The "Best Pearls Of The Week" box shows the 5 top-rated Pearls submitted within the past 7 days. To qualify, they must have been rated at least 6 times. Any author may only appear once within this box, so if an author has more than one highly rated Pearl, we choose the highest rated at the time of the selection. This box is updated once a day.

The Featured Author is chosen about once a week by the PearlSoup staff with the assistance of the community. In order to be selected as a Featured Author, a community member must have a photo in his or her profile. Other factors taken into consideration include:

• The quality of the Pearl selected. It should be well written, in first person and experience-based, with a strong lead, and convey wisdom and insight. The spelling and grammar should be in good shape.
• The quality of the author's contributions to the community as a whole. This includes number and quality of Pearls submitted, comments made, and other forms of service to the community.
• Previously featured authors are not eligible.
• The selection is not made based on ratings.

The "Pearl Of The Day" box shows the top-rated Pearl that has not previously been displayed as a Pearl Of The Day within the last 30 days. To qualify, it must have been rated at least 15 times. In order to be selected as a Pearl Of The Day, the author must have a photo in his or her profile. This box is updated once a day.

The "Active Pearl Commentaries" box shows Pearls that have stimulated active commentary by the PearlSoup community. These are Pearls that have received multiple comments in the last 24 hours. The most recently submitted Pearl is shown first in the list.

The "Active Discussions" box shows Discussion Topics that have received multiple Messages in response from the PearlSoup community. The most recently submitted Topic is shown first in the list.

The "Most Recent Pearls" are the 10 Pearls most recently submitted to PearlSoup by the ten authors who have most recently submitted Pearls, unedited and unfiltered. Only one Pearl shows up for each author, even if that author has submitted the last 10 Pearls to the site. Every time you hit "Refresh" or "Reload" (depending on the browser you are using, for example Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator), this box will be updated if there have been any new submissions. If you are a member and you have signed in, you can also find new Pearls that you haven't read by clicking on the "Pick Pearl For Me" button in the middle of the top of most pages.

The "New PearlSoup Author" box highlights Pearls by authors who have recently submitted their first Pearl. To be eligible, the author must have a photo in his or her profile, and the Pearl must have an average rating of 4 after a minimum of 5 votes.

The "Top-Rated Authors" box shows the ten highest-rated Pearls by the ten authors at the top of the list of highest-rated Pearls. Each author is only listed once, with his or her highest-rated Pearl. Some authors may have other Pearls rated higher than some of the other authors on the list, but they are only shown once. To qualify for this list, Pearls must have at least 15 votes. This list tends to change slowly over time.

The "Author Spotlight" highlights five Authors (presenting one at a time) who have submitted at least 3 Pearls of high quality. To be eligible, the author should have a photo in his or her profile.