Topic: Curiosity about being merited for a comment on a 4-months old locked thread. (Read 196 times)

Not really, I only tend to look at that list when I'm piling up with merits, and new source allocation is coming up which would result in me losing some. Although, most threads that are in that list, are actively discussed since they're usually good quality discussions, and therefore I just happen upon them again.

The list isn't also regularly maintained, and for the above reason a lot of the posts I've happened upon again with regular browsing, and likely merited it already. So, the list rarely gets used, especially since recently I've been making a conscious effort to exhaust my merit allocation every month.

That's a real sense of responsibility that you did not miss to merit a post even when you are out of merits. Keeping track of all those good posts is a work itself.

My philosophy is I merit good posts, regardless of if a user has reached a rank or the maximum rank. I don't even consciously look at what rank or how many merits you need. I try not to let that play a part. Anyhow, I can't remember exactly how I got to your old posts, but I do tend to read a lot of old posts. Especially, when I'm on break or not actually logged in, that's when I usually just go on a reading spree, I mentally note down good posts, and once I'm back at my computer, I go on these little merit sprees for posts I can remember. I'd say most threads in a day, I've read in certain sections, and then it's simply just logging in, and refreshing my memory.

I also use the merit statistic page as suchmoon suggested, I use pretty much all of them, most merited recent threads, and most merited replies. Not only because I'm also looking to merit them, but because I want to be reading what has been deemed some of the best posts recently.

I don't usually crawl through post histories looking for merit per say, unless a certain user has piqued my interest. I do sometimes as above, set a certain period of time to merit posts I've previously read, and wasn't logged in at the time. For example, when in work or out, and about, but whenever I get a spare moment you can bet your buck I'm browsing the forum on the phone while not logged in.

However, I do believe I saw some of your posts linked in one those threads which report good posts, that might have been it. I can't really remember, I've slept since then .

Right, I also have a fairly large list of posts, which I tend to add to when I'm out of merit. I used to this with reports too, when I wasn't logged in I'd make a note for later.

This topic got me curious how many old posts I Merit. I looked it up, and these are the 10 oldest posts I've Merited this year (in 2022):
So did I. Let's see the 10 oldest posts Merited by Welsh this year:

I guess that's the way Welsh hands out merits. I think I have been on the receiving end of his style a few times in the past as well. He is not the only one that does it. Last night I got merited for some posts I made in January and February. Those are not as old as the ones you got merits for, but they are still not posts you expect to see on the first couple of pages in a sub-forum.

It's very likely that Welsh makes bookmarks or lists of posts that he will merit at one point in the future. Maybe when he has more time on his hands or when his source merits fill up again. If you look at his stats today, he gave out a bunch of merits from 03:18 AM - 03:25 AM. You can see similar patterns before that as well. He doesn't hand out merits every day, but when he does, there are multiple receivers in a quick succession. 

Sometimes I get merited for an old post and that makes me take a second look at the thread the post was written in. What I notice is that some members bumped that discussion, which takes the thread to the top of the board. And because people usually read what is on the top on a sub-forum, they look through the older posts and not just the most recent one and award some merits if they like what they see.     

I know it wasn't me who gave you the merits, but what you described above could be a reason why any old comment receives merits way after it was originally written--just look at all the merits satoshi's posts have earned.  He hasn't posted in over a decade.

Sometimes if I'm doing a post history review for someone or if I'm looking to give out merits to help someone close to their next rank, I'll do a deeper dive than I normally would and sometimes I'll hand out merits for posts made months ago.  It might look unusual if you're paying attention to which posts of yours got merits, but to me it's just kinda normal. 

Plus there could be members reading old threads for educational/entertainment purposes, and they might merit old posts.  I've done that as well.

Thats make sense.

That happened too. I had some post before got merited even though its so far already from recent post and even too far literally. I guess those are the one that generously giving merits to someone for their helpful and being active member, that guy finding the best one in your profile to give merits.

You see, I was aware of that thread, and in the past used it myself to report posts by other members that I thought were worthy of merit, but it had not occurred to me that someone had dug into my post history (and that of others) to report several of my posts as deserving more merit:


That member, Despairo, must have spent a lot of time diving through the post histories of several of us and received quite a bit of merits for it.

The merit in question was given to you by Welsh, a moderator. I have also received merit from him for old posts of mine.

I don't know why Welsh merits old posts as he does. It is possible he is responding to reports of a post in that thread. It is also possible he is just reading old threads, either because he is searching for threads about a particular topic, or is reading a particular person's posts/threads and reading the entire thread.

Welsh merited several posts in a short time around the time when you received the merit you are questioning, many of which were fairly old. My guess is that he was likely reading old threads and merited posts he thought were deserving of merit.

Those merits that you received as a bump to 1000 made the two threads show up near the top in your recent merit history:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=2836461

If Welsh was looking for good posts I'd say that would have been a good place to start instead of going through the entire post history.

I've had similar instances before, not necessarily on a locked thread but on a "dead" thread that hasn't received any replies for months and months.

My very rough guess: some peeps just really likes reading around; and if one of those kinds of peeps gets intrigued by one of your threads/replies, they might dig through your older posts because why not.

You can bookmark [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source and take some reported unmerited posts by forum members[/url]. It saves your time but sure not all good unmerited posts are reported there.

Or in The future of Bitcointalk: Low Ranking Top Merit earners in the past 30 days

I am thinking of another way, if you want to aim at a specific member. Check their merit distribution over boards/ sub-boards with Ninjastic.space; get their most merited boards; check their posts in that board in which the user earned most of merit.

Example:

• Your most merited boards https://ninjastic.space/user/id/2836461?merits
• Then I go to your posts in Economics board: https://ninjastic.space/search?author=Poker%20Player&board=7

Probably it is one of methods scan for potential good posts.

Maybe, just maybe, it is. Or someone linked your comment to someone's thread asking the same or related to the question.

By seeing your merit history welsh did gave you same amount of merit on old replies, maybe he's a fan of yours or a stalker? Kidding aside, I guess that's how a merit source do when someone often make quality posts.

I wasn't sure where to open this thread, I guess meta is the most appropriate place.

Recently I have been given merits for a comment in a thread that I locked 4 months ago.

Some were given to me when I was just a few merits short of 1000, and I see the point that there are forum members who try to help you when you are just a few merits short of the merits needed to get to the next level. Thanks for that to those who gave me merits. But it's just that today I saw that Welsh also gave me merits for this and another old post when I had already reached the requirement.

As I say it's just a curiosity, but how did you get to that comment? Diving through all the posts?  I doubt if there is any way to find poorly merited quality posts among someone's post history in a quick way.

I remember that when I wrote it I was a few days without receiving any merit for it.