I am a SquidAngel!

 Edited to clarify [2009 April 16th]: I did not apply for the new round of SquidAngels, so I do not have the "wings" anymore. It was both fun and a lot of work. Big thanks to Squidoo members for all the kind words.

I was very happy to learn that I had been granted Squidoo wings (thank you Kimberly!). Not only this gives me a shiny new badge on my profile to show off, I can also fly around lenses (the height provides an excellent vantage point) and use my newly gained Angel Thumbs power, dishing out "blesses" and "dings". I've been doing a bit of the former, and much, much more of the latter, so if your lensrank shot down mysteriously, it's probably my doing.

...Just kidding, you don't have anything to worry about. That is unless your lens looks like this. And you have 19 others just like it.

Most of the SquidAngels seem reluctant to use the Thumbs Down button. They are all very nice and cool people, so if you aren't doing anything highly questionable, you'll probably only receive blessings from them during your time as a Squidoo lensmaster. However, I'm very glad that some of them are also working on dinging (and reporting, in some cases) all those crappy lenses that plague Squidoo. There's more of those than you might think, and I believe that taking care of them is an important issue. That's why tip my hat off to people like XP - the self-proclaimed Dark Angel of Squidoo!

Everyone can do their part by reporting suspicious, harmful, or spammy lenses. It will help Squidoo's reputation, which in turn will help all lensmasters. We do not want to be known as a website pushing "incredible" Acai Berry pills and expensive subscription "sattelite TV for PC" services which turn out to be freeware BitTorrent clients.

Note: no one will ever ding your lens because it's new, because of your views, or because of your grammar. However, if all you do is post a cookie-cutter promotional article about some "amazing" natural weight loss remedy (that is actually a product in an MLM scheme), you just might find your lens dinged!

To wrap up my post, I thought I'd try and balance my SquidAngel karma a little. I've been dinging lenses for a while, so it would be nice if I could get a chance to bless some great ones, too. Just post your links below and I'll go check them out. I can't promise you I'll bless all of them, so no hard feelings if I don't, please :)