Topic: A Month's Review of the Merit System: How to Get Merits for Dummies! (Read 356 times)

HERE else you can read what topics are better affected in order to get more Merit
The topic is in Russian, but I'm sure it will not be difficult to translate the page. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/smerit-2869111
I hope that this will help you

@23xfi

Both comments and threads can be merited. It doesn't matter if you create a new thread or post in an existing thread created by someone else. What matters is the content and if it's good quality and very relevant.

See my edit in the OP. Don't post in megathreads or threads that are considered spam threads. You might get a merit there, but the chances are very low – so it's basically a waste of time and effort. I've posted a very good post in one of these megathreads and applied to a merit giveaway contest. The contest host said that the quality of my post deteriorated because it was posted in a spam thread. I argued that a post's quality should be independent of the thread it's in – but he disagreed, and that's the majority opinion of most merit-awarders on bitcointalk.

It sounds unfair, but yes, just don't post in large threads. My rule of thumb is to post in a thread with only 2 or 3 pages of replies. Best to use “Show unread posts since last visit” to find new threads with still few replies!

@HodorHodl

Thank you so much for the merits! You have a ton of merits, so I'm sure you know what you're talking about. But I see that all (except for 1) of your merits came from #5 and #6. They're from either discussing someone complaining about merits or making insightful comments in scammer threads or threads created by scammers to spite people who reported them – the drama threads. So I guess, even if you didn't agree with those two points, your merits came from them XD.

But oh my gad, I see you got sooo many merits from your own Beginners & Help thread! That's what I was going for LOL. I was trying to go for that low key “trying to help out, and not really farming for merits with my own thread XD” so I posted it in this section so that it would look more authentic and people would think I was being more altruistic . But I failed hard lol.

Oh and btw, I have the “thank you for the merits thing” just for gratitude and nothing else. I can't reply to every thread where people send me merits, so I figured I'd just leave it in my personal text so that people get thanked automatically lol.

@BTCforJoe

Thank you for the merits man!

For you as well, even though you don't necessarily agree with #5 the exact example you gave falls under it. It's so easy to get merits when you act like police on bitcointalk, that even two-sentence posts, as long as they're pleasing to read and on-point, will get at least 1 merit.

Dammit that's a good catch, I skipped his sob story. I suggest reporting the OP w/ the archive link so mods can nuke his ass

pats on the back?? More likely... you might have been banned... AGAIN.



*thread has been archived: http://archive.is/kwTqm*

So what was the point of your post, then? You're a shitposter. Your post adds absolutely nothing to this conversation, and you're simply spamming your signature. GTFO.

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Hey OP, while I don't necessarily agree with what you wrote, or your view on this merit system, I merited your post because you obviously took a lot of time and thought to present your findings, and it was made with the underlying motion to want to help others.

After reading your post, I also wanted to state what @Kakmakr already stated; your ability or potential to earn merits has NOTHING to do with the length of your post. It just has to resonate with someone that feels that your post is meritorious to one extent or the other. Case in point? I received three merits for posting the following:


Obviously, other users agreed with my short two-sentence statement. Why? Because it was true, and it fit the given context of the situation where I presented my opinion.

While I'm here, I want to leave a shameless plug for a challenge that I run, where the main goal of it is not the rewards involved, but rather a way for me to help out willing participants who want to improve their posts. I critique the participants' posts after every weekly round, and provide feedback to them. If anyone reading this is interested, take a look here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/joes-signatureless-challenge-archives-3055616

Cheers!

Gotta love that underlying passive aggressive tone but let's go through it anyway.


Wait what? That's utter bullshit to say it's emotionally affected me. I have a firm stance of not doing business with scammers and that includes stuff like aiding them. I have always outed scammers on other forums and forms of communication media (though I will not provide links to those to safeguard my privacy).

My opinions on the other points are independent of that point. From your points I can only conclude one thing, you encourage scammers and their scams.


Just to make a point here:

I am not trying to farm merits, I were I could easily do so by lurking in the in "right" places AKA getting in touch with the so called Bounty Hunters running merit farms and exchange rings.


Oh boy, we here have a Hypocrite


Don't judge how others get merit says the guy who judges how others get merit


Read above, I despise scammers, everyone should unless they happen to be one


All I'll say is:

Hurray!! I finally lost my NotAccusedOfBeingAnAlt Virginty, I have ascended to the ranks of the reputed folks who get accused of being an alt. After all having the ability to read the read the report format and just having a look at other threads makes you an alt!


I love people who say this. I've moderated several places and people give this excuse of being new and thus having not read the rules yet. All places have like a bunch of resources they highly recommend reading. I always read through the rules of the place I join to make sure I don't fuck them up. Grasping how the forum works is to put is simply easy as shit. If you have been a part of several other forums like this it'll barely take you any time.

The scam report format is generic as heck and nothing really out of the blue and it's obvious why every point is there for an obvious reason so nothing great about filing a report.


You do realise in a lot of case, assuming guilty unless proven innocent works better than the other way around. I'm not saying it should be used every time, but quite often it works. Example:

Person A buys a physical item from person B. Person A accuses person B of not sending the item. It is impossible for person A to prove he didn't get an item apart from some circumstantial evidence. It's way way easier for person B to prove he has sent the item by say providing the copy of the shipping receipt.


blah blah blah tl;dr

(Imagine the of someone asking the audience for a response with a large number of people attending)

DO YOU WANT TO MAKE EASY MONEY SPAMMING YOUR SIG? *YES*

ARE YOU FUCKED OVER BY MERITS? *YES*

Good, then let me teach you how to quickly farm them so you can go back to the good ol' days of Bitcointalk money making

Indeed a very long post OP, but I enjoyed it.I think you can cut short by keeping the explanations short.

I have few more ideas for gaining Merit, if you agree, you can add it to your post.
1. Create something constructive like Good Infographics or something useful like this or that.
2. Merit Data analysis for ex. 1 and 2.
3. Keep an eye on giveaway threads.

Last but not the least , Do not copy others articles/work for Merits or any reason

This should be tattooed on every new members mouse. Quoting those great walls of text is even worse. Always remember that if a merit awarder skips over your post, then there is no chance that he will give you a merit.
 A diamond is worth far more than a pile of horse manure.

Just a little side note : It is not the length of the post, but rather the quality of the contribution that gets merited.

You can write a "Wall of Text" in every post and it will not be merited by most people. The reason for this is simple :

~ People are pressed for time, so they will stop reading after the first 2 paragraphs.
~ Some people are just too lazy to read.
~ A lot of people will search for unique posts that are not just a duplication of other people's ideas, before they give sMerit.

A well structured post that adds constructive value to the discussion, will be more beneficial to the forum than a "Wall of Text" that says nothing.  

You're an extremely good writer, no taking that away from you.

I merited what you wrote, but mainly for points 1, 2 and 3. I don't exactly agree with the points after that, but I can definitely see why you wrote them, and I can see some value, also.

May I ask one thing of you, please, and it's just to preserve your own credibility....remove your sidebar post. The "Thank you for all merits" shit.

I realise this may be ironic on a level I don't get, but it undermines your whole post. Lose it.

EDIT: You're cynical on a level I'm not, but I can't really fault you for that. Will watch your posts with interest.

Thank you for this interesting piece. I guess I read every word. Well, I’m already a part of a signature campaign as a Jr member. I hope I don’t flaunt any other “rule” as I aspire to become a full fledged member of the community. However, I have one question; does it mean merits can only be gotten via creating a new thread or comments can also fetch merits?

@yazher

that's okay man . No one's english is perfect, and yours is pretty good. I'm pretty sure you can get a merit if you follow my steps with your level of english.

I would suggest going to Serious Discussion and finding a thread that's easy to research. Then, there, do your research and find key tidbits of info that are really intresting and meaningful to that topic. Find more and more of that info. Then give it a good angle. Then just write two to three paragraphs where you explain the background of that topic, adding your slant / angle, then including all the key tidbits of research you dug up.

I'm not saying that's going to get you a merit right off the bat... but if you do that 2- 3x, you're bound to see a merit sent your way .

@tukagero

You're my pet peeve. Honestly, if you were a newbie, your post would be considered a sheatpost. But you're a Full Member, and so you're allowed to join a thread and say, “I didn't read it, lol. So i'm just going to say something generic that doesn't even make sense.” And that's what you did. Wish I could report you for it, but, ah well. The privileges of being ranked.

@MoonIsBlue

You're right. The only people complaining about the merit system are the ones who suck at posting. But, I do think that there's a significant number of new members who are unsure of whether or not they're going to get merits. Like me, they posted high-quality posts, but were not merited right off the bat. This makes them feel discouraged, and maybe they complain before letting their posts marinate for a few weeks.

I made this guide with them especially in mind. But the system can be quite harsh and has a steep learning curve. Let's be honest, you won't be getting any merits if you reply to a “Bitcoin is the future” thread by typing 30 words explaining that bitcoin is decentralized and will only rise when fiat becomes more manipulated. You have to write at least 75 words.

@DdmrDdmr

Thanks for the merits, my friend .

I didn't really think my post was difficult to digest, given that I have bolded out the important points. I'm actually an avid writer and write articles often online. I followed my typical article format (with some lax because, well, I didn't get paid to write this =) ), with reader-friendly spaces provided and even subsections. I think it's somewhat well-organized, but maybe there's some jumbled pasta here and there.

You have more merits than me, so I guess your long posts on merits work well for you. I've seen people get 8 merits for a paragraph-long post, and it sort of triggers me. But, that's just how the merit system goes. It all depends on who the merit-sender is, rather than the post itself.

I like your take on sig campaigns. And I use a similar philosophy myself. In fact, I actually am taking the view that a signature campaign is actually a “paid to write” gig. You know how people get their Masters only after working at a company? It's because they're taking advantage of the practice where the company pays their good-performing employees to get advanced education to increase their skills. So they work during the day, then go to grad classes at night (for free). The rationale is: Why pay for grad school when a company can pay me to go? So they join a company with the intention of getting the company to pay for their advanced schooling.

I believe that's a good business model – if there's something you want to do, try to find a way to get someone to pay you for it.

And that's how my sig campaign is for me. My end goal is to earn more merits and rank up, but why post for free when I can get a sig campaign to pay me for it?

First of all, if you'd like to receive merits on this forum, I suggest you improve your English and post-articulation skills.

If not, then you should go to the local board of your native tongue and become active there. Then, you should apply as a merit source after showing leadership qualities. I believe that there's a huge need for merit sources in foreign languages, so the bar is lower and you'll get in with earnest effort.

I give you the following tips:

1. Browse the forum for daily important posts, then go to your local board and start a topic, like: "Important Posts Translated 3/27/2018" In that topic, provide a link to the original post you found, then write an original summary on the important points of that post. Do that for the other posts you've found for the day of 3/27. It's more impressive if you do it all in one post rather than posting multiple times in one thread.

2. Answer questions people are asking in your local board.

3. Provide insights on how your native speakers can increase their participation on Bitcointalk without seeming spammy. Because they probably can't speak English as well as you, their posts will probably be marked as spam if they're anywhere else on Bitcointalk, so try to encourage them creatively on how to post more articulately.

And to answer your question, the current merit system has no standards for evaluating new members' merits. The sole arbiter of whether your post is worthy or not of merits is each person with an sMerit reading your post. In a way, this could open up the possibility for you to receive more merits, because everyone's judgment is different, some easy and some hard.

But now that anyone who merits anyone with a sheaty post gets scrutinized as a possible "merit seller." It's kind of raised the bar on sending merits. People are no longer apt to give out merits willy-nilly. You can see the drastic change yourself if you look at merits given out in January -- people were handing out merits far more generously.

Then suddenly there was a clamp in merit-sending after that, when everyone was too scared that they were meriting a spammer/scammer. Now they're scared that if they send a merit to a poor-quality post, they'll be labeled as someone abusing the merit system.

@BlueTyrant Thanks for your feedback. I see that my #5 has emotionally affected you that you would call all steps #1 through #7 “real dirty way to 'earn' merits.” Mind you, this includes #3, which is giving merits to deserving posts, and #2 – posting high-quality, relevant content. Ok.

To this, I'd simply like to remind you that we both have different ways to farm merits. Wanting to help out newbies, I created this guide to share my insights. So, please don't insult other people's ways of earning merits.

After looking at your post and topic history, I understand why #5 greatly triggers you. Within 7 days of joining, your second topic started is a very long and detailed post outing spammers/scammers. And around 13 (25%) of your merits are from scammer or reputation threads. It's not something that someone who is new to bitcoin talk, like me, would be adept at creating unless he were an alt account. I'm not saying you are or not, but it is impressive that you have 52 merits with only 28 activity.

But let's just say I can see that within a week you've learned all, if not most, of the forum's functions. So, either you're brilliant or. Anyway, good job!

Anyway, as I've stated in #5, it's perfectly fine and encouraged to out scammers with real proof of them being scammers and spammers. But there are a plethora of threads where someone isn't a scammer or spammer and people have merited them anyway. I remember spending a good number of hours (of fun) reading through such a thread, and the final verdict 20 or 30-something pages later was that the person in question simply had circumstantial evidence against them. There was no real determinate truth. Yet the OP still got a bunch of merits for the mega thread (perhaps 15 – 20 merits). That person also got a whole bunch of red trust.

Anyway, I'm warning newbies not to head into drama like that. If you're on bitcointalk to join a community, there is absolutely no need to involve yourself in drama. It's not a lie that there are inner circles on bitcointalk, both good and bad. Don't piss off either side. Just stay neutral, keep your head down, and trudge on. If you decide to monetize your bitcointalk account, you don't want the wrath of those antedelluvians on you. That goes for more than just signature campaigns, but trading as well.

The path of least risk is often best. And there's no point in making enemies because it only limits your business potential on the forum. I've seen people complain about DT1 users giving red trust for political/religious views. And that does affect trading and sig campaign viability.

So if what you're about to post is in some kind of emotional/drama-ish thread, just stay out.

I subscribe and relate to most of what you say here. Long posts are often difficult to digest, but it is just after lunch here so I thought I'd give it a go at your one. I've written some long posts related to merit stats and must admit that they’re not easy to digest by others.

Regardless, the basic rule of thumb is to try to make every post meaningful, especially if you are required by a signature campaign to post a large amount of posts per week. Don’t be tempted to fulfil your campaign contribution post quota with a bunch of gibberish posts. Put some time and effort into every post.

Given that they can't all be impressive, but at least assure that they are not lame onliner references to luck, moon, lambos and so forth.

I'm not sure why I keep seeing people saying the merit system is not fair? Just post constructively and you're fine that was a golden rule before the merit system aswell.

I dont have the time to read all the words you posted maybe even some members will not spend time reading that.  If they want to gey merits then they must workhard to earn it

that was a long story bro, but your tips is very educational i like the idea to be a part of the bitcoin talk community.
to summarized it, you just need to go with the flow. post must be constructive and related to the thread. good for you guys that English language is your first language for me even though i want to say something i'll end up posting just a few words, because i am lack of vocabulary and too bad on grammars. in the end of the day the only words that i remember is from the scene of the Hollywood movies so that's why i can speak English partially.

I quite heavily disagree with quite a few of your points:


Let's just post this one under your "the Ugly, Desperate Ways to Get Merit" shall we. Literally the exact opposite of what the Merit system was supposed to be but whatever I guess


Why the heck is this on the list of Desperate and Ugly ways? It's a straight forward way to contribute to the forums, if you're outing an actual scammer where you have enough evidence to prove your case and thus protecting someone from being defrauded in the future just in what way is that ugly or desperate. People did that before the merit system existed too.

Now slander to please the opposition might be considered desperate abd ugly (ie all those threads trying to malign getting merits for example) but a proper scam accusation doesn't constitute as ugly in any way

Quote

But this is putting a huge target on your back, and that person will most likely red trust you XD.

Reminder: Non DT negative rating do not show up on your profile publicly beside your posts (as in you don't get "red painted" as you need to go to the trust section of the profile to see those under Untrusted Ratings) and generally are bullshit anyway so you don't need to get worked up about those. (if you want to read my ramblings on how I interpret readings and recommend others to then you can read my reply)

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I still disagree with a ton more of your points but those were like the trigger points for me. To sum it up if you want to learn about the real dirty way to "earn" merits then this is the guide for you

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PS: Just a pet peeve of mine but those "XD" make you sound pretty immature

Today a new friend of the BCT forum asked me how to get a Merit rating, and I replied that there must be a good review of crypto, blockchain quality forum admin to consider. Merit points. I also wonder why I posted more than 80 messages but only 42 active messages. I entered the forum and found your interesting posts on the rules to be recognized as an active member on the forum, contributing to the overall development of Bitcointalks. I have an unanswered question-who will evaluate the new members to merit points? Can you explain me? It is nice to read your post about the topic MERIT.