Website Credibility

There are certain ways to prove credibility. When writing a research paper, trying to find credible sources is something that many professor stress. The internet has so many websites and many of them look the same but some of them have false information. Trying to find the website that is suitable is hard to do. A website ending in .org can be just as reliable as a website in .com. The domain of the website doesn’t determine how trustworthy a website is. Just because there is someone wearing a suit doesn’t make them a businessman. There is a checklist of things that can be checked for when trying to figure out credibility.
Happycounts.org is a website that has to be broken down to find out if it is credible. On first impression the website

could be trusted automatically but also interested in whatesle is offers. I wanted to click on anything under the sign that says “Tools for your Happiness”. This website puts the first idea that it main concern is trying to help other become happy. On the side tabs there is a survey to see how happy someone is. The tab that interest me the most is the “For Researchers” because usually websites don’t have a tab like that. This shows that this website wants to appeal to those that are doing the research. The level of credibility goes up instantly because, there is a chart of their data on what people value to make them happy from the years of 2011-2015. This clearly means they collect data.
Happycounts.org is a website that seeks to spread ways in which to make others happy. This website uses a great deal of ways to get others to view it and make them question their happiness. This website seems to dedicate itself to making sure other understand what other are sad about and different ways to make them happy. It focuses on spreading happiness and trying to help others understand why they aren’t happy and ways to make them happier. Looking at the website, it doesn’t look very credible but then after reading it is something that can be.
This website can be seen as credible because looking at the first point in the checklist it is a “not-for-profit organization” website which also means a non-profit.

This something that is important because creating this website mean they don’t get any profit by how many people view or contribute to the website. This is important in credibility in my opinion because the group creating it might genuinely care about how happy the world can be. The website loses some credibility because it was created by a free website called “Weebly”. This means that not much money was out into created this website and no one was paid to create it. This could mean that anyone could have created it posting information on the website.
Another point on the checklist is how professional the site looks. The site isn’t something that is too flashy. It looks very professional. Has tabs on the side that make it easy to see and decide what specifically needs to be seen on the website. The think is even though it looks put together it doesn’t mean that the data is credible but this website took the time to place everything in the exact way it should be read it. All the information is categorized and not just placed to where

ever.
Happiness Alliance is so far looking like a very credible website. This website is all about happiness. This website has a survey that anyone can use to assess their happiness on what they call the “Gross National Happiness Index Survey”. The survey was taken by different people and it tells them specifically what percentage in the US are happy with their community, economy or even with themselves. The website is repetitive but it gets the point across that there are way to improve happiness. People have assessed the information themselves and created ways to improve one weak happiness point in their community. This shows that this website is using their pathos, logos and ethos correctly.
Additional, to the website being about happiness it is also revolved around the “Gross National Happiness Index.” When looking up the “Gross National Happiness Index”, it became clear that isn’t only website that has this index but it is the only one that allows others to compare themselves to it. This website is unique in that it isn’t about trying to analyze the index, as it is trying to get people to improve the index or be above the national average in happiness. The website does lose some of its credibility because this index was supposed to be by Bhutan but it says on the website that it is inspired by him. This raises questions that it isn’t something that created on their own and it isn’t as original as they made it seem.
The website does link to other sites buy many are how ways others had ideas to improve happiness in a specific community.

The website also links to ways that other can join the happiness alliance and make happiness something that is achievable. The website also has a tab for researcher to assess the happiness levels over a period of time. This should bring the website credibility high because when looking up the index, there wasn’t really much on anything on it past the year or 2011. The website does say that it is the “domain of gross national happiness”. This could mean that this is the main link to the index but there is no direct author other than the “Happiness Alliance” and “The Happiness Initiative”. This is where it loses some credibility because there is no exact name to blame if this information is found incorrect. The only place to find an actually name is on the “blog” tab of the

website.
After clicking on the aforementioned, tab there are a number of names that constantly appear as authors. After seeing this it can be assumed that all there is group of people that have created this website. This makes their credibility go down because that means there is a chance the authors have no credibility behind their names to make such assessments. This could mean that what they are portraying is actually matter of opinion and not a matter of science from the Gross National Happiness which is also referred to as the GNH.
After looking up the GNH, it can be clear that is website is the only one of its kind but can be credible since it does record its own data. Even though it is original and not really a copycat there are many holes in its credibility. Starting with the fact there are no direct links to who exactly is in the alliance. The only thing we know about is that it is the Happiness initiative and the GNH Index Survey but there are no specific names tied to this page.
Not only are there no names but also the website was created for free. It is a non-profit but they did a great job persuading their reader than it would be assumed that they would have been able to pay someone to create a better website. At first glance, it could be assumed that this website was set up the way it was for professionalism but it is also like the best they could do.
Happiness Alliance is aimed toward adults who have the means and time to think of ways to make others happy. When looking at the quiz, it becomes clear it is aimed toward adults or the older teenagers because it asks questions that mean they would be involved in the world. Questions about the person being happy with the government and their financial situation. Assuming a young teen wouldn’t be too worried about their happiness and how to improve their happiness for the better of the society.
To summarize, happycounts.org is a website that actually has convince me that it is trustworthy. The fact that they are trying to persuade the reader only with pathos and logos seems to get to some points but if they were able to use some ethos they would be in the clear. Logos is something that saved them completely. Depending on the Professor they may or may not allow this website to be used in research. Happycounts.org, has very little credibility but it does have some useful information, which has to be used wisely. This website is something that is in-between intellectual reading or general public reading. This website based on the checklist is reliable may be used as a source.