by Karon Brandt

Created on: December 30, 2007   Last Updated: February 19, 2009

We are all familiar with the old high school lessons that taught us how to cite sources with footnotes and detailed bibliographies.

Web readers don't have time for that. They judge the format source-newspaper, magazine, TV show, website, book-AND the original source, the author.

Helium.com has over 150,000 members from all over the world, with varying degrees of education, experience, and writing talent.

How does a reader judge an article on Helium?

Helium is almost two years old. The site is quickly establishing its credibility as a source of quality, fact-based works. Its own community of writers and staffers continuously monitor Helium.com.

Helium rewards its authors with publicly visible, blue stars for their works, which are placed next to the author's name. More stars mean more works, with a basic standard that all of an author's writings must rank, on average, in the top quarter. For example, out of 40 articles, 10 must rank at the 75th percentile or above within their titles. Writers can earn up to five stars.

Helium's impartial, peer-rating system-which involves objective, mathematical algorithms-assigns the article a final, earned rank.

Thousands of Helium writers are acting as editors/raters around the clock. Every article is rated multiple times until it earns its final rank within a titled group. (Writers can always revise their works in attempts to improve them.)

When readers see an article by a 5-star member, they can feel confidant that that writer has written proven, quality works as ranked by their peers and by an objective, democratic rating system.

Of course, the burden of truth lies with the author.

If an author feels personally qualified to write a fact-based article, he/she should reference himself/herself as the source.

Is the source unbiased, scientific, credible, partisan, and factual-or not? Let the reader decide.

In presenting his side of a debate, the writer should cite the basis of his information. He cannot "invent facts" to support his view. Then, it is up to the reader to decide how trustworthy the source is.

To do this without hampering the flow of the writing, the author should insert his reference into the paragraph itself, next to the quoted material, or place it at the end of the referenced material.

If the original author is well known, like the Christian bible or William Shakespeare, the writer can make a passing reference to the source.

A lesser-known figure, or someone who might be a figure of passing popularity, should be referenced

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