Rating/comparing articles

The option of doing this was discussed on the forum although no conclusion has been made. Yep, in an ideal world it would be nice to block certain things from the rating process and I believe the site are taking on suggestions. In the meantime, that's all you can do if you have no opinion on the subject at hand and don't really know which article contains the better information.

Actually, there is another option: stop rating.

But how constructive is that ? Rating is part of the Helium experience, just as it is with other sites.

From the little I know about Helium and what I know about other sites, there is an essential difference.

Rating on Dooyoo and Ciao is different because I choose the reviews I read and rate. On Helium, this is restricted and I often find myself reading crud on topics that do not interest me. Not only am I reading crap I don't want to, but my time is being wasted. To me, that makes rating on Helium a chore.

If reading/rating is a chore then I don't do it. Helium is not my job. I am not forced to do it.

Your choice of course. I see the cup as half full, you appear to see it as half empty. Both personal choices. Within all the crap, there are valuable articles waiting to be rated and one of them may be yours. If everyone thought the same way, sites like Helium would collapse. Of course it is choice, although I found that the movement on my own articles was slow until I started to rate on a regular basis. I figure, you get what you put in.

No, not half-empty.

I'm just saying that the Helium system seems to waste a lot of time by offering members articles that they're not going to be interested in.

If new members join and are constantly offered either crap to read or topics that don't interest them with no way to streamline what they can rate, then they'll move on to other sites that can offer them a better, more personalised choice.

From a business perspective the Helium "experience" should be a lot more immediate and that's not something I'm seeing at the moment.

Why should I, for example, spend time rating stuff on Helium that doesn't interest me when I can pick and choose what I want to read on Dooyoo? I'm not even talking about quality here, I'm talking about entire topics!

Okay, as your experience grows, and you contribute more and more articles, so the wideness of the topics you are given to rate increases and it becomes more interesting. Yes, I still have the occasional topics that do not interest me and in which I have no opinion, though these are getting less and less, the more I contribute. Hope that makes sense.

I see rating as the price I have to pay for being able to write about stuff that I havent got an opening for elsewhere. Aaron has got a point but no site is perfect and the ability to write articles about history, religion and political stuff over weighs the chore of rating. Its each to their own i guess and i can see why it dosnt suit everyone.

One thought though, and I may be wrong, if you don't rate at all i think it just slows down the speed at which your own work gets processed, not stop it all together. If that is true, please correct me if I'm wrong, then you can give up rating if you are prepared to have your own stuff delayed.

All I can say is the place works for me, but it is very different from the product orientated sites that most of us are used to writting for.

I still don't think you should battle through a load of crud in so that your experience might become better. However, having seen the Dooyoo and Ciao systems (and in particular, the Dooyoo system), I do appreciate that a little work can be rewarding.

At the minute the Helium system is taking the urine at how much work needs to be put in to get anything out of the site (as a member). That doesn't make sense. Maybe the final Helium experience is great and exciting and all that stuff, but how many people are being put off by having to waste hours of their time reading stuff they don't want to? That's just as bad, if not more, than newbies being put off Ciao and Dooyoo by "harsh" comments and ratings because you can blame the members for comments and rates. The Helium thing is a site problem, solvable only by the site admin/owners.

At least by blacklisting entire topics "Hippie generation activists use internet to promote change" as an example, I can quickly identify what I am interested in and what I am not. There is still work to be done as a member, but I get to the proper Helium experience a lot quicker.

(Posted as Steerpyke was)

In a way though the fact that you have no say over the articles offered to you for rating is a good thing. On sites where you know who has rated you, there is a lot of stuff read that is no interest to the reader, simply becasue it is a return read.

On Helium you don't know who has rated you, so it doesn't matter which reviews you rate back. In terms of reading stuff that is no interest to you, it does offer topics in the general area you have written in. Whilst this may throw up stuff that is boring - the good thing is, most of the srticles on helium are a lot shorter than other sites so it only takes a few minutes to read and rate them.

You could always click on "same" for the rate if the topic is of no interest, until it offers you something different to read.

Even then my time is wasted, having to load the page with the articles and then having to rate same. Multiply that quite a few times and the wasted time soon mounts up.

I've read a lot about it just recently, if it is as you say very time consuming wading through the crud the site wont last long as members will soon get bored.

Guess we will have to wait and see. With any new site things do tend to get better as time goes on and those in charge take on board users comments.

The more diverse the range of topics you post in, the more interesting the kind of reviews you rate. Its simple and effective.

rocknroll wrote:

I've read a lot about it just recently, if it is as you say very time consuming wading through the crud the site wont last long as members will soon get bored.

Guess we will have to wait and see. With any new site things do tend to get better as time goes on and those in charge take on board users comments.

Well, I spent FOUR HOURS rating yesterday and today before I got a topic that I found interesting.

When you consider I could have spent four hours reading on Ciao or Dooyoo on topics that interested me, then you can see where there's a possible negative aspect to the site.

I've not been on the site so my own opinion is restricted, if thats the case and you have spent 4 hours without anything that interests you coming up then I would draw from that, the site is not for you.

Others have not found that so its down to the individuals own taste.

At the minute, you are correct. I have made a suggestion that articles should be targeted to a member's preferences.

There are other good points to the site.

I would quite like the site if it wasnt for that aspect too..

I was getting reviews which were something like top Ten places to visit in Europe...and travel is my preference anyway...but I saw the same review lots of times.

I don't even think I really Read them from a true reading perspective like dooyoo and ciao..as if you are comparing one against the other...then it became apparent which was more useful (or whatever their rating term methodology is..)

I DO like the fact that short reviews can be a good thing though. This is where I see its advantage.

It's been driving me mad that I've been presented with articles to rate on music - I've not written anything in the music category UNTIL I had the bright idea that if I submitted something in that category I would no longer get loads of that topic to rate. Guess what? I am still getting the same topic over and over again and now being asked to rate articles about punk music! GIVE ME STRENGTH!

yeh, I had the punk ones today as well, but amongst them, there really was a bright star.

They seemed to have announced that they will introduce a "skip" button for articles you can't be bothered to read. Rachel, you seem to have influence on them. Can you use your magic to make them create a button "skip article and never, never, never ever show me articles about this topic again". I'm getting sore eyes from being tortured by topics like "The best superheros" and "Why some girls seem materialistic".

Ciao's Favourite Member wrote:

Rating on Dooyoo and Ciao is different because I choose the reviews I read and rate.

There is another difference. On Ciao and dooyoo you get rewarded for rating. On Helium you get N.A.D.A.

And, don't think of me as being grumpy, Rachel, but I don't find your stance (which is supported by nothing) very convincing that continuous rating helps moving your own articles in the rank list. You always rate articles of others. So they benefit from your ratings. You only benefit if others rate. And since nobody can track down how much I rated anyway, I spare myself the effort and let others do the work while I keep posting stuff that keeps them busy rating adn earns me money.

And THIS probably explains the imbalance between the number of postings and the number of ratings which you were hinting at in another thread. The reason for the lack of a sufficient number of ratings that would help establishing a fair ranking within topics is just that most user just can't be bothered to act as reading robots for Helium and receive nothing in return. The money is earned by the posters, not the raters.

Quote :

They seemed to have announced that they will introduce a "skip" button for articles you can't be bothered to read. Rachel, you seem to have influence on them. Can you use your magic to make them create a button "skip article and never, never, never ever show me articles about this topic again". I'm getting sore eyes from being tortured by topics like "The best superheros" and "Why some girls seem materialistic".

Not sure, but one can try. They are introducing areas where you can chose not to rate so that should help.

I just joined Helium and was wondering - do I have to rate right away or can I just skip rating until another time?

(And that "skip" button sounds like a great idea, by the way.)

I don't think you can rate until you contribute.