How to attain writing stars on Helium

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There have been many items quoted on the community forums of Helium about attaining writing stars, by people that misunderstand the system and that believe that by producing a volume of written work on the site, they can attain writing stars. The stars are calculated to reward writers of excellence and quantity is not as important as quality. COMPETITIVE ARTICLES Here many writers misunderstand the writing star concept and believe that if they have many No. 1 articles which are stand alone, this entitles them to writing stars. The fact is that until these titles have three articles in the section, there is no method of measurement of quality and of course the award would be inappropriate when there is nothing to gage the quality of one item against another. So how can you draw attention to stand alone items and make them competitive ? Helium have thought of this and produced contests called the Fat and Happy contests, where stand alone items are put up for competition to encourage new postings, though you can go further than this. By approaching the community forum and seeking out those with similar interests, you may find that there are many members interested in the same areas as you and can encourage them to write, or contact the site steward for the area in which your article is placed, who will help you to find those writers with similar interests. THE PERCENTAGE GAME Here, Helium took account of the fact that many writers joined the site when it was in its infancy and wrote to lower standards, and discounts 10 per cent of the worst rated articles of each member in the equation that calculates stars. It was a generous gesture and one that has helped many to improve their chances of writing stars. For those members that want to improve old work, their mentor system is tailor made to help writers to improve their older work in an effort to gain writing stars. GAINING AND LOSING Stars on the site are a unique concept and one that is better than on any writing site I know. For example, if someone loses interest and starts to write inferior quality articles, what happens is that the percentage of good quality articles drops and so do the stars. On other writing sites, once you achieve becoming one of the elite, you stay there regardless of the quality of current submissions, and it is very shortsighted. By introducing the writing star system and making it flexible, Helium have addressed this. SO HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY STARS I have people write to me daily about writing stars that simply do not understand the mathematics. Making a rough chart for yourself can help. Look at all articles at the mid point in a thread or below that mid point, and these are articles that are stopping you from progressing and gaining stars. Improve all those articles from the middle downwards, making them more informative, changing the layout, and experimenting until you find a style that works for you. Use the leapfrog function to improve those old articles that are holding you back. If you really cannot see a way to improve them, post them on the community forum feedback area and listen to what people tell you. These are people that care and that criticise in an attempt to help you succeed, normal members that take their time out to help another member improve, rather than people who think themselves better than you. EXTRA STARS Another misconception is often associated with not reading the whole of the instructions for stars. People see members with less than 30 articles and wonder why they have 2 writing stars. It's not a question of how many. It's a question of excellence, and if new members achieve excellence, they are awarded with extra stars as an incentive to keep their quality high. All members are offered this and all members can gain by writing high quality articles. OVERALL The writing stars on Helium are a measure of excellence, and a benchmarker for writers to understand which are their strong subjects, which they are best at writing, and by understanding this, give direction to those who write articles in a more substantial way than any other site I know. I have been writing online for ten years, and have never come across such a well thought out system to judge excellence, without anyone becoming elite. Go for it !