Thing is, I barely see any merits being given around, especially to new users, except in specific threads where OGs are active.
Maybe there should be a mechanism where members who can't give merits yet are able to "like" or "recommend" certain quality posts so that it can be reviewed for merit? Members identifying quality posts meanwhile could also be rewarded with merits? Otherwise I feel that it will only reward those who post in more popular threads, while more obscure ones get ignored regardless of the content's usefulness/quality.
I think this is a good suggestion.. it would be nice for new users for maybe each merit received could suggest or tag an equal amount of posts to be considered for merits.. I'm not really sure what the forum limitations allow and limit, so this may not even be technically possible. I'd be curious to know what the overall merit supply is and how exactly that number is determined and distributed with the specifics.. if anyone has this info or its been posted before, please share it.
The monthly merit supply has been posted just a few replies above:
Also worth to note that anyone can apply to become a merit source and that there is limited amount of sMerits issued, currently up to 11975 sMerit per 30 days.
I figure given the relative newness of the system there's still a lot of tweaking to be done. The amount of sMerits distributed amongst merit sources on one hand and the social etiquette on what to merit on the other (do we treat it as a like? or should it be reserved for more special situations?).
Right now it's too early to tell, but I guess a proper code of conduct will emerge over the course of the next few months. While imperfect I definitely see it as an improvement for filtering out which posts are worth reading and which ones can be skipped.
