Topic: An Alternative to Merit (Read 785 times)
BUMP
The only drawback of having both the merit and the like button is that most people will like the post without given the merit (as merits are rare and precious).
I personally don't like this idea. Again it can be treated in number of different ways like you press the like (shown publicly) and other people may give them merits thinking that the person who liked the post didn't have smerit to spend.
Some might think that way, but if you've been to Reddit, there are both karma system and awards. Karma is basically the upvotes/ downvotes you get from others while awards are mainly paid gifts or customized Merits.
Therefore Reddit's awards are harder to earn than Bitcointalk's Merit but good contributions/ posts are often awarded with them. Just like Merit and likes.
The only drawback of having both the merit and the like button is that most people will like the post without given the merit (as merits are rare and precious).
I personally don't like this idea. Again it can be treated in number of different ways like you press the like (shown publicly) and other people may give them merits thinking that the person who liked the post didn't have smerit to spend.
I personally don't like this idea. Again it can be treated in number of different ways like you press the like (shown publicly) and other people may give them merits thinking that the person who liked the post didn't have smerit to spend.
Your first submission about the purported draw back. I don't see it as a draw back, if you continue giving likes and bank merit, where will you use the merit later? Still in the forum.
About the different way you suggested to treat it, you cannot achieve it without first adopting the like system alongside the merit system.
Merits are already enough. Implementing like just for those who doesn't have sendable merits would just simply eradicate the idea of meriting. Why? Merit already boosts someone's confidence when he/she receives one (a rewarding-like feeling for your efforts), and "Likes" on the other hand tends to give you the same feeling and worse is some can be boastful about it (if calculated on one's profile). It is not that necessary to implement a "liking" system for a forum that already has a better one.
As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit, I will have no option than to slide on.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.
Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.
Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.
The only drawback of having both the merit and the like button is that most people will like the post without given the merit (as merits are rare and precious).
I personally don't like this idea. Again it can be treated in number of different ways like you press the like (shown publicly) and other people may give them merits thinking that the person who liked the post didn't have smerit to spend.
Moderators get notifications of reports via a queue that is very similar to PMs. I don't think many people use this, but it is also possible to get a popup window when you receive a PM. Either of these could be implemented for merit sources.
If I remembered correctly, you can actually do that but I'm fine with PMs within the same window. Less clutter
Automating notifications to merit sources may also be a good idea as was suggested above by Welsh. Sources could set their own criteria as to who they are willing to receive notifications from.
Without setting up Telegram/ PM/ smart watches, notifications would likely be seen in the Epochtalk ʷᵉ ᵐⁱᵍʰᵗ ˢᵉᵉ ⁱᵗ, ʷᵉ ᵐⁱᵍʰᵗ ⁿᵒᵗ. ʰᵒᵖᵉᶠᵘˡˡʸ ᵇⁱᵗᶜᵒⁱⁿ ʷᵒᵘˡᵈ ˢᵗⁱˡˡ ᵇᵉ ʳᵉˡᵉᵛᵃⁿᵗ ᵇʸ ᵗʰᵉⁿ
I guess I would ask if there are many posts that deserve merit that have little to no merit? If so, the number of sMerit that sources have should be evaluated or the number of sources should be evaluated. I don’t think adding a “plus 1” would add much value. In addition to the potential for abuse I mentioned above.
I'm pretty sure there is, that's why we see those Merit GA threads from time to time. Some get drowned among the repetitive replies, and then the local boards though since the exposure is lower.
About the +1, I feel it's more of a complementary feature. Think of it as a reaction. Let's say you post a thread on Bitcoin Lightning Network Satosheeesh v69 (just for discussion sake) detailing its new features and how-to.
People visit your thread and get intrigued. Since the "Like" reaction is pretty much one-click and "free", they'd be more inclined to react positively. So perhaps like 6 hours later, you revisit it to see 35 likes and 7 Merits thrown in.
If the substance is good, it's pretty easy to distinguish it among the rest. Sure, we might see some sockpuppets liking their own posts but all it takes is just several seconds to scan and we can tell if they're BS or not.
Automating notifications to merit sources may also be a good idea as was suggested above by Welsh. Sources could set their own criteria as to who they are willing to receive notifications from.
Without setting up Telegram/ PM/ smart watches, notifications would likely be seen in the Epochtalk ʷᵉ ᵐⁱᵍʰᵗ ˢᵉᵉ ⁱᵗ, ʷᵉ ᵐⁱᵍʰᵗ ⁿᵒᵗ. ʰᵒᵖᵉᶠᵘˡˡʸ ᵇⁱᵗᶜᵒⁱⁿ ʷᵒᵘˡᵈ ˢᵗⁱˡˡ ᵇᵉ ʳᵉˡᵉᵛᵃⁿᵗ ᵇʸ ᵗʰᵉⁿ
As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit, I will have no option than to slide on.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.
Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.
Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.
Merits are already enough. Implementing like just for those who doesn't have sendable merits would just simply eradicate the idea of meriting. Why? Merit already boosts someone's confidence when he/she receives one (a rewarding-like feeling for your efforts), and "Likes" on the other hand tends to give you the same feeling and worse is some can be boastful about it (if calculated on one's profile). It is not that necessary to implement a "liking" system for a forum that already has a better one.
Your Idea may seems right but sometimes if you approach your topic from another angle of reasoning you will realizes that way encourage lazy forum user from being diligent. And also will increase the level of spamming and plagiarism post.
Please sir, can you enlighten me on how the introduction of likes along side merit will increase the level of plagiarism in the forum?
I highly suggest that you ignore his reply as it does not make any sense at all.
What you suggested may sound good on paper, but in reality, it kinda defeats the purpose of the merit system. As what many have already mentioned, the purpose of merits is to reward users who contribute quality posts in the forum. For every two (2) merits that you earn, you are rewarded with one (1) sendable merit that allows you to merit another post in which you find valuable. The reason for this is clear and obvious- which is to prevent abuse.
To solve your problem, you can always save the post in which you find valuable, then merit it later on once you receive one.
Your Idea may seems right but sometimes if you approach your topic from another angle of reasoning you will realizes that way encourage lazy forum user from being diligent. And also will increase the level of spamming and plagiarism post.
Please sir, can you enlighten me on how the introduction of likes along side merit will increase the level of plagiarism in the forum?
Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
You can still come back to the posts you want to merit later on when you have sMerits to give. You don't need likes for that. Just bookmark the post or save it to a new document that you keep on your computer for posts you intend to merit later on. When your stash of merits goes up, find a post you like from your saved history and merit it.I believe we should start worrying about the merit system when established members who have received thousands or merits start speaking out against it. If they deem it unfair or bad even after having received so much, then we have a problem.
A like system would probably be okay, I don't see any major drawbacks, and maybe as a result of having a like button we will see less users giving merit because they agree with a post. Since, in my opinion a like system is completely different to the current merit system, which sometimes gets treated as the same by certain users.
No doubt that is still abusable, but I think the likes wouldn't carry as much weight as the Merits though.
I mean, the person could always use sockpuppets but in the end the BS would still be smelled out by other members sooner or later.
Automating notifications to merit sources may also be a good idea as was suggested above by Welsh. Sources could set their own criteria as to who they are willing to receive notifications from.
A like system would probably be okay, I don't see any major drawbacks, and maybe as a result of having a like button we will see less users giving merit because they agree with a post. Since, in my opinion a like system is completely different to the current merit system, which sometimes gets treated as the same by certain users.
No doubt that is still abusable, but I think the likes wouldn't carry as much weight as the Merits though.
I mean, the person could always use sockpuppets but in the end the BS would still be smelled out by other members sooner or later.
As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit, I will have no option than to slide on.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.
Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.
Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.
As an alternative, I would propose that all users be given a regular amount of smerit like we are all merit sources. The amount you get could be based off of some metric like account level, signup date, post count, or some formula, etc. That would seemingly make things as decentralized as possible, although the alt account issue ever looms.
I understand quite well what the OP is driving at and now that it's mentioned again I think theymos could look at it this way — enable a like bottom for newbie to member ranks only. Once a user crosses the member rank they lose the ability to use the like button. I know what it's like to read a helpful or reasonable posts but not being able to hug the poster (that's what merit literally does, isn't it?). Yes, one could report the post to appropriate threads to be merited but believe me it's not every time one reads a post that one has the time to respond to. Again, there may be newbies who don't even know how to report such. A like or hug feature for those ranks won't be asking too much.
I think this should be looked into, especially as the call for it repeatedly is coming up now and then. We all need to review our stand on this.
I think this should be looked into, especially as the call for it repeatedly is coming up now and then. We all need to review our stand on this.
A like system would probably be okay, I don't see any major drawbacks, and maybe as a result of having a like button we will see less users giving merit because they agree with a post. Since, in my opinion a like system is completely different to the current merit system, which sometimes gets treated as the same by certain users.
A very good idea, I wish the management will see it and do something. Most time you will not have merit and don't have time to begin to type and reply. You will just like the post and move. Anybody can give it at anything. It will not be hard to include it in the forum. It will not be abused because it will not be used to replace merit
Your Idea may seems right but sometimes if you approach your topic from another angle of reasoning you will realizes that way encourage lazy forum user from being diligent. And also will increase the level of spamming and plagiarism post.
As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit,
Lol, sendable merit, it's right as you read through the posts of senior colleagues, i think it will give you insights to make a quality post in order to earn merit and also have a sendable merit to give out, because from the scenario of merit if your not awarded merit definitely you will not have Smerit to award another user, so earning merit is via proper research and hard working.Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
Shall the policy is good, but is not like that in community and it will be very rigid to adopt such, but in the aspect giving Smerit to any user, if you notice a post that deserve your merit, you have to write the topic and the board or you mark the Username anytime any day you have Smerit you slide to the user profile and merit the post, no time merit is been given to user that is wrong, it depends when you earn merit and couple with Smerit. Jump to: