Topic: Bitcointalk ranking difficulty (Read 907 times)

You really think that those who don't get their posts regularly merited are not good posters? Is that what you think   Come on guy, stop cracking me up. I have seen countless good posts that didn't get merited while shitty posts get the icing. The merit thing to a greater extent is subjective and it's quite understandably so too because humans are humans. Emotions run through the hearts of all. Though, that isn't taking anything away from the merit system. If anything, it has helped to curb spamming and shit posting to a greater extent on the forum.

Great to hear that you are one of those new era users who rank up and this is a good inspiration to the new users who always think about ranking up is close to impossible here. Also it's good to others to follow your track and became a relevant in terms in posting since this is the key to help those new users to get those merits that will help them to rank up to. And also congrats to you.

I was happy to be among the members that made it to full member, I thought I was poor to post but I have seen that only just 17 people among us that created an account 2020 got to full member it is a nice thing to know. This shown let us know about how truly difficult has been for people to rank up, lesser people ranked up to senior member, everything is getting more difficult but it is good because it makes the forum to be in form of a pyramid. The good posters ranked while the majority at the bottom of the pyramid are not good posters. Pyramid structure is a functionality of surviving systems, the merit of a thing makes this possible.

I agree with you, this is not just a newbie account issue, but also higher rank most of them stuck with their last rank before merit system. I'm happy because now lot of new member after merit system climbing up to the higher rank compared with them who struggling with last rank (before merit system), such as OP, he joined this forum mid 2020, now he become full member newbie, i see he have a future to get ranked up to legendary than member who currently Sr. Member, but their posts dosn't deserved to being awarded with merit. You know how to be good member here, hope you can learn as your posts.

Struggle to get merits is real that's why you need to be creative on your post and make sure its relevant to the topic as well very helpful or entertaining to the ones who read it, and if those low rank post an un quality post well maybe they will really struggle to rank up since people right now is to meticulous on selecting users who will spend their merit on so we need to be a good poster to achieve that one.

I’ve checked my data again just in case, and it’s consistent. Here is the update as of last Friday (same context: account created during 2020, non-banned, and merited at some point):
The update shows some slight changes regarding my prior retrieved data, but on this occasion, I’ve added some surprising additional information that corresponds to profiles that have not ranked-up at least one level, but that have been merited (the last two rows).

There are 1.482 Newbies, created in 2020, that have earned at least 1 merit, but that have not made enough posts to warrant Jr. Member rank. In fact, most of them barely made any Activity:
757 have made less than 20% of the required Activity. That is pretty surprising, and it’s a wonder why that is. One possible reason is that the banned list I’m using is incomplete, but I’ve checked 10 or so profiles, and they are not banned, although mostly inactive.

Some perhaps earn a few merits for questions/answers, but are here sporadically, others may quit thinking that the campaigns are not going to be worth their time. Who knows, but it’s surprising to see so many potential Jr. Accounts stalled by Activity.

Im surprised with this statistic, but also not really surprised at the same time considering its not that easy to get merits. I just back to the forum recently after a while and trying to post something structured(even not helpful enough) meanwhile seeing many low rank person just write post without any good point in the post, no wonder its hard to get merits.

There is no much difficulty in the ranking system in the Bitcointalk forum but your activity and the things you do earns you your desired merit. being a newbie or any level which you have attained all required time and patience and effective/relevant post. Once this are being taking into consideration then to achieve your merits are as simple and easy than you ever imagine.

It depends, in case you want participate on signature campaigns or bounty programs, it is not the same if you have a Jr member rank or if you have a Legendary one. I am talking about the rewards since they are based on your forum rank. By the other hand, I remember that some projects also were looking for high forum ranks for their Announcements threads, it could be another advantage for these top forum rank members.
For the rest of the forum priviledges, I agree that it is the same Jr member or Legendary, you can do exactly the same.

Quality posts doesn't start from the first day. Its always a gradual process built based on research and dedication. Spending time to look at posts from highly ranked members, comparing the content of their posts to what should be expected of a newbie in future time.

In the first place, my mindset was to rank up and become Legendary one day and getting more opportunities for participating bounty programs. It was back then when Bitcointalk doesn’t have merit system yet. I could have been Legendary right now if merits wasn’t implemented. There’s always a good and positive reason behind this decision coming from the Bitcointalk management, because they have seen enough of the spammy and low quality posts, but ended up getting high ranks.

Merit is a good way for us to be even more than just a regular forum poster. But for me, both rank and merit are just bonuses. I don’t mind about getting ranked up or receiving merits, because I would rather give more value to the community without expecting anything in return. I am blessed in other ways because of this changed mindset.

Even if I’m Legendary and having more merits, they’re just simply nothing to me. Ranks are just ranks. Merits are just merits. What matters to me nowadays is on how I can help and contribute, giving back in any way, and of course I hope that one day, I would be recognize as one of the helpful and valuable members of this forum. I am still very far away from that, but I’m working on it. I don’t expect anything in return, because unexpected blessings in other ways are coming to me anytime.

The feeling of giving something with heart and passion makes me feel better than just receiving.

This post clearly tell those newbies to do their best in order to heavily contribute on this forum and let trusted members merit them.

It is true that most of the newbies are only here to rank up and have a much higher payment in a signature camp but that doesn't really help them grow.

Merits should be worked hard because that will served as your bonus so that you should make an informative and quality posts that other people understand and learn.

It is really hard to rank up because there is what we called a "process" and you need to encounter that.

I think it has the best conditions for Rank increase,  before   everyone can increase their forum rank just for their activists,  but now need Merit point for Rank increasing.  I think this is very good for forum, for this reason nobody can't  spamming on this forum.

Yes, you are right. Ranking up has been difficult since the merit system was implemented. Although I don't really want to call it 'difficult'. I'd rather say challenging. Challenging because it pushed many of us to become better versions of ourselves especially when it comes to posting in this forum. I don't know about others but the attitude I have learned here, I can somehow apply in my life outside this community. After all, aside from the purpose of merits to reduce or eliminate the spam here, I also see that it pushed many to be better than they were before.

Nice reminder. The merit system will just slow down the process of ranking up. But it is not impossible to do that even if one started out as a newbie. I know members who were newbie once but are now well-known members of this forum and have high ranks. Just don't lose hope.

This is incorrect, please check the history of recent merit submissions by merit sources as well as by other users so that you know how the merit was distributed to forum users.

Of course every user will get merit if they are willing to post quality goods. But you have to understand that not all posts that you consider quality will be get merit because all users have their own way and point of view on forum member posts and the merit system is not moderated.

I just want to share a few suggestions for you about merits and one of them is never to complain because it won't solve your problem. Don't think too much about merit because I don't think merit are everything in the forum. If you care about your ranking then one of the best ways to get it is by improving the quality of the post. Do it naturally and you will get there without having to think about it every time.

I think there is a bit of irony here. Sometimes you can observe, how those participants who registered long ago, were promoted in rank before the advent of the merit system, subsequently remain in their rank for quite a long time. Why is this happening? Since they, in fact, should have much more experience. And accordingly, they should not have problems in obtaining merits. But when I see similar statements from old-timers about the difficulty of raising further rank, I have pity for such people.

What was easy for them is subsequently not properly appreciated.

Getting merit now is very hard, but quality posts can make it simple, post good you will receive merit. I too find it difficult but I still notice my good posts do receive merit from other bitcointalk users.

This may be a thing that's a little unfair.
Those members who, prior to the introduction of the merit system, reached the highest, legendary rank, this change has not harmed them.
Other members have come to the situation  that they have to make a lot more effort to get ahead in the forum.
I suppose we can say that life is not fair.

It includes me. I was a bit surprised when I came back again to this forum after a long time. I realized something new in the requirement of level up. But I am not a person who complains about this new requirement because I know it is needed to trigger a better post quality among members. With this harder requirement, I also try to make a better post now. Although I am aware my posts still not deserve to get merits.

Indeed, im newbie wanting to find how to earn bitcoins or alts and know more about crypto but then i see this forum as a guide and ranking up is a bonus. Im hoping i can contribute here on small things even though im lack of knowledge about cryptos.

Many beginners have climbed the rankings with good quality posts and can adapt to forums. But some beginners are also pessimists with the merit system that is implemented because it is not easy to get merit. When beginners remain consistent and work hard, merit will be easy to obtain, depending on the contribution given. The current system is to reduce incompetent members and reduce farming accounts. When you deserve to get merit from the post you provide you can submit it. Many threads give merit to quality posts. so keep trying and be a good member and have a contribution to this forum.

The merit system has worked well to prevent spammers from naturally rising in the rank of forum since early 2018. Additionally, the merit system has triggered most users to change their bad habits regarding post quality if they really care about rank. Merit shouldn't be anyone's priority because I'm sure merit will come naturally if users can post quality stuff. It will also be tiring if we always think about merit.

One thing I always remember is "the reward would never stop anyone from rank if we could post quality". Theymos idea is perfect for making forums cleaner than ever just because of the merit system implementation.

Thank alot DdmrDdmr for the analysis you brought for clarification, I can fully understand that this analysis compares the total number of registered account that engaged more on the forum discussion, it's been known that a user ranks up by involving themselves among others in bringing to the development of the forum and at such their rank grows higher via merit by contributing positively.
In the above analysis, on a serious note, it's difficult for a user to rank up to snr. Memeber specifically, it's surprising that 4 & 8 newly registered accounts ranks up to Snr in a year where thousand of numbered users gets registered on the forum daily.

*remember the wise word: 'don't feed spammers'...
many people may feel that the merit system is totally unfair but for me, it is very fair. Just imagine if there is no merit system then we will see hundreds of spammers who grow to become legendary every month. *don't stop to deepen your horizons so you can make quality posts

I do. He is hoping to get merit for the post, unsuccessfully as I you can see. Posts about merits tend to get merit and if you open the post you are more likely to get merit than if you express the same ideas but in a comment on page 5. But I think flattery is what has gotten him nowhere.

What I’m showing here is not really the total ranked-up accounts during the year, but the total ranked-up during the year of those accounts created within the analysed year. There are many more that rank-up within the year, but since there was a large focus here on this thread on what Newbies managed to do in terms of ranking, the scope is delimited to studying the ranking performance for Newbies created within the analysed year.

Having contextualized the above, this is the comparison between 2019 and 2020:

Accounts created during 2020 -> Rank by 31/12/2020 (same as on prior post)
Ranked-up to Sr. Member:      8
Ranked-up to Full Member:   14
Ranked-up to  Member:      136
Ranked-up to  Jr. Member:  460

Accounts created during 2019 -> Rank by 31/12/2019 (*)
Ranked-up to Sr. Member:      4
Ranked-up to Full Member:   19
Ranked-up to  Member:      126
Ranked-up to  Jr. Member:  621

(*) As of 03/01/2020 really, since I store weekly snapshots and that is the closest one to the 31/12/2019.

The total historical number of ranked-up members, that did so needing earned merits, can be seen here:
https://public.tableau.com/profile/ddmrddmr#!/vizhome/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/Ranked-up

The difference in the above link to the data provided on this post, is that there is no specific focus on Newbies, and that the data accounts for all ranks, regardless of when they were created, comparing their initial rank when the Merit System kicked-off, to their current rank.

It is very beneficial in this forum because it kinda filters out or segregates the good poster member into spammers. I think without this merit system this forum would be a kind of mess where there will be a lot of spammers trying to ruin this platform. Honestly, I enter the forum when it does not have a merit system yet but I wouldn't say that it was worse because there are fewer members way back then and easier to manage compared to now though. So yeah merit system is healthy for this forum for it to be last longer.

Am I missing something? Shouldn't quality (or somewhat good) posting be a normal occurrence?  It's not like people here are telemarketers getting rich on posts I'm kidding, I understand how things work and I actually like the merit system. I actually learned something from posts here, I keep learning from posts, and if I can I help out with a post of mine, I do (altho not on the technical subforums, that's just outa of my league for now so I won't bullshit and waste time). The second this feel's like work I'm gone. My experience is that I got merits when someone thinks I contributed something to the discussion, but having a system to getting merits...yeah...I don't see that as reliable. Long story short, more power to the merit system! (Don't merit me on this post).

Not necessarily a new rank, after all how to call it? - Half-Full Member maybe?

What might make more sense is to adjust the number of merits for Full Member rank, because if Jr.Member only needs 1, Member 10, then 100 merits for Full Member is quite a challenge for most. Although such a change would then affect other ranks in terms of the number of merits, it is still best to adapt to the existing system. While it may seem too difficult to some, 1 or 10 merits is more than easy to reach for most - but not by being just bounty hunters, it's definitely the wrong direction.

Let's make it simple, all you need to do is just to earn merits to rank up, question is how do you earn those merits, what are your approach?

You can try hard and harder, but it does not guarantee you'll earn merits as merits are just given by members and they could not see your hard work. So what I suggest is be true to yourself, just take it easy, don't think of ranking up more, instead, contribute on your own way and be more active.

I still imagine the number of crowd Bitcointailk has, but still yet, the total number of active users are limited, different data analysis shows billions of users this forum has however 80% of those users are bounty hunters, a newly launched bounty thread reaches 5 pages within a space of 5 minutes, it would be quite difficult for such account to rank up while they aren't for the discussion, they rather for the money.
@DdmrDdmr I would have love to compare the results of the total ranked up account from 1st January - December 2019.

I'm struggling to envisage a scinario to justify an in-between rank such as the one you suggest?

AFAIK the entire forum is open to all from the moment you register onwards. It's not as though you need Senior member just to even *see* certain sections of the forum.

Get writing, be creative. Start a useful thread or two and earn merits.

Good Luck.

I like the rank system, but between member and full member I think there should have been an intermediate rank

Since the Merit system began I've amazed enough non-airdropped merits to have attained the rank of Hero Member along with the required posts to go with it.

If a user wants to rank-up it's usually with the intention of joining a Signature Campaign (there's little other reason to level up - not really).

Too many people want to start the working life in the executive suite instead of working their way up the corporate ladder.

Perseverance.

I also found difficulties achieving the full member, I encountered so many struggles to the point that I felt like giving up because of the comments that I have received from my previous topics but the good thing about it is that I have learned a lesson and I will keep it in my life to this forum. Just remember for every beginner that you are not required to create a topic just to earn merit, if you cant create quality topics then keep creating quality comments.

I am pretty sure you do, higher rank mean better payouts in bounties, which means pretty much same thing as getting BTC with every upgrade.

This forum was created primarily to discuss about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (hence, bitcoinTALK) where other users can share their experiences, breakthroughs, and tips in general. Due to the increase in traffic in the forum over the years (both members and non-members of the forum), people took advantage of that traffic in order to advertise their respective businesses, thus the era of campaign signatures was born.

We shouldn't stray from the main purpose of this forum. If you view this forum primarily for profit, chances are you wouldn't rank-up and achieve that purpose especially if you contribute only spam messages.

This is exactly my point of view now when I came back in to this forum. I made account on 2017 but I don't know how things work here, I thought ranking up is most important because from what I heard from others they make money here and the higher the rank the bigger money they get. I do not remember the account I made, so I made a new one with a change of point of view. As a newbie, I'll strive also to gain more knowledge about Bitcoin and Trading because I want to invest on it. Also, I'll read more so that I can write interesting topic that will help others.

Because Forum is Not really for ranking but for what you can contribute and what you will Learn , For Me Ranking is just for the Campaign Purpose only or for bounties .

But if you are here to Listen and learn about what Is Cryptocurrency specially Bitcoin .

Though i don't want to be Hypocrite to say that I don't want to rank up but at least i'm not rushing everything . i wanted to rank when i really deserve it and not because i have another intention achieving it.

Its beneficial to the extent that it minimize the spamming in the forum but actually it make the life of the users hard to rank up if they really aim to became a legendary member rank here, but its not really necessary or needed to go on that standing since even if you are a newbie or whatever rank status are you on still you cannot feel the ranking status if you are skilled since most of the company owners doesn't care about your rank they want people who can finish the task accurately also we shouldn't mind the implementation of merit and just enjoy using this forum since the more you think about hunting some merits the more possibilities that we will get upset since merits are rarely given by users here.

I think merit system has been good for the forum.Because it stoopped newbies from spam posting. They just copy some text from somewhere and post that on the forum. So its become intolerable for the real users.
So I think merit system has been very beneficial for the forum.

Honestly, on this forum I have seen some newbie members who have a lot more knowledge and experience about crypto than some legendary members.
I'm talking about some crypto business owners who share their knowledge and experience on the forum and have no interest in making money on the forum.
Obviously for such people the forum rank is completely irrelevant.
Only members who came here to earn some bitcoin complain about the forum rank and promotion on the forum.
They must understand that only through their own effort, time and learning can they progress in this forum and gain a certain reputation.

I would like someday someone to do statistics:

How many members has the forum Vs how many people are sources of merit

with that you can see that there are few people who will be able to rank up, the problem is precisely because Smerito is confined to a small group of people... it was thrown in the trash that old good feeling that the person had to be classified because he spent a lot of time on the forum.

Many new users of this forum came here because someone told them that they would only make money by writing posts, but they were not told that it was no longer as easy as before the merit system was introduced. It is very difficult for such users to progress, because they have neither the patience nor the will to learn something, in other words they are not interested in crypto in any other sense than profit.

While there aren’t many, I think everyone knows at least a few users who have made significant progress in the ranks even though they started out as newbies. But they chose a healthy approach, without doing anything by force and falling into depression or leaving the forum if they don’t get a merit every day.

For any new member who is active, curious and eager for knowledge, ranking is not an obstacle, but rather a challenge.

You are a competent person in this forum since joining in early 2020, now you have become a Sr. I know this is a great achievement and have contributed a lot to the forum.

Yeah that's right you said we have to observe a lot of high account posts we will know there how that knowledge will absorb in my mind then any idea from where we will come across there is a lot of knowledge here so I am now as good as possible to do this after knowing what actually in this forum.

Merits are not everything but higher knowledge and insights can increase your degree in this forum even higher.

If you're a kind of member who only wants to gain knowledge, share an experience on crypto and help other members on what they dont know then ranking up is not really your top priority. On the other side merits and ranking up are important nowadays for users who wants to take advantage the forum to earn, one of that is by joining in a signature campaign.

For newbies, its a must to take time learning and there are many ways to do that. Im not a quality poster but somehow im trying my best to contribute to the topic that I know.

Before im just a member getting trouble with the ranking system its better to motivate your self and not change your path, use other members as your challenge to your self. It takes time before I ranked up but still it's not a problem because during this progress you are continuously learning a lot of knowledge by this information and curiosity you are now heading towards to give more contribution to the forum by this there is a chance you will get merit and make another stepping stone to your ranking up.

It's better to observe higher ranks posting habit by that you can earn a lot of idea and knowledge of how to earn merits.

Rank and merits are just useless if you do not learn throughout your progress.

They say,
To whom much is given, much is expected!!!

Expecting more from newbies isn't really out of place but, we've got to know the limit of how acquainted they can be of the crypto field at that particular point of there crypto career and sadly, that is a perspective thing so, it becomes increasingly difficult. The early rites of the field faced some, not only that BTC had less value compared to now, the trust in the system was an issue of controversy and interest so, they risked it and got the benefits. Now that BTC has become a booming field, it would be wrong to make it seem too easy to run through the profiles and go pro without scrutiny and that's what the merit and activity systems do.

I have a lot to learn myself and I've very much chatted it up and now, it's left for me to take my challenge to the next step and do the next thing in my crypto career and awareness. People have been challenged and have taken up a lot of crypto courses for this field, creating websites, learn coding, study blockchain technology and lots of other things. These things could be applicable some place else, it's building you. So, i urge most of us with a zeal to prosper in this field to not only look at it as a means to earn but also to improve as well.

Ranking up from a newbie is far easier than a member ranking up to a full member, I myself have ranked up over 6 difference newbies before because they are able to share something reasonable, do you know that newbies can ask good questions about crypto and get merited for even thinking about such question? Members hardly get merits in such ways, for example look at this question asked by a newbie and got merited by ognasty, could have merit the guy but have no smerit again

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.55972698

As Rikafip pointed out in the post just above mine, most users want to rank up to get better spots in signature campaigns. The difference between a Member and Hero/Legendary rank is often over 100% in terms of weekly pay rates. That's lucrative for most.

A second reason are altcoin bounty campaigns. Most don't accept newbies. Newbies can't wear signatures either. Whether we like it or not, bounties and signature campaigns make up a lot of the activity and traffic on Bitcointalk.

Ranking up is a sort of achievement. Especially for those who started with lower ranks and rose to the highest ones. Everyone likes to see progress and growth.

That's basically what you get with each rank upgrade via signature campaign. Higher the rank, better the chances of getting into BTC signature campaign and better the money.


And then you have some people creating topics in Meta asking for increasing ranking up requirements, and are usually basing that on their own ability to rank up without looking at bigger picture. In reality, someone who is new to  cryptocurrencies and forums in general won't have an easy task to rank up the forum ladder, and the numbers you presented are backing that up.

Looking over accounts created from the 1st of January 2020 onwards, I make the number of ranked-up accounts to be as follows:

Ranked-up to Sr. Member:      8
Ranked-up to Full Member:   14
Ranked-up to  Member:      136
Ranked-up to  Jr. Member:  460

Of course, those are absolute abstract numbers, without considering context such as how many accounts were created (which is not really useful anyway, due to the amount of empty accounts created), how many are really posting worthwhile content, how many pay attention to rank, and how many disregard it.

From a numerical point of view though, there don’t seem to be that many people capable of reaching an in-between rank such as that of Full Member, which only requires 120 Activity, alongside 100 Merits, the latter being the most difficult.

Newbies who have different interests in the forum also have different ideas about the merit system.
Look a real newbie who is genuinely learning and really interested in cryptocurrencies. He has no idea what merit is. And having received it does not know what to do with it.
But unfortunately, most of the newbies evaluate the forum as a source of income. And they understand better than you and me that they need merits. Here all sorts of entrepreneurship work for them. Someone tries to create heaps of new topics every day, with the most commonplace questions or copying articles from the Internet, trying to attract attention. And someone just begs, doing absolutely nothing.
The main thing that these people miss is learning and communication. In to earn a penny, they lose the most precious thing, this is their time.

If ambition and expect as soon as possible, if not achieved in the end disappointed.

here thousands of different heads and minds from the system of achievement that are put in place at this forum. You can judge the true character of each member of this forum.

Manang on this forum generates a lot of Bitcoin / tokens etc., from the hard work of the members themselves to advertise something from a particular company, however, that is all you will get if you have good enough quality in this forum, basically this forum is for the knowledge of crypto like Bitcoin.

The saying goes "if you chase money he will run, the more you chase the farther he runs".
"Let the money chase you, the key is science".
If you have knowledge, you will easily get it all.

You are right. But we can't deny that many of those newbies have their goal on climbing up the ladder as priority. Of course their goal is to increase their rank for some bounty. But lately been seeing a lot of newbies that improved their post and introduced interesting topics.

---

OP as much as you wanted to remind newbies, I think they are busy on the bounty section looking for Gem. Only if this kind of topic is not off topic there. So they can see post or at least read this.

You opened the account in June 2020 then you don't need to say anything about the forum activities in 2018 or 2019. As you did not the member had experience in these 2 years, what you gave can be not correct. If you wrote it from what you read, it can be true or untrue. I believe if you want to share any fact, it would be from your experience here. If you did not get your real experience, skip it and talk about what you experienced here since June 2020.

Merit & new rank requirements
Writing a welcome message

I think it's just okay to make it difficult to rank up, because for example, if you are just posting bounty reports and you got one thousand posts, it only means you have one thousand activities, and you can rank up and be like a hero or legendary? that will be unfair to others who from the start are posting tutorials and tips, important things that will make the community benefit from it, I would say that changing the rules to merit and activity is way better, I don't consider it difficult its a challenge and also you can improve in making topics, and the way you compose it.

Exactly my point, I have seen on this forum posts like:

How to make money
How to make bitcoin
How to earn merit
And few other similar questions like that

Instead to concentrate on the prerequisites which is how to help each other on this forum while the reward for helping is the merit that will be used to rank up.

Ranking up shouldn't really be top priority, but gaining knowledge about Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, trading and helping others should be. When I was  a newbie, I also thought that merits and ranking up were the most important things in the forum but with time I got to realize that knowledge is the best thing you can ever attain from this community.  Merits and ranking up are just a bonus.

I am striving as much as possible to be a better person tomorrow than I am today and there is no better place than this forum when it comes to Bitcoin and trading. Any knowledge I get here as a result of it being shared by other members improves my position 

The topic is to just be a reminder for newbies and people that are ranking to know that only quality posts can make them ranked up, that they should learn about the requirement for posting quality posts which hardwork, patience and believe are the three keys they need to achieve these.

I don't fully understand the purpose behind this post.

I also don't see why it's so important to rank up, it's not like you're getting free BTC with every upgrade. Maybe that's just me, but once you reach "Jr. Member" or "Member" rank and get private messages privilege does it even matter what rank you are? As your activity grows on the forum, your rank will also grow. That's just natural progression. Assuming your posts are helpful you will get merit along the way too.

According to some researches, I noticed bitcointalk has been a forum without merit system before, before merit system evolved which was in 2018, people only rank up only with activities but as time goes the forum deployed more ways to have more quality posts. Before merit system was created there were good posters but they are few if compared to now, which makes the merit system a very good part of bitcointalk by increasing users that have more quality posts. As at then when merit system has not been created, to rank up is not had but simple.

After the merit system was created in 2018, many members were not able to rank up again, the merit system was toug but not like of these days, the reason is because many members were automatically given smerits which they still use in inappropriate manners. Later some of these members were unable to continue the use of the smerit inappropriately later relented and later found not to have any merit again in the last 120 days and beyond and the merit system become more difficult as posts are becoming more quality.

People that are just joining bitcointalk have to work harder and have posts full of quality contents before they can rank up, making this forum not friendly to newbies because newbies are the ones that mostly plagiarize, spam, copy/paste and full of shitposting habits. This makes this forum to be harder than the era before merit system was implemented and the time when merit system just started.

The posting quality of even the ranked members have increased, while new members with good quality posts also are the one receiving merits. But many newbies think this forum ranked members are selfish and of which not, they are not selfish. But only the time they leave that thinking behind, read about bitcoin and crypto and make further researches and able to post about these in a quality way will they be merited and rank up.

Newbies should be hard working, patient and believe, these are the three keys to how they can rank up. The ranking difficulty has increased but there are still newbies that rank up while their merit is now enough to achieve more ranks.