Topic: Attention Theymos: This is a sMerit holdup! Hands in the air! - page 2. (Read 21790 times)

Upon looking at the link, it only shows the total number of Merit sources and not the exact names of who are these 111 Merit sources. Perhaps the name is hidden so people don't flood their inbox for merits. Fair enough.

34000+ sMerits is quite a good number. Do we have a measure that these all merits are distrusted monthly before the new bag of smerit is handed over to the merit sources for next month ?

They seem to know each other, but only they can confirm it. I read some of TMAN's post history, it seems true that they know each other. https://ninjastic.space/search?author=TMAN&content=Lauda. Some of TMAN's post about lauda made me laugh. 

These two don't owe anyone anything, maybe that's true but both are worth remembering on the forum. Afaik, maybe people are still thinking about it because TMAN and Lauda are two good contributors to the forum and it make some of us very curious about what, why and how thing are out there.

TMAN traded on the forum quite a lot so his identity is probably known to some folks, particularly in collectibles. Not that it matters really. If someone leaves quietly and doesn't owe anyone, why would we need to know anything about them or the circumstances of their departure.

I think amishmanish thinks Lauda and TMAN knew each other's identities, but I find that unlikely.  Lauda was extremely private, and as far as I know never gave clues to his/her identity--but if anyone would know it, it would probably be Theymos. 

I don't want to speak for amishmanish again, but I'm pretty sure by "old guard" he means long-time members of bitcointalk.  Amishmanish registered in 2017, so both Lauda and TMAN probably seem like they've been around since the beginning, even though they both registered in April 2013 (4 days apart, which I never realized....hmmm).  Come to think of it, they might know each others' identities quite well. 

I'm not quite clear what you mean by Lauda's idea, but ... I have repeatedly seen TMAN mentioned in this context, so I think if someone with whom he traded on the forum had a connection with him, we would have known the reason for his absence long ago.

p.s. And as I understand by "old guard" you mean adherents of crypto-anarchism?

I'm not taking credit for Theymos's response, but I did want to say that sometimes you just have to be a very squeaky wheel in order to get greased, know what I'm saying?  And I know damn well Theymos reads threads on the forum and in particular in Meta, so it was disheartening that all of those merit source applications were going unanswered, in addition to my plea for more sMerits. 

So yeah, I'm still happy he took heed of our posts and decided to increase the number of circulating merits.  Hopefully the new merit sources will do a good job--I know at least one of them (LeGaulois) got tapped to be a source without applying. 

Thanks for taking this up TP and Thanks to Theymos for upgrading the merit sources. There is quite enough to go around and the forum has not been garnering as much attention as it used to. The increased merit will allow us to encourage and help rank up the good contributors we all see but don't have enough merit to disburse to at times. So, not a problem any more. 

Its good to know about Vod and xtraelv. His signature was one of the best sources of historically interesting and important information on Bitcoin. Thanks for the update icopress. Nobody has an update on @TMAN yet. I think @Lauda would have had some idea. Then again, those two really were part of the old guard so its possible that they didn't have any idea of each other's real world identities.

We're talking about the same time stamp

For some reason, it seemed to me that public appeals to Theymos were absolutely useless, at least due to the fact that for a very long time the number of sources and the total amount of sMerits remained unchanged, (and I have not seen anyone in their own thread say that the appeal has been heard). Anyway, congratulations ... now you have more room to maneuver when evaluating posts (without getting hung up on the sMerit meter).

What time stamp are we talking about? ^{[As I said earlier, apart from recent changes, over the past year and a half I have not seen the number of m'sources change]}

My source sMerit wasn't adjusted, so it's not a generic increase like last time. I didn't need more, so that's fine.
There used to be 97 Merit sources, now it's:

Damn, you're good.  Thanks for that info, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

He hasn't said anything in a post, but today he tapped at least one new merit source (NotATether) and upped the sMerit allocation of existing sources.  I got airdropped 1000 sMerits a few minutes ago with a PM from Theymos that was sent to other merit sources as well, so there should be a lot more merits in circulation thanks to his actions.  It's a great outcome, and as I like being a merit source and take the position seriously, I'm elated to have gotten all of those sMerits.

Skeptical Chymist ... I may be wrong, but the 20 sMerit you are talking about most likely came from Jet Cash ... and Theymos really did not read this thread, (although it seems to me unlikely that you missed it). ^{[Edited: Just saw that you already mentioned this]}

As for Theymos opinion on the current state of affairs, I also doubt that he will say anything, since I am almost sure that it is easier for him to update the list of merit sources than to talk about it. But since we are talking about this, I have one idea that I will try to outline in detail in the near future, (in short, the idea is based on the ratio of sMerit to inclusions of DT for each user and monthly elections). It is my deep conviction that there is no single chance that this innovation would not fix all the current problems in the merit system.

If your source sMerit is increased or decreased, it's reset. So you'd see the total maximum instantly.

I keep track:
Merit sent by The Pharmacist (Trust list) from January 24, 2018 until July 02, 2021 (source)


Merit received by The Pharmacist (Trust list) from January 24, 2018 until July 02, 2021 (source)

I wanted to bump this thread because since I bumped it on June 28th, I still haven't gotten more than 20 source sMerits or so, which seems unusual to me--and right now I'm completely out again (though I have some new earned ones to give out). 

What is clear to me is that Theymos either hasn't seen this thread or is ignoring it for whatever reason.  I'm hoping it's the former, and I'm also hoping that if he does view my posts here that he'll grant me more source sMerits and perhaps tell us his views on the merit system as it stands in 2021.  Maybe I'm overreacting somewhat, but it seems ominous to me that a merit source (me) is being allowed to run dry on sMerits--and hopefully my allocation hasn't decreased, either.  It seems that way to me, but I'm not really keeping track of incoming/outgoing sMerits.

C'mon, Theymos!  You started this merit system and all of the merit sources you picked are volunteering to do the job for the forum, so it'd be nice if you could acknowledge a thread like this.  Thanks, sorry.

Yeah, I don't want to bother Vod now that he left the forum, even though I've always been on good terms with him (at least I hope so).  He needed a break, and I don't intend to intrude on that break.  As far as xtraelv goes, I'm glad to hear that he's alive and well and is still active in the bitcoin community, even if it's not on this forum.  I've always liked him and didn't notice he was missing until I saw his name in a thread recently.  I tend to forget people's usernames very quickly if I don't see them all the time, but I remember them very quickly once my memory is refreshed.

And hey, I got some new source sMerits recently, although not that many so far.  I plan to give out a bunch over the weekend when I do some more reading.

Sceptical Chymist ^{[Just for reference]} ... If you have a desire, you can always contact Vod by mail (as far as I know, he is always happy to exchange a few words). As for xtraelv, I think he will not scold me if I say that everything is fine with him ... he leads a more active lifestyle than many of us, and in his free time he works to refute the lies that CSW has been telling for years, (at least that was the case a couple of weeks ago).

I guess I didn't check your merit history before I posted, otherwise I would have realized that you hadn't completely disappeared from the forum for as long as I thought.  You're still a merit source but haven't been a very active one (no judgement, just stating what I saw), which means that that's one merit source who isn't handing out lots of merits and helping the lower ranks, which is what I see as the purpose of having merit sources.  We can agree to disagree on that one with no hard feelings.

I do too, but everyone is different, and Jet Cash seems to lead a very unconventional life and I respect that.  And besides, there are plenty of members who've just straight-up disappeared since the pandemic started--like xtraelv, TMAN, Flying Hellfish, Vod, and probably many more that either I can't remember or didn't know of at all.  

QS, I know the thread you're referring to, but it'd be nice if Theymos would drop some data on merit distribution by merit sources without identifying them.  That sounds right up his alley, and it would give a good indication as to whether we need more merit sources or more sMerits in the hands of the sources that are still active.

Edit:  Jet Cash, thank you for the generous merit grant!  I don't care so much about my personal merit count, but now I've got 25 more sMerits to give out, and I needed that.  Much appreciated.

That is a lot of source merit going unused. I reviewed your merit history and you have given out 110 merit in the past 120 days. Depending on what your source allocation is, there is a minimum of 1900 source merit going unused in the past four months, if not over 2000.

I think Theymos should review how much each merit source is actually spending and reallocate merit accordingly.

You mentioned something similar in a different thread and I failed to understand why the pandemic bothers you so much that you don't want to participate in a bitcoin forum because of it. I still do. If you said I don't post as much because I don't like the white and blue background on the forum, that would make more sense to me.

I never visit the political discussions because most of it is off-topic to me. I care as much about what people on a bitcoin forum think of COVID as I care about the type of sneakers they are wearing - not at all. But I am interested in hearing if you don't believe there is a virus at all or you just believe it didn't occur naturally but was released intentionally as a biological weapon and a way for governments to achieve absolute control?   

I'm still a merit source, and I have over 500 sMerits to award at the moment. I do award merits to lower rank members if I think their posts are worthwhile, bur I'm starting to prefer to award merits to senior members. I don't see merits as a means to increase rank, but as an encouragement to make good threads and posts for the benefit of the forum. Merits are an indication of public approval for posts, I've backed away because I don't feel that many of my topics reflect board opinion. Certainly this is true of my opinions of the current artificial pandemic. I'm surprised that a community of educated and intelligent people is failing to recognise the patterns in medical and government behaviour, and fails to question issues such as the testing cycle differences between pre-vaccinated and post-vaccinated people. It is 36-40 for the general public, and 28 or less for the vaccinated. The covid test results are the only ones that don't include the cycle rates, and it is easy to see why. I don't appreciate being belittled and trolled for having an enquiring mind, and questioning the manipulated statistics.

I would like to so something to bring back some of the interesting senior members that we have lost, but I'm not sure how to do this. It is especially true as we seem to have many fiat supporters who don't understand or want Bitcoin. I'd love to see more discussions on world politics and economics, but not if they just push the low level narrative. I don't want to "build back better", but I want to see a return to the old capitalist system that rewards hard work, creativity, and risk taking. We are losing the capital to invest in new ventures, and the small creative businesses, and until people become aware of the damage this is doing to us, we don't have a hope of staying out of an enslaved future. It is ironic that so many protests and extreme actions are happening in the name of anti-slavery at a time when most people are being forced into slavery, and the handing over of their health to the governments..