Topic: Creating new thread is not equal to Merit (Read 223 times)

Repetitive posts are unfortunately common here, as many decide to open a post instead of searching first if there is an already suitable active thread that already covers the topic they want to talk about. That, and trying to receive merits ... Now merit is a hot topic (again) so there is a gold rush for getting the first one while the time is ripe.

A few months ago, I gave it a go at studying what merited posts has about them (see Forum Merited Messages- Does size count?), from the meta point of view (position, size, images, etc., not content). The study was performed at the end of May 2018, when, at the time, 45.947 non-deleted posts has been merited. Now we have 44% more merited non-deleted posts, so the patterns and conclusions may have shifted a bit after nearly four months.
What I found then, and this is related to the title of the OP, is that meriting an OP post happens on 15% of occasions where a thread is merited. This figure goes up to 40,21% for posts within the first page (first 20 posts). Things get quieter the further you post from the first page, and spikes on some mega-threads (see section 4 of the above referenced study).

Now the above is not to be taken verbatim, since it depends on the specific section/subsection you post in, and that is not covered in my study (it would have required a lot more effort on a topic that was rather complex to derive), but from the global perspective, it gives us an idea of some of the post’s structural contribution.

Having said that, content is what matters way above any other consideration, let's not forget that.

Funny but I found yours almost the same too. So are you better then them?

I do. I think this is also question for yourself to ask...

And this one is... something new, different?

I was not active too much although I have joined here somedays ago. Today I desired to read some forum rules and regulations. But I felt like I visited in the wrong time. Only the repetitive threads are rolling out here in beginners board. All the threads are about merit. I didn't know too much about merit too. I started digging and realized how important it is for ranking up. It's not easy to achieve while for some people it's easy, lol. I don't know how easy or hard to earn merit is.
But will creating repetitive thread get someone merit? I doubt. Forum is meant for discussion. Why don't we engage with the existing one? It's really annoying to face such repetitive threads. Almost all of the threads regarding this issue are same.