How do you work helium?

I suspect that Helium's rating system works on a majority rules basis. I usually only rate enough articles to get and keep one star and I've noticed that my rating score keeps changing even though I haven't done anything. It seems like it changes less if I rate articles either 'slightly more' or 'more' instead of 'by far.'

I have articles on Helium and I was also having trouble with the rating system. I was rating a lot by using the "more" and "by far" ratings if I felt the articles were clearly much better but my rating percentage was bouncing around a lot and my stars were coming and going all the time. I was getting as frustrated as you sound now. Then I started changing the way I rate a little bit. I use the "slightly more" rating almost all of the time now and I evaluate the articles a little differently. I know you are supposed to be critical of how it's written, correct grammar, etc. but most people on there don't rate that way and Helium rates your rating by how much you are "in line" with other people's ratings of the same articles. In other words, if 10 people rate it well in spite of bad grammar and spelling and you rate it bad, it will count against your rating percentage. Now, I rate more by value or how much information the article provides on the topic and not necessarily on the writing style or how well polished it is. The article with more information on topic gets a "slightly more" rating. That's it. They also figure your percentage on how many articles rated in the last 30 days and also the last 90 days so I try and spread out my rating by doing a few each day. You should be able to keep 1 rating star by just doing 2 or 3 rates per day. If you want more stars, try increasing by a couple per day until you get up to a higher number. Don't go in on one day and do 20 or 30 rates though or it will have a big affect on your percentage, good or bad. Keep it even day to day and you'll see less erratic behavior of your rating stars. It may take a few days of rating to bring back your star but you should keep it after that. If you are seeing your writing stars come and go, it's also due to your percentage or number of articles in the top third of the article topics. You can leapfrog poor performing articles by re-writing and improving them or write more articles to increase your percentage. Try to find article topics that interest you and that have few articles in them. It's easier to get an article in the top 5 if there are only a dozen articles or less to compete with. Getting on in the top 5 out of 50 is a little more difficult. But read the top 5 articles in the topic and if you think you can write one better than any of them, go for it. You've got a good shot. Well, I hope that helps. I know you're ready to quit but maybe you could try a few of my suggestions and see if it works for you. If not, even though you can't remove the articles from Helium, you can always copy them to another writing site and see how they do there. Good luck!

I really do not like Helium at all! I was active on it for quite a long time, but my articles never got any high ratings. I don't like that users can rate other people's articles because what if they decide to just put in any old rating without even bothering to read the article? I personally prefer Triond. There is no rating system, you can delete articles that you've submitted if you later decide you no longer want it on there, and payout is only 50 cents a month which is much easier to reach than Helium's $25. After I reached payout on Helium I quit.. now I stick with Triond exclusively!

An onion has many layers. Perhaps they haven't come to understand yours yet. cdrxo

You know they say they have some sort of algorithm but I've been frustrated by the same thing. It seems like you lose more stars the more you rate! I gave up on the five star rating bonus but I recall you need rating stars to get performance payments as well. Helium didn't really work out for me haha.

Hello, Macdinolinger. I would say you need to spend at least 10 minutes a day rating in order to keep your rating star. Once you have it back, keep on with the 10 minutes a day and by the end of the month you'll have 5, and you'll get the $3 rating bonus. Rating stars go on the consensus, so rating 'slightly more' or 'by far' would seem to be the two extremes. I rarely find that one article is better by far, and the same with 'slightly more.' Most of my rates fall in the middle, and I have managed to keep my 5 rating stars for almost two years. If you're looking for upfront and transition payments, ratings don't come into it, but if you're after page views, you need to maintain at least one rating star. As you seem to have an issue with this, I'd suggest you look on the community boards under 'ratings questions' and see if anyone else is having the same problem, and what is advised.