Helium is not a typical blogging site. It is a store house of information for those who seek them. The peer rating system is the uniqueness of Helium. It has its plus points as well as minus points.

Any writer's tendency, in general is "If my article sits at top slots, rating is done well; if it slips down below, there seems to be flaws in the system" !

There can not be a universally perfect and ideal system. What do you see in the world around you?

* In this world, truly meritorious people do get recognized; do get their rightful stature.

* All truly meritorious people may not always move to the top.

* Many times, people of questionable merit too get lot attention or adulation - Less meritorious persons too sometimes boss over truly meritorious ones.

Helium also is a minuscule representation of the outer world.

Why does it happen like this?

(A) TASTES DIFFER:

The simple fact is each individual's likes, tastes and sense of judgment are different. I had read a story in my childhood. An artist once made 2 replicas of the same painting and kept them at the two opposite entrances of a street. Under each painting, there was a cup of black paint with a brush. The artist had kept a note on one painting: "Dear viewers, Please mark with the black paint, the one area which you find most beautifully drawn". On the other painting he had put a note: "Dear viewers, please mark with black paint one area that you feel not very well drawn".

The next morning the artist went to see what happened. Both the paintings had full of black spots all over them!

(B) RATING BECOMES A "WORK"- NOT A PLEASURE

For most of we writers, writing is a pleasure; Reading too is a pleasure, provided what we read is OUR choice. But in rating, we have no choice of what we prefer to read; we have only a lesser alternative - we can only skip what we don't want to read. Thus, rating becomes a duty, a work to be gone through, in return for posting our writes on Helium. A labor without love is likely to be done with some disdain and it reflects on the quality of rating.

(C) EVERY ONE HAS HIS DILEMMAS

When comparing a really good article with a really mediocre one while rating, there is no problem in making the right selection.

Let me narrate the dilemma I face :

Assuming the case where both the articles are well written. I Read the Left Side, find the points quite nice. Then I read the Right side, find some same points covered by this writer plus some fresh points. (The left side too

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