Voting for ideas is different than voting in politics.  While in elections are for picking a leader, HelpGlobe is used to validate the truth.  The different goals required us to design a 5-point, non-linear scoring system, to measure contributions as helpful or not, which is more important to readers than sorting by popularity.

Democratic votes by HelpGlobe users affect how questions' helpfulness, and answers' helpfulness.  It works like this:

• Users reading questions or answers can easily rate what they read using a 5-star rating system. (5 stars being the best rating)
• Question and answer scores are aggregated based on everyone's ratings. The best possible score is +20, when many people give 5-star ratings. The worst score is -20.  It tapers up non-linearly.
• Question ratings can change over time.  More recent ratings count more than ancient ratings.

Why is it non-linear?  Because the result for users is whether to trust the answer or not.  The result should be a Yes/No decision, not an infinitely growing number.  Imagine this "real-life" example:

• If 10 people say something, you believe it a lot more than one.  
• But if 100 people say something, you believe it only a bit more than 10 people, because you already believed it when 10 people said it.
• So your belief based on ratings go up, but not linearly.
• if people say the same thing over time, you'll likely eventually believe it.  So time matters.

To credit the votes, there are 2 types of points tracked for each HelpGlobe member: Activity and Expertise.  Your points are tracked separately for each topic category.

• Everything you do earns you Activity points.  Asking, Answering, or Rating.
• Lowly-rated questions will not cost you points. So feel free to add your opinion!
• Highly-rated questions or answers will earn you Expertise points..
• You may not rate your own questions or answers.  For this reason, you are not allowed to have multiple HelpGlobe ID's.
• Votes for the same user will be diluted, so that vengeance or favouritism won't work.

• You may only have one HelpGlobe account.
  • If you are using or controlling multiple accounts, HelpGlobe reserves the right to suspend your account.
• You may not share your HelpGlobe account.
  • If your account is shared with multiple people, HelpGlobe reserves the right to suspend your account.
• Your profile is expected to be accurate.
  • Don't pretend to be someone you're not.  You may change your location only if you move.  You can hide profile information from others if you wish.  To keep the HelpGlobe community safe, HelpGlobe reserves the right to suspend your account.
• Your postings (questions, answers, comments) are expected to show the intention to learn or teach.
  • You must treat other members with respect through your words.
  • You may not post hateful, obscene, malicious, or unlawful entries.
  • You may not post anything for solicitation, either personal or commercial. Spamming or advertising are not allowed.
  • You may not post baseless accusations without evidence.  Please use only facts from your experience.
  • Chatting for fun must be restricted to the topics Fun.Chat or Local.Chat.
  • You may not continually post questions in the wrong topic categories, through intention or neglect.

• The quality of HelpGlobe content is continually monitored and improved by HelpGlobe moderators.
  • Moderators will be invited on an as-needed basis, from members with the highest Activity points.
  • Depending on the topic, there can be a few or many moderators for that topic.
  • Moderators can move questions away to another topic category.
  • Moderators can delete questions or answers deemed objectionable or if they violate the rules.
• HelpGlobe reserves the right to remove any Questions, Answers, Comments, or Users at any time.