Helium: Quality of articles going down?
By blueunicorn
@blueunicorn (2401)
United States
November 5, 2007 2:55pm CST
I have been doing a lot of rating on Helium lately. I noticed yesterday and today that the quality of articles was really bad. There were incomplete sentences, grossly misspelled words, and poor grammar. Has anyone else noticed this in the past couple of weeks? Do you think that the process of inviting writers and paying for the referrals' work is causing the quality to go down?
4 people like this
6 responses
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
9 Nov 07
I have noticed that there are a lot of poorer quality articles on helium, and some that I am sure are in breach of copyright too. I know that there are many people from many cultures and backgrounds that use helium and I try to respect that. I rate accordingly though, and tend to not read those that I have to rewrite in my head. My articles,(not that i'm bragging) I try to keep to a high standard, but also keep the writing light, relevant and personable. Go and check them out if you like, and then knock 'em down! I love the criticism and am always looking to improve on my work.
2 people like this
@blueunicorn (2401)
• United States
9 Nov 07
I'll definately check out your articles when I can. If you would like to see mine, my screen name there is blueunicorn1974.
1 person likes this
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
9 Nov 07
Ok, I'll take a look. I always like seeing what other people are writing! lol.
1 person likes this
@blueunicorn (2401)
• United States
6 Nov 07
The content seems to have gotten worse, too! People using questionable language in the articles, not actually writing to the title but switching to something just so they can get their own idea across, etc. Maybe I'm just cranky the last couple of days.
1 person likes this
@jayger04 (64)
• Australia
7 Nov 07
I have been receiving a lot of articles that are under 140 words and are set out in great big blcoks and chunks instead of being formatted properly.
I was reading one response to an article and it said 'Now I know that I'm 13.'
I understand there are plenty of good young writers, but it could possibly be the referrals to not so good young writers. Maybe Helium will be the next Myspace or Facebook. Lol
2 people like this
@nishdan01 (3051)
• Singapore
6 Nov 07
I rated only a few articles these past 2 days. May be because people are writing too many articles for the contest or to increase the earnings. I do not think that the referral syate is causing the quality to go down.I have 2 referrals and I did not earn a cent as they did not write a single article.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
9 Nov 07
Sometimes everything I rate is really high quality.Other times, I have to flag every article. Most of the time, it's somewhere inbetween. There seems to be periods of time for all three. I rated one week and everything was a flag. But then the next week, I had difficulty deciding who was the best. Every pairing, they were both excellent. I had read and reread to make a decision. The varying qualities go in cycles. Hang in there,it will pick up again.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
15 Nov 07
The other day, I flagged 2 for no paragraphs and not really doing anything but writing independent sentences that could be intro sentences for some good paragraphs. Had two others that were great! One that one writer was clearly better than the other as far as scope and attention to the topic. That seems to be my average rating day lately. Take care and glad I encouraged you.
2 people like this
@blueunicorn (2401)
• United States
9 Nov 07
Thanks writer! I will hang in there. I rated a couple of articles yesterday that litterally brought me to tears. They were both excellent! How do you make one of those better than the other? The content on both was so good, and the stories strong and full of emotion. I wound up going through both looking to see which one had the least spelling and gramatical errors. So, you are right. I must have just hit one of those bad patches at the beginning of this week.
2 people like this
@blueunicorn (2401)
• United States
19 Nov 07
I'm glad to see that someone else is taking Helium seriously. I really do enjoy writing there, but it drives me nuts when somehow an article like the one you describe comes in above mine. There is one of my articles in particular that was written really well and the one that is ahead of mine has no sentence structure and poor grammar. But, apparently my opinion was not as highly regarded. Oh well, thanks again for the encouragement, writer! It really does help to know that there are others who really care about the site and the quality of the writing there.
1 person likes this
@tonyllenium (6252)
• Italy
8 Nov 07
mmh..i joined helium just from a few time and so i didn't have the time as well to partecipate in it actively..in reality i read some articles coming from helium writers so i didn't find it so bad as your review but surely may be there are somebody can do that seeing tha community is quite wide!!
i think helium have many rules about writing trying to promote articles with an high quality beh i think that many writers can join helium to gain some money so teh quality of articles can be low because the major aim is o gain money from the money program!!
@blueunicorn (2401)
• United States
8 Nov 07
Maybe I'm just noticing it more because I am doing so much rating, too. I've been really enjoying reading the articles through rating, so I've been spending quite a bit of time in that area instead of writing myself. I also got disappointed when one of my articles was rated low and the #1 article was TERRIBLE in my opinion. Most of the time I can see why my article wasn't rated higher, and I do understand that I am not the best writer in the world, but this one in particular was quite a blow.
1 person likes this
@redbubbles (329)
• Philippines
6 Nov 07
Hi friend! Well, I have no idea what a Helium is, except that I know it is another form of chemicals or gas? I'm sorry, please tell me. Regards!
@blueunicorn (2401)
• United States
6 Nov 07
Helium.com is a place where people can post articles that they have written. Other writers rate the articles, and the writers can earn money for the articles they have written. I'm going to send you a PM with a link to my articles so you can get an idea of what it is.
1 person likes this
