can always opt to skip that particular rating rather than select any random article. Its unfair to the writer and hurts the overall quality of Helium if raters rush through and click a button in order to move on.

*Flag Violations

When you come across profanity, plagiarism, articles with all capital letters, adult content, self-promotion, or another serious violation, it is important to flag the content and send to Helium so the Ops team can investigate.

After flagging, rate the article with the violation down if you come across them in rating. Flagging where appropriate is another factor in maintaining high levels of quality.

*Offer Constructive Criticism

The "contact this writer" button is a valuable tool which plays a pivotal part in maintaining and improving quality on Helium. It is through this button you can offer kind suggestions to a writer about how to improve an article.

Another valuable aspect of this tool is you can encourage a writer with positive feedback on articles you like. A word of encouragement often means a lot and can result in motivation to write and this too helps improve quality on Helium.

Writing, rating, flagging, constructive criticism and words of encouragement are all valuable components you can participate in to help maintain and improve the quality of Helium. By being proactive and working hard, everyone has the ability to help nurture Helium and plant additional seeds to foster even more continued growth.

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