by Karon Brandt

Created on: January 18, 2008   Last Updated: August 18, 2010

Helium has become a highly competitive writing platform open to writers from all over the world. Even though anyone (13 and older) can come to “learn what you need, share what you know,” some writers push the “Write now” button a little too quickly.

Helium’s guidelines offer standardized rules for all to follow. As part of the writing community, everyone should pay attention to maintain the site’s quality and credibility.

Helium’s uniqueness lies in its rating system. All members are asked to share in the site’s workings. It makes the site act like a co-op rather than a free-for-all: Share in the work; share in the payouts.

Helium’s rating system allows all members an equal “vote” in what creates a “better, more valuable, more relevant” article written to the same topic. With some clever algorithms, group consensus decides which five articles should be boosted to the top for public viewing.

Helium’s proprietary rating system is fair and democratic. Helium believes, as a subgroup of the world’s writers and readers, writing members should be well qualified to decide what they want seen on their site. Helium is a true writing Community, and rating is its required community service. Every member should be pleased to be such an important part of the workings of such a member-run business. Some new members complain about having to do the extra work to earn daily ad dividends and payouts, but, really, everyone has an equal voice in the site and should feel good about his/her significant role in it.

As a community, working together as a team, Helium asks its members/raters to be the first line of defense for spotting articles that do not belong on a family site. Of course, Helium has editors, stewards, and staffers who are constantly watching for substandard writing and rule breakers, but overseeing thousands of articles that come in weekly is a huge job.

•How to Flag:

How do members flag articles? If you see something on the site that looks inappropriate, simply open the “User Tools” button at the bottom of your screen. Open the drop-down menu, choose the noted problem, and flag the article. Alternatively, as a rater, when you are comparing two articles written to the same topic side-by-side, if one appears “inappropriate,” use the tool within the rating boxes and flag it to Helium.

•Flags for “Inappropriate” articles:

Major “inappropriate”

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