Helium's "SKIP" feature is complete mince.

I only returned to the site today after staying clear because of the churning competition. Now that it's over, I thought it might make the site a little better - the people with writing integrity might have returned to the site. However, having gone to rate, it took me about 2 mins to use up all my 'skips' during which time, I was given two article pairs that fell under topics that I was interested in and about 15 debate topics that held no interest or relevance to me whatsoever.

Worst. Idea. Ever.

It seems to me that you really don't like the site at all and to be honest you might as well not go on it anymore as it seems to be a constant disappointment to you.

And your thoughts on the 'skip' feature are, Wendy?

How is the skip feature, in this form, meant to address the problems that a fair proportion of members have voiced over the past three to four months?

Well I have rated a bit today and I have to agree with Aaron. The skips feature is a good start but unless they are infinite you still end up in circles! I think it would be better if Helium managed to get its random rating more precise in terms of cateogry.

Perhaps giving members a tickbox of sub-categories would be better? I am still having to read "How to deal with a blow out tyre" and "Dungeon and Dragons" reviews despite my skips so surely being able to narrow down your fields would make this less likely?

Ciao's Favourite Member wrote:

And your thoughts on the 'skip' feature are, Wendy?

I don't have a view on it as I haven't even seen it. I don't really go on Helium much these days, as I don't have time to rate there as well. But a lot of your posts are saying how you dislike the site and can't get from it what you want, so wouldn't it be better to concentrate on other sites that give you the satisfaction you need - like Dooyoo or such.

I believe I've been very clear in that Helium is something I only delve into every now and again. My opening sentence in the first post says just that. I do concentrate on other sites, although not exclusively. I believe that's been posted elsewhere on FOIB, too. Helium has potential, so why ignore it completely?

OK,. your choice, just voicing my opinion over your frustrations.

Just had a look.

It's useless.

Why can't they find a way to allow a user/me to select a category to rate within. I don't give a toss about 95% of the articles coming through the rate system. Even though all but one of my articles has been about films I never ever get to rate from the film category.

If I fancy a change of reading I'd like to be able to choose so within a reasonable range of possibilities. Reading the same articles over and over about how to entertain your kids on a plane, that are two paragraphs long and full of poor grammar just doesn't do it for me.

It may even help them to see which categories are most popular amongst registered users and thus they can improve the site accordingly.

Until they fix this I will rarely rate anything.

I don't like the skip feature either, but if Helium is trying to get us to rate articles in certain categories, then why not have us rate a certain amount of articles that the reader may not particularly like and when we've reached that percentage, then we can have the ones that we are more interested in given to us. Just a thought.
DCMerkle

If they ask me to rate another 'article' (full of knowledge!) about Paris ******* **** ***** ****** ***** Hilton. I'm gonna smash something!

Yes but as we all know Helium is a complete waste of time for anyone who actually wants to write anything that is any good and doesnt want to just right about crap!