Saturday, June 06, 2009
Schedule tight, but will say something for today...
This'll be a short post today. We're seeing that the stimulus isn't working, but they're still talking about increasing spending. This is like administering a metabolism slowing drug to someone trying to lose weight. Perhaps the government should step out and let the economy fix itself.
We'll be back
Been away where I didn't have access to the Internet. I'll post more as my schedule opens up.
The next Ice Age steadily approaches...
I checked a blog site where friends and family post. They're located in different parts of the country, and they talked about one thing, how it's cooler than normal. My friends back at my hometown are practically freezing...on June 6, 2009. I'm in the Deep South, and we're witnessing cool weather between the warm weather days.
Someone wondered what's going on.
What's happening is that the world continues to cool down, we're headed into an Ice Age. Anecdotal experiences match actual temperature data, as parts of the country saw June snows in locations that normally don't get snow. Enough snow fell in the UK to "make a snowman."
More on this in future posts...
Someone wondered what's going on.
What's happening is that the world continues to cool down, we're headed into an Ice Age. Anecdotal experiences match actual temperature data, as parts of the country saw June snows in locations that normally don't get snow. Enough snow fell in the UK to "make a snowman."
More on this in future posts...
Helium.com doesn't want you to see this article
I got a message from Helium.com one day, telling me that one of my articles got deleted. They justified the deletion by saying that it "violated" terms of use, and contained non-factual information. If you go to Helium.com and read their articles, you'd notice that the majority of their articles contain non-factual information. They're nothing more than the authors' opinions.
So, could you see what it was that I wrote that touched a nerve?
Here's the article's title: "Is the Helium Rating System Really Fair?"
And here's the deleted article:
The answer is, "not really." Like Craigslist's flagging system, people have found ways to defeat Helium's rating system. Their incentive is to further their; and their friend's, standing at the expense of other Helium writers.
Most Helium raters have good intentions, and will rate an article based on what they think is the best one. Helium has different writers with different experiences. These writers have different opinions on what makes a "better article." This makes Helium's rating subjective; it's nothing more than opinion.
When you have a peer rated community like Helium, or peer regulated community like Craigslist, you have the opportunity for abuse. The following are nine of many ways that Helium raters can bias or manipulate the rating system.
1. Helium raters judge articles inconsistently.
For some Helium raters, the article has to be error free. For others, the article has to look like an author or journalist wrote it. Some raters may judge how close the article addresses the title, while other will favorably rate writers that write like them. Then we have raters who'll judge based on the format, or on article length.
For example, a writer would rate a short article more favorably than a long article; even if the longer one is better written.
2. The Helium Gang Maneuver; a circle of Helium friends take action.
If you've made friends here, and you talk to each other on a regular basis, you know how this can potentially work. Helium friends could send article links to each other. As these writers rate articles, they'll keep a lookout for their friend's article; then rate it more favorably. If they have a leapfrog article, then they'll rate their friend's new article so that it replaces the old one.
The Helium Gang Maneuver is similar to how Craigslist posters work together to flag a post they disagree with-or nominate one for "Best of Craigslist."
This trick can be used in conjunction with the other methods listed in this article.
3. Helium raters that rate articles based on ideology.
How did you react when someone said something you passionately disagreed with? If you're the type that'd jumps into a conversation firing with both barrels, then you'd understand how these raters react. Instead of going into debate mode, they rate against the article they disagree with. It wouldn't matter if the other article were poorly written.
4. Helium raters rating articles based on literary tone.
You have two articles sitting side by side. One article looks like it could be a piece from a "sophisticated" novel, journal, university paper, magazine or newspaper. The other article looks like it was written for the common person. This rater rates the elitist article more favorably over the "common folk" article.
5. Helium raters with unsuccessful leapfrog attempts rating articles.
These raters had their hopes of improving their rankings dashed. These Helium writers "get even" by working against another writer's leapfrog attempt. They open a second browser and search for the original article. Then they go back and rate the original article very favorably.
6. Helium raters getting even for lowered ranking.
While rating articles, they have a second browser open. They find the current ranking of the articles they're rating; then favorably rate the lower ranking article. The intent? One of those articles could belong to the people that adversely affected the rater's article ranking. This concept is applicable to rating leapfrog articles.
7. Helium raters sabotaging their competitors.
The writer's "circle of Helium friends" will rate the contest taker's articles more favorably, regardless of how well written the other articles are. The contest taker will rate against their closest competitors to help keep them down.
8. Helium raters with clone Helium accounts.
One writer creates multiple PayPal accounts, then creates different Helium accounts using different IPs. This is possible with an IP shuffler, or IP shifter, software. The writer would log in under several of these clone accounts in hopes of rating their main account's article. Once they get lucky, they rate their own article more favorably.
9. Mass flaggers on Craigslist have software that allows them to quickly flag posts for removal. If those people are posting articles here, they might find a way to use that program to "spike" their article's page views.
This might seem like hard work, and require coordination. But if people have friends writing articles in different interest areas; and money is to be gained, many people will make the effort.
So, could you see what it was that I wrote that touched a nerve?
Here's the article's title: "Is the Helium Rating System Really Fair?"
And here's the deleted article:
The answer is, "not really." Like Craigslist's flagging system, people have found ways to defeat Helium's rating system. Their incentive is to further their; and their friend's, standing at the expense of other Helium writers.
Most Helium raters have good intentions, and will rate an article based on what they think is the best one. Helium has different writers with different experiences. These writers have different opinions on what makes a "better article." This makes Helium's rating subjective; it's nothing more than opinion.
When you have a peer rated community like Helium, or peer regulated community like Craigslist, you have the opportunity for abuse. The following are nine of many ways that Helium raters can bias or manipulate the rating system.
1. Helium raters judge articles inconsistently.
For some Helium raters, the article has to be error free. For others, the article has to look like an author or journalist wrote it. Some raters may judge how close the article addresses the title, while other will favorably rate writers that write like them. Then we have raters who'll judge based on the format, or on article length.
For example, a writer would rate a short article more favorably than a long article; even if the longer one is better written.
2. The Helium Gang Maneuver; a circle of Helium friends take action.
If you've made friends here, and you talk to each other on a regular basis, you know how this can potentially work. Helium friends could send article links to each other. As these writers rate articles, they'll keep a lookout for their friend's article; then rate it more favorably. If they have a leapfrog article, then they'll rate their friend's new article so that it replaces the old one.
The Helium Gang Maneuver is similar to how Craigslist posters work together to flag a post they disagree with-or nominate one for "Best of Craigslist."
This trick can be used in conjunction with the other methods listed in this article.
3. Helium raters that rate articles based on ideology.
How did you react when someone said something you passionately disagreed with? If you're the type that'd jumps into a conversation firing with both barrels, then you'd understand how these raters react. Instead of going into debate mode, they rate against the article they disagree with. It wouldn't matter if the other article were poorly written.
4. Helium raters rating articles based on literary tone.
You have two articles sitting side by side. One article looks like it could be a piece from a "sophisticated" novel, journal, university paper, magazine or newspaper. The other article looks like it was written for the common person. This rater rates the elitist article more favorably over the "common folk" article.
5. Helium raters with unsuccessful leapfrog attempts rating articles.
These raters had their hopes of improving their rankings dashed. These Helium writers "get even" by working against another writer's leapfrog attempt. They open a second browser and search for the original article. Then they go back and rate the original article very favorably.
6. Helium raters getting even for lowered ranking.
While rating articles, they have a second browser open. They find the current ranking of the articles they're rating; then favorably rate the lower ranking article. The intent? One of those articles could belong to the people that adversely affected the rater's article ranking. This concept is applicable to rating leapfrog articles.
7. Helium raters sabotaging their competitors.
The writer's "circle of Helium friends" will rate the contest taker's articles more favorably, regardless of how well written the other articles are. The contest taker will rate against their closest competitors to help keep them down.
8. Helium raters with clone Helium accounts.
One writer creates multiple PayPal accounts, then creates different Helium accounts using different IPs. This is possible with an IP shuffler, or IP shifter, software. The writer would log in under several of these clone accounts in hopes of rating their main account's article. Once they get lucky, they rate their own article more favorably.
9. Mass flaggers on Craigslist have software that allows them to quickly flag posts for removal. If those people are posting articles here, they might find a way to use that program to "spike" their article's page views.
This might seem like hard work, and require coordination. But if people have friends writing articles in different interest areas; and money is to be gained, many people will make the effort.
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