Helium contest.

I've noticed a contest entrant that seems to be doing well in the ratings yet when I read the articles uh lets just say its not good English. (sorry just read thru some of em )

I don't understand how this person was a $20. contender last week and they seem to be staying in the $20. range this week also.

Bugs me a bit that something like that is slipping by during a contest. I haven't rated any of this persons articles. When I read something that sounds like that I would rate it down or flag it depending on the severity.

I agree with you totally Dream, there are several articles that are quite poor yet stay in a good position. I think I have rated 4 titles for the competition and flagged @25 so far and I try to rate everyday (when the computer allows me too.) Perhaps give your feedback to help@helium.com ? Just to get the frustrations off your chest anyway and your feedback would be important I would think.

dream-girl wrote:

I've noticed a contest entrant that seems to be doing well in the ratings yet when I read the articles uh lets just say its not good English. (sorry just read thru some of em )

I don't understand how this person was a $20. contender last week and they seem to be staying in the $20. range this week also.

Bugs me a bit that something like that is slipping by during a contest. I haven't rated any of this persons articles. When I read something that sounds like that I would rate it down or flag it depending on the severity.

That kind of thing is happening all the time on Helium, I don't know why more people don't see it. Perhaps they don't want to?

There are front page articles that are very poor in terms of content or barely cover the topic in which they're written. But they do have good/decent standards of English, which seems to be more important to the Helium member than content. It doesn't matter whether it's a competition or a front page article, for a site that puts so much emphasis on "writing quality", there is tonnes of stuff that (very obviously) slips through the gaps.

I've said it on the Helium forum and I'll say it here: the competition is not about quality. It's about quantity.

Thats exactly what I thought when I noticed that. The person has tons of articles and yet they are written worse than most poorly written forum posts. I flagged one of them last night that was in the # 1 position and put very bad grammar as the reason. Maybe it will get someones attention.

OK, so the grammar isn't up to much, but what about the content?

Content is, IMO, more important than grammar. A decent standard of both is preferable, of course. An article with poor grammar, but great content will get a better rating from me than an article with poor content and smashing grammar (unless the poor grammar makes it unreadable).

The content is OK but not great. Others under the same topic have better content and are well written, yet rated lower. Plus it is filled with incomplete sentences which makes it awkward to read.

But still, content is king, isn't it? Helium is suppsedly a site that deals with knowledge, even with the rising 'Writing Elite' put forward by asnother member.

The amount of posts made on Helium's forum by members where writing style is put above actual content is horrendous!

the only way content would be king in that instant would be if the content were better.

Well done Rachel, 2nd place this time! Excellent achievement!

Not finished yet Wendy. There are 24 hours of rating for the last entries and I may disappear off the leaderboard.

Oh, I thought it finished yesterday at midday?

No, I made the same mistake last week. It freezes in that people can't contribute any more, and the competition is officially closed, but rating goes on all day and things can change.

dream-girl wrote:

the only way content would be king in that instant would be if the content were better.

No, "content is king" is the term used to describe what is important in a site. It's not the flashy gadgets or the amount of smilies or whatever's being offered as a prize... it's about the content of the site. In Helium's case, that's the articles and their content.

And I'm not referring to it in a single instance, but rather looking at it across the site and forums where it still appears that how you write is more important than what you write. In terms of the competition, how much you write is as important, if not more so, than what you write. That's completely contradictory to what I think Helium's been 'preaching' since I joined.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

No, I made the same mistake last week. It freezes in that people can't contribute any more, and the competition is officially closed, but rating goes on all day and things can change.

Well done Rach! Saw it was completed now - bet you're chuffed! xx

Yeh I am. Its harder than you think and takes a load of stamina !

The topics this week are terrible (well for me anyway). I was quite happy with my $5 from last week though as I didn't write that many.

I am sticking to the market place topics this week when I have the energy to.

What i've found is that even if you're not in the running for a prize, you still benefit from increased earnings if you write something in the competition categories because those ones are constantly being rated. Everyone benefits from the competition!

yep I agree fizzy. Plus the contest encourages us to write on subjects that we normally might not consider. Which opens the door for more experience and earnings.

I am amazed at the top winners. I don't know how they do it. Just by watching you can tell it an unbelieveable amount of work to get in and hold those positions.

I just don't have the kind of time that would entail. Its a shame that it boils down to quantity. I have noticed though that i have done well in the individual topics i have written about but other people I have overtaken have been quite poor but because they churn they will win a prize

I dont have the time it would require either and I dont think that there are enough topics in there that I could write about, Golf..what do i know about golf?

The paucity of the topics is reflected in the quality of the writing of course. People are writing about amnything and everything - sometimes when they nothing about the subject to start with - and even then they don't appear to do any research. I wonder whether people really read properly when rating or do they just plough through them, rating at random. I have taken a look at some the of the higher placed articles and I am amazed that they haven't been weeded out in the ratings system and don't lie at the bottom of the heap.

I noticed that too fizzy in the first week. Ever since I saw the title 'how to pee in the woods' I have been put off. Not from peeing in the woods but the fact that supposedly there are people out there who are searching for this information?? What kind of people don't know how to do this? And I don't think the contest ratings are done as often. Some folks seem to get many of these articles to rate whilst others only get a few.

Steer, the only thing you need to know about golf is that you do NOT have to throw the ball up in the air to hit it. My mum plays golf, I play tennis. I couldn't play golf as I'd either swear too much or fall down laughing. Though I like driving the golf cart. Perhaps I can write a 'How to' article about that....

Looks like some good titles this week.

There are some interesting ones, but I am trying to produce a catalog of good quality ones so they are taking a lot of time to write.