1. IntroductionLately I’ve seen some comments on whether it is easier to earn the first merit on such or such forum section/subsection. This moved me to find the Merit Path for each person. The Merit Path is the set of distinct section/subsections where we get merited in, ordered by the date we get merited in them for the first time.
For example, my Merit Path is as follows: (Local) Spanish -> (Other) Beginners & Help -> (Other) Meta-> (Other) Serious discussion -> (Other) Off-topic
Therefore, in my case, the Spanish Local board was my starter. I got a few merits there before being merited in the Beginners & Help board. Got a few more merits around those two boards until I got my first merit on Meta, and so on.
This is similar (a very simplified version) to what supermarkets do when they analyse our purchasing habits, classify them by sections or product families, and give us vouchers to promote the next section they consider should be of interest to us (which often is not really), where we’ve never made a purchase before, based on the study of similar paths performed by other customers. My objective here is rather more modest though…
2. First stepping stone in the Merit PathSo far, 22.543 people have been sMerited at some point. We know that some of those sMerits have been awarded to what are now deleted posts, so I’ve taken those out of the merit path.
Out of these forum members,
1.249 have received all their sMerit on deleted posts, so I will not be taking these into account since there is no derivable merit path.
For the remaining 21.294 merited forum members, this is where they have obtained their
first sMerit:
What we can see is the following:a)
Russian is the section where most people
got their first sMerit (17%), followed by
Ann Altcoins (16,53%),
Altcoin Discussion (8,82%), Bitcoin Discussion (5,86%) and Economics (5,03%).
b) On the lower end, most local boards are very low contributing to the first merit, Serious Discussion is where 0,44% obtain their first merit, followed by Bitcoin Technical Support (0,45%), Bitcoin Project Development (0,51%) and Politics & Society (0,76%).
c) When we compare the complete history to the most recent history (first of august onwards), the ratios are rather much the same, but there is a larger spike in proportion on the Altcoin Discussion board (+5,15%) and the Russian board (4,02%).
3. First stepping stone in the Merit Path by RankThe first stepping stone may vary by rank, being some more prone than others to receive their first sMerit in certain section/subsections. To see if this is true, I’ve crossed the above table with current rank (cannot go back to rank at the time of first awarded merit), and turned the numbers into percentages to see the distribution by rank.
Interesting finds:a) The first table (in green) shows us how many forum members from each rank have earned at least one merit. The user base here is that of the 21.294 merited users who have received sMerit on some non-deleted post at some time. For simplicity, I’ve hidden ranks such as Administrator, Donator, Founder, Global Moderator, Staff, VIP and Brand New. In addition, copper ranks are translated to a regular rank.
Now what I had to recheck multiple times (since it startled me), is that the number of merited Newbies was so high (2.218 in this subset), along side Jr. Members (7.051 in this subset). Both amount together to 43,53% of merited users (in non-deleted posts). That is way more than I has in mind, although it is true that they tend to be merited with a very small amount of merits compared to the higher ranks.
But what is relevant is the volume of these two ranks alone in comparison:
out of all the merited users on non deleted posts, 43,53% are actually newbies or Jr. Members. Astonishing!b)
Altcoin Discussion is a section where the
lower ranks earned their first sMerit in a rather much higher proportion than the higher ranks, albeit the number of higher rank cases is not dismissible.
c) On the other hand, the
Ann Altcoin section is way more different, being the place where
20,16% of merited Legendaries were awarded sMerit for the first time!d)
Surprisingly enough,
Newbies merited for the first time in the Mining Altcoins is pretty high (5,59%), and are by comparison pretty high on Bitcoin Development and Technical Discussion (4,15%) and Bitcoin Technical Support (2,39%). Strangely though, many of the merited Newbies in these sections are barely active, so perhaps they are not very concerned with the Merit System and Ranking System at all.
e)
Economics and Market Place are strong starters for the higher ranks when considering their first received sMerit, and much lower in proportion for the lower ranks.
f) The proportion of Legendries merited on
Meta for the first time (6,29%) is not too large comparted to the Economy sections above mentioned, and
not the best starter for Newbies and Jr. Members compared to other sections.
4. Complete Merit Path CombinationsThis would normally be one of the most interesting sections to analyse. Nevertheless, since the majority of people have received whatever merit they have earned in one unique section, the merit path combinations with more than one step (like the one I used in the Introduction) are rather small in proportion, and do not bear too much statistical significance. Leaving aside those that gain their merit in a unique section/subsection (and that thus have a one step merit path that is shown above), the main combinations are:
nUsers Merit Path
60 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Marketplace (Altcoins)
60 (Local) Russian , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
58 (Bitcoin) Bitcoin Discussion , (Economy) Economics
57 (Local) Russian , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
54 (Economy) Economics , (Bitcoin) Bitcoin Discussion
52 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
50 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Bitcoin) Bitcoin Discussion
44 (Bitcoin) Bitcoin Discussion , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
42 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
41 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Marketplace (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
40 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Economy) Economics
39 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Local) Russian
39 (Local) Russian , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Marketplace (Altcoins)
36 (Economy) Economics , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
29 (Economy) Economics , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
28 (Other) Meta , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
27 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Speculation (Altcoins)
27 (Other) Meta , (Bitcoin) Bitcoin Discussion
26 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Speculation (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
25 (Economy) Marketplace , (Economy) Trading Discussion
24 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Local) Russian
24 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Marketplace (Altcoins) , (Local) Russian
24 (Other) Meta , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
22 (Local) German , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
22 (Other) Beginners & Help , (Other) Meta
20 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Other) Beginners & Help
20 (Local) Indonesian , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
19 (Economy) Marketplace , (Bitcoin) Bitcoin Discussion
18 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Marketplace (Altcoins)
18 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Mining (Altcoins)
18 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Mining (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
18 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Speculation (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
18 (Other) Meta , (Economy) Marketplace
17 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Bitcoin) Bitcoin Discussion
16 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Economy) Marketplace
16 (Economy) Economics , (Economy) Marketplace
16 (Other) Meta , (Other) Beginners & Help
15 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Economy) Marketplace
15 (Other) Meta , (Economy) Trading Discussion
14 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Other) Meta
14 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Economy) Trading Discussion
14 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Local) German
14 (Economy) Marketplace , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
14 (Economy) Marketplace , (Economy) Economics
14 (Local) Russian , (Bitcoin) Bitcoin Discussion
14 (Local) Turkish , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
13 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion , (Economy) Trading Discussion
13 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Speculation (Altcoins)
13 (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Marketplace (Altcoins) , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Altcoin Discussion
13 (Economy) Marketplace , (Alternate cryptocurrencies) Announcements (Altcoins)
In total, there are 1.976 distinct Merit Path combinations.
5. ConclusionsBear in mind that
this topic is about where one got merited, not how many sMerits they received.
a) There is a fair share of merited people that have been merited exclusively on later deleted posts (1.249 out of 22.543).
b) Most merited people have been merited in one unique section/subsection.
c) The main section/subsections where people are merited for the first time are Russian, Ann Altcoins, Altcoin Discussion, Bitcoin Discussion and Economics.
d) 43,54% of merited users are currently holding one of the lower ranks (Newbie or Jr. Member).
e) Ranks have different section/subsections where they got their first sMerit. Being the higher ranks more prone to Ann Altcoins, Economics, Marketplace, Russian and Meta, and the lower ranks to Ann Altcoins, Altcoin Discussion, Bitcoin Discussion, and Altcoin Mining.
f) Ann Altcoins is the section that most people got their first merit on, regardless on the rank (Russian board aside).