Topic: A Month's Review of the Merit System: How to Get Merits for Dummies! - page 2. (Read 343 times)

A Month in the Merit System
by Lovecove

Background (You can skip if you're bored)

I'm going to start off by saying, I could've posted this sheat in Meta and get some fame and pats on the back. But I'm posting it here because I know what it's like to struggle to get merits.

The merit system has been around since only January, but already the whole forum is in an uproar. The crypto industry is insane – 1 day is like 1 year. Everything moves so fast... And I guess that's why I was surprised when I found out the merit system just rolled out – people already have infographics, videos, blogs, and wow so many storms of walls of texts about the Merit system. I mean, from all the content out there, I honestly thought the merit system was around since last year. You already have like 1000 theories and guides about how the merit system should be or should be changed.

Just chill people, lol. The admins aren't going to do anything until everything's settled and there's actual data to look at. I guess this post will be my own personal 2 cents toward that data stats.

That said, I'd like to start off by saying that I had tried joining bitcointalk before this account. I really didn't like the 360-second wait, and the message said that it's because I wasn't around for long enough. So I figured if I posted more, I'd be around enough that the system wouldn't timer-block me.

So, you know, I treated the forum like any other forum. I went to random threads and off-topic, posting things like, “cool story! I like this.” and “yeah I used to buy that car, but then I sold it, haha. Cool.” and “Yeah I was hodling Eth, dropped it for Bitconnect, daym sun!”

Pretty soon, I was banned. So you know the drill, I made a new account only to find out it's my Ip that's banned from account creation because of my 1st account getting nuked. Had to go over a friend's house for some burgers while I low-key asked him for the password to his wifi and used my phone to get a new Bitcointalk account XD!

Well now I have my new account, and before posting anything, I read the rules and unoffiical rules carefully (or as carefully as I could). Trolling is against the rules, btw. But there are other rules I'm still unclear about, like “burst posting.” Not to digress, but I still don't get what that is – so even if you post high-quality, relevant posts within 5-minute intervals, you'll get banned? So far I've gotten away with posting 14 posts in a day... So I dunno, maybe I'm just lucky XD. That said, I'm not really going to change my whole life schedule just for bitcointalk. I'll post when I want to, with the amount I want to.

Anyway, onto my experience with the merit system:

My ~Month With the Merit System

Now, you know, I just wanted to get to Jr. Member and didn't care too much about the merit system. I noticed that after a while of posting, my activity wasn't going up... So I wondered why, then head over to Meta and found out about the activity/merit system.

Just in case you didn't know, you only get 14 activity every 2 weeks. (There's more to that rule, but just check that FAQ thread and you'll see the timetable spreadsheet.)

Despite not caring about the merit system, I was immediately awarded a merit on my 2nd day of being on Bitcointalk with this account. It wasn't necessarily a long or polished post. I simply refuted what everyone was saying about the government not knowing about bitcoin or holding any. And one of the long-standing members merited me when they came across my post and replied positively in the thread about how I was right.

The merit made me happy, and then I thought I was one of the better posters on bitcointalk if I could get a merit that quickly after joining. I thought it would be a cinch to get 1000 merits! I was floating on air! I felt like some kind of king among groundlings.

So I went on a posting spree where I shot my mind off in well-articulated posts. I foolishly thought I'd get like a million merits for each post. Four days later, I got 3 more merits for a long post I wrote on the pros and cons of bitcoin reaching mass adoption – there I talked about the shortcomings of the advancements in bitcoin wallets, and the pros too.

Now, you might be thinking I was happy about this, but I wasn't. You have to understand, I was writing many posts between my first merit and these 3 merits, so I was utterly convinced I was supposed to get more than that.

I tried a little bit harder, constantly trying to post long, relevant content. But you know, that's kind of draining, and without any merit given for encouragement... I fizzled out and decreased my posting and length. Just didn't have the energy. I had the impression that you either get merit within hours of your post, or you're not getting any merit for it at all. (Now I know that's wrong)

So I figured I'd join a sig campaign in the meantime – figured it's wise to get paid for trying aimlessly to get merits. I mean if I'm typing up hours of paper-level posts, I might as well get some coin for it.

When I got into my first sig campaign, I wanted to make a good impression. They tell you to do your best with your boss and be utmost professional. So I wasn't going to cut corners – I wanted to show them my best and leave a good impression. With that renewed motivation, I went about posting volume-length, relevant posts again.

And that's when I got another merit. I found someone asking for feedback on their posting quality and why they weren't receiving merit. So I gave it in detailed form, like it was a school assignment that was going to be graded. A day later they merited me.

Suddenly I was on the roll again, and getting merits almost everyday, but still wasn't satisfied that I was only getting that many merits for the amount of posts I did.

Then I made the mistake of bragging in Meta that I could be like nullius and get 1 merit per day... Noticeably after that post, I got 0 merits per day no matter how long my posts were! I'm guessing I got on someone's bad radar (or the to-watch list of a hidden inner circle of long-time bitcoiners who are mostly merit sources).

After realizing I stepped on some toes, I desperately tried to post higher-level content, but still got no merits for a whole week. I decided to give up and post only my necessary weekly 7 posts for my sig camp.

But then merits slowly trickled in. It looks like they realized I wasn't trying to merit farm and was organically posting.

With That Preamble, Here Are a Few Things I've Noticed on the Most Successful Ways to Get Merit

From when I started getting merit, to right now, I've noticed a few patterns in receiving merit:

1. Never ask for or complain about merit. You know the octopus in the room? Don't talk about it. It's like if someone got mysteriously pregnant at work and you know they're not married. And you see they're literally pregnant. Just don't ask. Think about it, these people are either merit sources or are getting regular merits, which means they won't care if you can't get them. They can't feel the pain because they're good, and they believe in the merit system (which is why they got merits in the first place.)

Now if they give you a merit for complaining or asking, it's like they're sheating on the system. If you ask for or complain about the merit system, you're most likely going to get on the “blacklist” like me.

But there's a caveat to that. You can get merits by complaining about or asking for merits by articulating with detail how you've tried, why you're frustrated, and other intelligent sayings. Don't just cry. I've seen people getting merit this way, and so it works, but it's still a gamble you shouldn't take.

2. Don't give up. There are many chances for your high-quality post to get a merit. So now I can safely say that even if my post doesn't get merits during the first few days... I've had posts receive 1 – 3 merits a week or two after I've written them. One time, the OP merited me 3 weeks later because maybe that's when he had a chance to revisit his thread and read my reply.

That said, your good posts can get merits weeks after you post them, so don't feel bad if they don't come soon after your post.

Even if your good post doesn't get merit, there are unlimited chances to get it merited. Just meticulously catalog your posts that aren't receiving merit. Then when you see a “merit review” thread in Services or Meta, just drop the link to your unmerited posts.

3. Give merits to people. When you get 2 merits, you're allowed to send 1 to someone else without losing any merits. That's why they're called sMerits. I'm not sure, but it looks like the inner circle of merit people have a merit log or something to track when merits are sent. So when they see that you're letting the merit system flow and not hoarding sMerits, they're more apt to give you some. When I gave out sMerits, that same day or next, I received 2 merits from two different people.

In case there is no merit log, what you should do is look for high-quality posts (usually you see them in merit review threads), and then merit that post. Then you should announce in that same thread something like: “I really liked your reply, So I gave you a merit even if OP didn't. Cheers.” Or if it's in a non-merit thread, reply with: “I liked this ^ (pointing to quote). I agree that blahblahblah, I like the analysis blahblahblah. Because blhablahblahbalh.”

Giving sMerits makes you a positive contributor in the eyes of the more legit bitcointalk members. If you're actively participating in the merit system, and rewarding good quality posts, they'll think you're legit and not just here to spam. It's like psychology – sending sMerits to good posters means you actually took the time to look for good posts without anything expected in return.

A person who was on bitcointalk simply for spam or signature spam reasons would be more selfish, and they couldn't care less about anyone else's posts but their own.

4. Don't join a signature campaign when you're a newbie or Jr. Member. Join a forum-cleanup cause. It's psychology again. If you join a signature campaign and you're a relatively new member (Jr. Members are still new), then the merit-givers will assume you're just out to spam for signature money.

Even if you write high-quality posts, they'll err on the side of caution when giving you merits because they're not sure of your intentions. The merit system is becoming a quasi-trust system.

That's why you need to give the image that you're here altruistically. That you're not here for personal gain, but here for community and learning reasons. Join campaigns where people advocate for no signatures. I've noticed that members who join such campaigns get loads of merits within the first few days of joining.

Or make your own signature, like: “I don't use this space for advertising. Because I came here to mingle with crypto peeps, not sell ICOs.” ← probably doesn't fit in the sig space, but okay XD. Make a matching personal text too!

If people see a good quality post + your altruistic signature, they're going to merit you just because they'll feel like meriting you is supporting the merit system and what it's trying to accomplish.

That said, Here Are the Ugly, Desperate Ways to Get Merit:

If you want fast merits and want to do it right, there are more desperate measures available. These are kind of dirty, and you shouldn't really resort to them unless you're just that kind of bottom-feeder.

5. Out the Scammers. I've seen it, you've seen it, we've all seen it. Newbies who write long threads sheating on a potential scammer get like 15-30 merits! Again, personally, I don't think you should do this unless someone is an obvious, obvious scammer about to do harm to someone financially.

But, like some kind of schizo, if you catch a small whiff of someone being shady, you can piece together some kind of crazy paper trail and post the evidence in Meta or Reputation. If other people kinda, sorta believe your evidence, they'll merit you...

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

6. Yell at People Complaining About Merit. Yeah again, this is kind of like feeding on your own kind. We're all secretly antsy about the merit system. And if someone breaks the cardinal rule about complaining about or asking for merit, going to town on them will most certainly land you merit points if you're writing a detailed post outlining the faults in OP's logic and merit-receiving attempts. The inner circle will merit you just to make your post stand out and uphold the Merit SJW.

Some tips on this: Don't just yell like an idiot. Give constructive criticism. Spend the first half of your post being an angry dad. Then spend the second half of your post being an angry teacher: Show them how they can improve, give suggestions on how they can fix what they're doing wrong.

7. Just post, man. The last, and probably best tip is to just pump out good, relevant posts. Just be a part of the bitcointalk community for once. Really join a conversation, rather than just posting something that you think won't get marked as spam. There's a huge difference between posting something articulate, and something that you hope passes the spam threshold. When you stop caring about the quality of your posts, and only care about getting your true ideas and points across to the people in a thread, then and only then will you truly be a Bitcointalk member.

Over time, the legit merit sources will see that you're an earnest member. And #7 will land you a few merits.

I'll admit that this last tip won't get you as many merits as the more directed approaches... but it works too!

Well, I hope this helps. Not sure if people will read this, being that it's in this section. But I can promise you that if you do all of these steps for a significant amount of time (like 1 or 2 weeks), you'll get at least 1 or 2 merits MINIMUM.

If you think it's too much work, then consider this: Do you really want to be THAT guy who has 120 activity but 0 merits? Dude must've spent half a year posting, but didn't put in any effort. Wouldn't you rather spend 2 weeks trying these steps out? It's better than spending 5 months in Merit System Hell.

Edit: Additional caveats

1. Don't post in megathreads. It's occurred to me that even if you have a high-quality post, if it's in a thread with over 5 pages of posts, then they're most likely not going to merit your post. I've been warned once that the thread my post is in is taken into account when it comes to quality.

Now I don't quite understand that logic. Because if you earnestly read through the whole thread, then post, why is your post suddenly considered spam? I guess I haven't been around bitcointalk enough to understand that. But just keep this in mind, and don't post in any thread longer than a few pages.

There are some exceptions to this rule, of course. Reputation threads where people are chowing down on popcorn while watching the drama for pages and pages -- great way to earn merits by inserting jokes or an insightful comment about someone or an aspect of their reply. I have not tried this myself, because I'd rather stay away from drama.