Topic: ㅤ (Read 552 times)

Say what?  You registered on the forum after the merit system was created, so it would have been a while before you would have even been a candidate to be one (unless Theymos chose you specifically to distribute merits on a local board).  I'm not criticizing you here, just breaking your balls a little--and there may be a language barrier, too.  Do you know in what year you were tapped to be a source?  I know for me it was 2019, and September was the month if I'm not mistaken, because that's when Theymos added a bunch of new ones.

It's not your duty to do that at all, and I agree that it'd be next to impossible to even try to spread merits around on all the different sections.  I've got so many of them blocked that I only post in about 5-6 sections total I think.  Maybe more than that, but compared to how many sections exist on this forum, it's a very small percentage. 

And by the way, most of the members who've made my ignore list have been ones who've consistently posted garbage in sections like Bitcoin/Altcoin Discussion and sometimes Economics.  Those first two sections are like a swamp of shitposts, even though I think Bitcoin Discussion has improved in the last two years or so.  Not sure about the altcoin section, as I don't visit it anymore.

Yes, I Do, and When Needed, I don't really have a list, I just hit the button whenever I feel like doing so.
Lastly, that's the reason why we have a number of sources all over the place, If you are already ignored then I do not care at your post anymore, even if those are contructive ones, I am not capable of giving you any. My Smerits, My Rule.

I believe I have one user on my ignore...I am not even sure. To make it to my ignore list someone needs to show absolute lack of critical judgement plus a general lack of understanding of most aspects of the world together with an evident lack of desire to correct, rethink or defend rationally the views he (or she) expresses. Some extra points are awarded to those who have a political stance that is biased to the point of not being able to tell truth from fiction or simply repeats slogans with simple answers to complex problems or just follows a party doctrine like a troll-farm labourer.

Merit does not mean that I like or share the opinions, contents,.. simply that I appreciate that there is at least a minimum sense behind them or put forwards information worth my time.

In short, the fact of being a merit source does not oblige me to waste my time or distort my thought by injecting crap in my prefrontal lobes, thus my ignore list may be empty, but the door is not closed.

Personally, I don’t have anyone on the ignore list.
I usually only read certain parts of the forum and if I see a quality post I reward it with merit.
If I see a post that irritates me about something, I just skip it.
I really don’t think it’s my duty to follow everything on this forum and reward all possible posts because it’s just not possible or realistic.
I don’t like putting people on an ignore list because I believe that some people can change over time and start writing better posts and that’s why I give them a chance.
Initially, almost all newbie members write lower quality posts because they do not have enough knowledge and experience about crypto.
However, those new members who really try and work, raise the quality of their posts over time and that makes me happy because then I can reward them with merits.
I personally know a few such cases and that’s why I try to be patient with new members and don't put them on the ignore list due to beginner mistakes.

I couldn't imagine using this forum without my ignore list.  Then again, a lot of people are constantly vying for my attention.  It's why a lot of developers and creators have abandoned this place.  I think had more of them been heavy handed with the ignore button, maybe we would still be able to interact with certain individuals of the community that left to save their reputation before this place became a power hungry trollfest of extortionists and MITM schemers.  I hope at some point the focus stops being how can we get more scammers to click around the forum for statistical relevance, and goes back to how can we encourage development of Bitcoin projects.  The fact non-Bitcoin related threads being regularly necrobumped by their starters receive more merit than decade long projects that have created millions of dollars for participants is dumbfounding.

Speaking about ignore list, I do have one myself but they get pardon very often. It's ok having an ignore list even as a source, the merit source role was given to you to merit worthy posts you encounter while going on with your usual day to day activities on the forum like before the merit source roles was given.

It's not mandatory to go around the forum looking for merit worthy posts. If you were to continue with you're regular posting habit that means you won't haven't to visit board you had on ignore before the role was given. Theymos was smart enough to know all this, we're human and we'll keep been human which is why he has the perfect strategy to the appointment of sources. He knows some merit source might have certain users or a particular board on ignore which is why he didn't restrict the role to some selective users with same mindset.

If source A has you on ignore there's possibilities of other sources not having you on ignore to see your post and if they're worth meriting, they award it, same goes for boards. Now in a scenario the other sources also have you on ignore then it's obvious you're the problem.

Maybe it is indeed rare, but I've seen a few examples of people being given second chances, and personally I've removed numerous negative feedbacks from members who'd been involved in account sales in years past when they've PM'ed me--but only if they hadn't received any new negatives and if they've shown that they've improved since my negative trust was left.  Nobody hears about things like that, so those second chances might be granted more often than you think.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was trying to get across in my previous post about my ignore list.  I only ignore members that look like they could never write a decent post if they tried.  But I've also been known to view posts of members on my list, and sometimes I've found that either they've improved or I was too harsh to begin with, and I've un-ignored them.  Once again, nobody but me would know about that, and I'd bet that I'm not the only one who's done such a thing.

Well, if they made mistakes then they'll get banned so it is fair for other forum user who are working or trying their best to create helpful posts or threads for everyone to see and get merited. I even see some of the forum users I merited that I thought he/she is trying to make constructive post but ends up getting banned due to plagiarism which made me think that I only wasted my merit which it should be given to other forum users that is more deserving after all human makes mistakes and tried to fix and using ignore feature also help too for those who didn't change after given a chance to change their posting habit.

Some people might change their habits and go from a shitposter one day to writing thoughtful posts the next. If someone makes their way onto your ignore list, you can always remove them if you see something insightful quoted by someone else.

My ignore list is long enough that trying to view it overloads the forum, and it's growing all the time. This is partly because, as one of the inaugural merit sources, I feel it is my sacred duty to not accidentally merit shitposts; but mostly, it's because there would otherwise be so much shit to wade through that I fear I would have to leave the forum to avoid going insane trying to cope with it all (as I suspect many other old-timers have already done).

The concept of second chance is rare on this forum. Not because people don't wana give second chance but in majority of cases, if you put a person on ignore list (or in spam list) , you check him after a year and you find no change in him.

I have been serving as a merit source for more than years I think. After reading your post just visit my ignore list and found there are a couple of users. I can't recall why I have put them ignore list but they aren't well-known users. Usually, I use ignore button for scammers. That means I don't like to read their post, so as usual, they won't get merits from me. But it doesn't mean other merit sources can't read their post and merit their posts. I do not hoard my source merit. Some other users getting merit from me which means merit is circulating as usual. We are merit source doesn't mean we don't have freedom, we aren't forum staff. So I don't think it's a serious issue. If you are a good contributor and I keep you on the ignoring list, then definitely other merit sources will merit your post. If all the merit sources keep you on ignore list then you have to understand there is something wrong and you have to correct it. Take it easy, we shouldn't be too serious about merit if it's not hoarding.

It feels great

Only a few per year Usually when they ask for Merit, I ask for them to make a good post. Then I never hear from them again

I've recently seen some users who look like they only post on the tech boards to earn Merit, but their posts made no sense, so I ignore them to save myself the trouble later.

Why torture yourself reading posts you don't like?

IMO, the more merits sources that have been become appointed it means the merrier and it was expected each of them have a different standard level of distributing their smerit allocations.  Let them be about their smerit distribution because theymos appointed them on that task so it means they deserved on that position, if theymos notice of abusing his position he has the right to demote member from merit source to a regular member and AFAIK, there's already demoted from a merit source.

I noticed this too and it seems until now there are merit sources like this, if there are 2-3 of them, let them be, there are almost 100 merit sources left that possible you can get merit (deserve as a good poster) and it doesn't mean these 2-4 merit sources has the same behavior of the remaining merit sources.  But I tend to agree with the bolded part, lower a little bit their standard of distributing merits means there are some average posters (like me) that will happy to see once we received merit, when my post gets merited, I read it back what's the reason.

I don't know who is(are) ignoring me but if there's a chance to know them, I will never interact discussion with them anymore.  But this isn't good ignoring each other, we're a community here and we're an open forum to discuss different opinions and probably we should supposedly need to have a thick skin against spammer and shitposter, instead report their posts to the mod or give them a warning, later part they will learn and evolve soon.  I believe they need encouragement and once they received at least one, they will surely force themselves to be a better poster, IMO.

Just my two cents anyway.

i have lots of peeps on ignore. but since good posts by those ignored peeps tend to get quoted i will see them. if its good then i can go back to the original post, show/hide it to see it and will merit based on that. so ive merited many people on ignore.

tldr people on ignore if youre a source - it tends work out on its own.. in my case at least.

You misunderstood me. I know very well where's my ignore list. Just that list doesn't give any hint on when an user was added there, for example, and also doesn't tell anything about users that, by chance, were added, then removed, then added back. And your post seemed to suggest that one should check for this.



I tend to give more chances to getting banned or leaving than evolving.
As I said. I will think on it. Maybe I will indeed empty my ignore list after so many years.

By wipe out, I meant clean it up, all, unselectively. You don't have to track anything for your Ignore list, the forum does. https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/neuroticfish-257071 (your Ignore list)

I meant it. They can be banned, permanent. They can abandon their account after 1 year because they can not receive 1 merit. You will probably not see those members after 1 year.

They will probably evolve and you will see those members.

Actually this would mean that one has to keep track of the changes separately and see who is there for a year, who was removed once and now it's back in the list... too much of a hassle.

But on the other hand, it is not a bad idea to clear the list after one year, on a different principle: most of those shitposters who end up in the ignore list have a very good chance that in a year they're already inactive, hence they've stopped polluting the surroundings. And if they didn't disappear, maybe indeed they evolved.

I will give one more thought, maybe this was the bit I "needed".

You can wipe out your ignore list each year. One year is long enough for people to change if they want to change themselves.

If they don't change after one year, you can add them to your new ignore list. Second chance is enough.

[Cult of Lauda] An historic peace: Rome’s treaty with Carthage

I've been a merit source for some time, and I still have a large ignore list. I don't ignore people who disagree with me, as long as they are prepared to debate the issue. I do ignore them if they resort to juvenile person attacks, as I consider that to be an admission of defeat. I ignore people for a variety of reasons. -

Excessive use of capitalisation, as that seems to be the preserve of low quality posters.
Use of large images, as those slow sown my reading of threads, especially if I am on a mobile.
Bad use of quotation, especially nested quotes, as this is another thing that clogs up threads.
Juvenile slurs on a poster, rather than objective discussion about a post content
Begging for merits, especially via a pm
The use of smilies etc. in thread titles.
Also, I ignore many of the boards.

Please remember that we are not paid to be merit sources, and we all have different ideas about the role. For example, I believe that merit was introduced as a barrier to ranking up  in an attempt to reduce signature spamming. It was also intended to encourage quality posting. I believe that sources should get away from the primary objective of increasing the rank of new members, and concentrate on rewarding and encouraging quality posts,regardless of rank. Of course new members should be encouraged, but not just because they are new members seeking to increase their signature income.

Although I've never applied, I've got the surprise and the honor to join this selected group. I guess that I receive less sMerit than those who applied, but it's still a boost.
And this is some sort of side info too: don't look for new merit sources only amongst those who applied.


Indeed, I feel like some of these complains come from the fact people take the forum far too serious.
On the other hand, I think that everybody can have his own reasons for ignoring users.


I think that the difference comes from the way/reasoning behind the way we use the Ignore button. I don't use it just because somebody hates me, although I never got to the point somebody would get to hate me.
And we're back to taking the forum too serious 


Thank you! I feel reassured that others too have the same reasoning as I do.


My ignore list contains basically people with extremely low quality posts and people I've found that they never post anything useful or meaningful. For now my ignore list stays by this logic. If any time in the future I'm proven to be wrong (or I get to that conclusion myself), I'll change. I don't use the ignore button that often.
I'd say that the forum is so vast, you have to acknowledge that you cannot fill all the "gaps" and the merit sources have to "complete" each other.
However, I'm very new as merit source, I acknowledge that there's more responsibility involved and I'll see what I'll do in the future.

Why do you take Bitcointalk so seriously, it is for discussion and therefore I do not think that the use of ignore buttom for spam is meaningful, the purpose of ignoring is that you do not agree with the opinions that that person issues or affect the normal course of your day and therefore you choose to ignore them. These opinions must be from a certain category, and therefore those who ignore many people either because they cannot tolerate “cyber bullying” or do not know how to use this feature.

I agree that merit should be given out based on the content of their posts, not based on who is writing the post. This is a principal that I follow when giving out merit, and I would like to think that most other merit sources follow a similar principal. If you review my merit history, you will see me occasionally giving merit to people who I dislike, and who I strongly disagree with, even when I disagree with the specific post (in these cases, the post will receive merit because I believe it makes a well rounded argument, or a lot of effort was put into the post).

With that being said, If you are sufficiently annoying, or are making enough low quality posts to get on my ignore list, chances are you are not going to make many (or any) posts that are worthy of merit. My ignore list is pretty short, and it has been years since I added anyone to my ignore list (intentionally), and the threshhold for me to add you to my ignore list is pretty high.

I get your point, but they are not essentially the same to me. I can dislike a users posting habit, due to opposing views we may have on some topics, but except they are crossing an ethical line, I wouldn't see a reason to ignore them, but this is just me, other users could have different reasons why they ignore users.
Regardless of your personal reasons however, users are allowed to use the ignore button as they want, and sources should not be an exemption.

I'll reiterate my previous reply and add the merit sources are volunteers and should only appraise boads or users they are comfortable with as that's how they'll function best.

My ignore list is extensive, though I haven't put any members on it in quite some time.  Most of them got added during the 2016-2018 period when the forum was basically wall-to-wall shitposters--and that was before the merit system.

I absolutely feel comfortable leaving all of those members on my ignore list, because I seriously doubt any of them could change their post quality even if they were inclined to.  Most of them were members who dropped one-line crap nonstop, and those kinds of members are only here to make money or farm accounts.

But in general, I think even if you're a merit source it's up to you whether you want to ignore certain members.  If they have a history of making posts that aren't worth meriting, you don't have an obligation to keep looking at them if you don't want to.  There are plenty of posts that are deserving of merit that you'll see, and if you're a generous merit source you might find yourself running low on sMerits at some point (like me recently).  Why waste time viewing posts from people who chronically drop low-value posts on the forum as if they were manure bombs?  So the short answer is that I think it's totally OK for any merit source to have an ignore list.

Ignoring a user does not mean you do not like them, it is likely because they post repeated spam to an extent they are infamous for it, and they could also have very extreme views about topics which can be disturbing to other users, in the same way not ignoring a user does not mean you personally like them.

About objectivity, merits sources should make effort to view posts without prejudice, but should not be forced to entertain content they do not want to; it would be best to not overuse the ignore button, but it should be used where necessary, and possibly set up a system to evaluate those on your ignore list to know if there is any change in posting habit.

I don't know why merit sources are unknown by the rest of the users. Would they really receive PMs from merit beggars? You can understand if someone's a merit source by the way he/she distributes merits. If they're usually generous or they merit very often, they're possibly merit sources.

I state that, yesterday, I became a merit source to avoid any misunderstandings.

Well, there are some users who I wouldn't ever want to have discussions with. Most of them troll and spread propagandas. Even those aren't included in my ignore list, they were once, but, sometimes, I actually want to read what they have to say. They aren't getting any merits from me except if they add strong arguments to their statements.

Meriting objectively isn't easy, but I'll do my best on useful posts. I'll be encouraged to help newbies rank up, especially those who reply in the Dev & Tech subforum.

Besides NotATether and myself, I wonder who are the other chosen ones.

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