Members can flag an article during the rating process. At the bottom of the rating screen, you’ll find “Flag this article” for each piece presented. When you click this link, you land on a page that allows you to choose the reason you flagged the article. You may also add a comment on this page.

Flagging with User Tools

Flag an article that exists on the site by clicking on the "User Tools" link in the Helium Footer at the bottom of each Helium web page.

The primary flagging options are as follows:

Serious abuses (flag away!):

Plagiarism: Shame, shame. Someone has copied the text of another writer and submitted it as his own work.
Adult: Cover your eyes. The article contains adult content that is inappropriate for teens and young adults.
Profane: Does someone need a bar of soap? The article contains curse words and obscene language.
Illegal: Cuff ‘em. The article discusses illegal activities or products.

Content issues:

Off topic: Huh? For articles that don’t relate to the title — at all.
Self Promotion: A member is promoting themselves, a product or website of theirs or something they are affiliated with.
Other: An issue that is unrelated to the previously mentioned flags. (Do not use the “Other” flag for issues of spelling, grammar, limited or formatting. Please contact the member directly with the “Praise and feedback for writer” tool with feedback.)

CAUTION: We ask that you use the flagging tool with discretion. We forward flags related to content issues on to the writer—your pen name will appear in the forwarded email. Please be considerate and constructive in your comments.

RSS feeds

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Basically the site comes to you; you don’t need to go to the site. All you need is an RSS reader or aggregator. They are available free online or for download. Any time you see the RSS symbol, you can click to get the URL to subscribe to a particular title, writer, channel, even your “About Me” page.

Social networking tools

At the bottom of each article, you’ll see a number of links to different tagging, social networking and other useful tools. Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s currently available.

Del.icio.us: A social bookmarking site to tag (categorize), store and share bookmarks.
Digg it!: A site for sharing and rating relevant Internet content.
Facebook: A social networking site for professionals, students and everybody else.
Reddit: This site is similar to Digg, but uses artificial intelligence to filter content according to your likes.
Google Bookmarks: Uses personalized search through Google to find the sites you frequently visit.
Yahoo MyWeb: Similar to Google Bookmarks.
Windows Live: Similar to Google Bookmarks and Yahoo MyWeb.
Stumbleupon: This site lets you find and share websites and articles.
Blinklist: Another site for collecting, storing and sharing websites.
Ma.gnolia: Similar to Del.icio.us, but with newer features.

Article tools

Are you looking for the buttons to print or email an article? They are still there, but we rolled them into a neat little box that can be found by clicking the “Article Tools” icon at the top of every article page, right next to the “Write now” button.

The page will become grayed with a pop-up box that shows up in the middle, giving your five options, whether you’re logged in or not.

Contact this writer – Have feedback for a writer? We make it easy for you to email messages to other Helium members by clicking the “Contact this writer” icon from article pages and “About Me” pages.
Invite a writer – our way of letting you spread the word about Helium and get others to join, write and earn.
Add to Favorites – if you love the article so much and want to add it to your “Favorites” listing on your About Me page.
Email this article – You know the feeling – you’re reading something and before you even finish, you think, “[Mom/Dad/Sis/Bro/BFF] should read this!” We understand how you feel, and that’s why we’ve made it easy for you to email articles to friends, family and colleagues.
Print article – Find an article that you just have to print out? No problem! From any article on Helium, you can use the “Print” button. It’s located above each article and will print that page. Just make sure your computer is networked to a printer.

To get out of the Article Tools box, just click the close button and you’ll be brought back to the article page.

When receiving a “Contact this writer” email, remember these points:

When you reply to an initiated “Contact this writer” email, you are opening up direct communication with that member via the Helium Inbox system. They will not see the email address you have registered on Helium with.
If you do not wish to receive any further messages from that member, you can click on a link in the email to your Inbox to block more emails from that person. You can also unblock anyone from your "Blocked Senders" list.
Members can no longer block all emails coming to their Inbox via the "Contact this Writer" tool. You must block members individually after they have emailed you.

How to email comments to a writer from an “About Me” or article page:

Find an article that makes you think, “Wow, I wish I could tell this writer [insert flattering/helpful comment].”
Click on the "Article Tools" link at the top right of the article.
Click the “Contact this writer” icon.

Type your message in the message body field.
Complete the three-character code verification by typing the letters in the field provided. (This feature is in place to ensure that you’re a human and not a robot.)
Click “Send.”

Google toolbar button

The Google toolbar button allows you to search Helium directly from the toolbar in your Internet browser. At this time, it’s supported only by Google for the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. To download the search button and/or the Google toolbar, copy this link into your browser:

http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/add?url=http://www.helium.com/HeliumGoogleButton.xml

Helium Help

User Tools

Flagging articles

Flagging during rating