Topic: Delete (Read 896 times)

WRONG! You don't have to beg for merit, don't have to find where merits are because merits will automatically find you at the right time, and of course at the right high-quality, constructive, original threads.
Right time, right threads/ topics, very important!
Please keep contributing, stay calm and wait till the right time and right threads.

I say that current merit system is kinda too harsh. Not that I was in a position to argue or cared more than by posting here but I still think Merit points are too rare in current system. There should be much more merit available for sending/receiving then there currently is. Since merit was implemented it is practically impossible to advance in the rank because users with low rank rarely being taken seriously and merit feels too valuable to spend for people who have no obvious way to regain it.

I have a feeling spendable merit should "regrow" over time (say 1 merit/day for full member).  Current system makes it feel too valuable to spend imo.

Am I reading it correctly? I guys you are joking 

By the way click here for reference.

Yeah, so much appreciated on this merit system now even though I also affected on this system because I stuck on this rank but still I'm brave to find a way to have single merit a day but it's so hard to notify our good quality post from the smerit source.
Hence, it was not come to my mind to buy smerit because I know that is breaking the law here and I don't want to break that law.

Besides for the most rank up problem, it brought a good image to our beloved forum. They easily eliminate all kind of farmers here.
I saluted you Sir theymos.

Eventually, due to effects of merit system, merit abusers, merit cheaters, merit exchangers, and merit farmers will be found; then all of them will be banned by forum moderators. With merit system, anyone in the forum can easily see the merit history of other users (both sent and received); hence strange merit movements will be found for sure. I have no doubt about the scenarios in which more and  more merit farmers/ account farmers will be discovered and cleared (wipen out) of the forum. Thanks Theymos for launching such a amazing anti-spamming system.

You really need to use English for this thread since it's not a local thread. By the way this is what I got from google translation 

Karena merit adalah sebuah patokan bagi seorang anggota untuk kenaikan pangkat mereka sehingga bagi orang yang tidak sabar dalam berproses mereka akan mengambil jalan pintas . Hal ini membuat persaingan anggota menjadi tidak sehat maka dari itu menurut saya merit tidak efektif dalam menilai seorang anggota karena ketika kita membeli merit meski post kita tidak berkualitas kita tetap mendapat merit maka dari itu sebaiknya merit dihapuskan saja.

Yes, this is insanity, but this is reality. Merit is now sold in the area of ​​20 - 30 dollars and there are crazy people who buy. But for me Merit is something more valuable than money. Perhaps any talented newcomer will offer in this thread how to resist the sale, purchase and exchange of Merit and will receive its first Merit. Let's make bitcointalk better together!

I was wondering how long it would take.  Well done sir.

I haven't been in the crypto space for very long but I will say bitcointalk.org is a little confusing at times with respect to its guiding principles (I'm being honest).  At times it seems like the forum is based on a free market where people are able to support/promote ideas/projects of their choice - just making sure it's in the right subsection (also a learning curve).  Then there are times where the free market upsets people i.e. this thread.  Then there are those that speak to the censorship and banning of accounts above and beyond just the shit posts.  

Like anything else in the crypto space, I fully understand it's a game of education and patience, although I'm happy to be on the big'ol crypto wheel now

I think that it is impossible for the admin and staff to catch all members involved with buying and selling of accounts or merits here. Only thing we can do is taking strict against spam posters. There should be clear guidelines  like a member making a particular number of low quality posts will get temporary ban and so. All the members here will have to contribute their part in this by submitting correct reports using the report to moderator option. That "report to moderator" options should carry some rewards like merits for accurate submissions.

$28 per merit I think is insane especially when you can easily make a quality post a send the link to charity merit (merit thread) givers to decide if it is worth it. I've noticed its mostly low ranking members that are faced with such dilemmas, and could give in. Advice is don't spend that much money, work hard like most old dogs on here did, and build a solid rep. Also try increasing your trust rating, it could compensate for not having merit at this point.

selling or buying merit is not against the rules,there will always be people who try to abuse ANY system in place
the thing is,they cannot just get away with it easily
if their posts are rubbish and they get 5-50 merits for an obviously spam post (or a "special" merit magnet topics as I call them)
the rules also do not prohibit for a D1-D2 trust member to waste their efforts by red tagging
don't know where the 28$ figure is coming from,but that is crazy

Brilliant, unhelpful post.   While you're right--and I've supported banning sig campaigns in the past--Theymos has already ruled out doing this.  I don't much care if I never was in one myself, and I agree that it's the only surefire way to kill all this shitposting.  And yeah I'm in one myself.  I learned 3 years ago that to refuse to get paid for something I'd be doing anyway is lunacy. 

And nixing campaigns would solve the merit-selling issue as well--but that problem is a distant second to shitposting anyway, though they're closely related.  I still think, and I wrote it before, that eventually the merit system will significantly reduce shitposting. 

And merit sources will hopefully not hand them out to scumbags who'll end up selling the sMerit.  This is going to take time, and it's still early on in the life of the merit system.

Can somebody translate the lines in that chat?
Especially where that account is mentioned.

Because I highly doubt that TradeFortress who is sitting comfy on a few thousand BTC is dealing in merit around here

simple, stop signature bounties it will stop

True, merit points should give out if someone deserves it, It's not for sell or buy. Unfortunately, some people trade merits points to get some money privately, but I hope that the moderators can find them and tag them all. I think this is not against the rules but this is not the goal that merit system created for. People should write great posts to get some points, there is no meaning if you will get points in shitty posts.

As long as you know you are being honest and not buying smerit, it is fine. To have merits, you must work hard learn more to improve yourself that way you can earn merits easily. I am not saying YOU WILL because we can't ignore the fact that not all of our quality posts will earn merits. You don't need to stop them from buying merits, it is their money it's not yours, it's their problem if they caught. The mods are responsible for them. Just work hard to improve your posts.

Stricter banning rules, then merit exchanges, trading will be stopped definitely. Stricter rules, easier to manage the forum and control spammers, merit farmers, merit exchangers. It's simple.
More mass merit farming
If stricter rules launched, merit farmers will recognise that they are under extremely high risks of banning, then they will probably change their approach. The only way they have to earn merits might be contributing to the forum. No choice!

Yeah, I think there are lot people buying and selling Merits around here in the forum. And one way to catch them is by baiting them. This is somehow similar putting a piece of cheese outside a mouse's hole then smacking the mouse using a sledge hammer when it comes out. I also admire the OP because he/she is honest. But it is much better if he/she reports those guys who want to sell Merits to him/her. $28 for one Merit? Seriously? You wiill need to spend $280 just to rank up to Member if you buy merits. Which can be done without wasting money by just creating high quality, helpful and unique posts.

Since we are discussing about baiting Merit traders here, if ever they found out or read about this. Im sure they will hide deep inside their holes   

really? I'm too lazy to find one, can you point me one of them?
as far as I know, having negative trust would get you kicked out of sig campaign
I'm not talking about negative untrusted feedbacks but trust feedbacks that really count
and I said sig camp not bounty campaigns like you pointed out
aren't those bounty campaigns requiring certain number of followers instead of forum's rank?

You've got the best point only bounty hunters wants to rank up immediately so I don't think there is a buyer of merits and they cannot afford that kind of price. If I were those buyers I'll just donate my money to charity, and why buy merits if we could just earn it free.

Yes, Merit was not created for sale. But the problem is that there is no guarantee that you will get merits. Even the writing of constructive and competent posts does not guarantee you that you will definetely receive a merit. Each participant of the forum is sure that his activity will increase. But no one can say for sure whether his merit will go up. It is this fear that you can remain a juniour member for a very long time (despite your activity, which allows you to move to a higher level) and pushes people to buy merits. The higher ranks see this as a way of earning, and the younger ones grasp in desperation for any opportunity to get merits. I do not think that this can be somehow corrected. At least for now. Until people are sure that they will receive merits and know what actions on their part will surely provide them it, they will buy merits and thereby violate the rules of the forum.

Supply and demand. Don't be so surprised, people will sell their mother for merit 
Without morals but not without brain.
Many users don't see bigger picture, many users still believe that bounty campaigns are worthless and people are earning cents while truth is that many users are earning $10K+ monthly.
Wadafak? Posting on forum isn't work.
Just look at how many negative tagged members are participating in bounty campaigns. 


From what I see merits are mostly exchanged between users, you know, scratch my back and I will scratch yours. They can't exchange merits with legendary members because legendary doesn't really need merit, so if they want merits from legendary they can either begg for it or buy it. Now, who is stupid enough to risk negative tag on legendary account for few bucks?

So, low supply, high demand and high risk = 28$ worth merit. Ok, I don't know whether that number from OP is accurate, but nothing surprise me here.

Who really promoted to sell and buy merits? Should this happen? This was brought to the screen completely for other reason. The smerit has to be given to  a quality post and it should come from one's account not from buying it. Kindly don't deviate it. Who allows people to sell their merits? Why no action is taken against them?

yeah, some stupid peoples insanity when merit is born
they try to make a shortcut with their own way
I think it's hard to prevent because they are capable

dancing with yourself is better than following them
get party

, but

I'm not sure why you think that I fish for merits. I'm one of the few members who gains no commercial benefit from the merit system. I'm a bit of a loose cannon, so it's always nice to know that I'm not too far off forum policy. The merit system is one way for me to gauge that, but that is about the only gain for me. Well merits do allow me to award sMerits, but that helps other members rather than me.

can you give us a link to it? expose it in the open, archive it and give us the link, just in case it gets deleted
I'm pretty sure DT will negs trust both the seller and buyer and no more sig camp for them
I just can't believe it, who is going to spend $20-28 for 1 merit?
100 merits = $2000 to get Full Member rank? or 500 merits = $10000 to get Hero Member rank?
even for the purpose getting better payment rate for higher rank, the cost is not economically sound

It's very unfair to those members who work very hard to get merit and these peole are just getting merits in an easy way. If we know someone who buy and sell merits let's report them.

You are an expert in fishing for merits in this section so you could be rich. Now that I think about it, hero and legendary accounts should be worth significantly more money now thanks to the merit system which indirectly contributes to stopping spammers because they will have to pay more.

So is a Hero account with 744 merit really worth $20,000?

I'll chuck in the domain name JetCash.com for 10 Bitcoin.

Note - this is not a serious offer, but intended to show the insanity of the current world.

Lol!
So the people that used to sell popcorns on roads for $5 a pack are now selling Merits in bitcointalk for $28 each  
Besides the pros and cons it carries, this system is gonna make a lot of people rich I must say ( if they manage to find some buyers [you can literally replace "buyers" with "fools" in this sentence, for this case] )

It is really good to be a good citizen working with their/our own asses rather than begging or trading/selling merits.
28 dollars, is a cheap, price, I'm also going to sell merit for 1bitcoin each. LOL.  it's better to avoid like this kinds of situations if ever somebody offer to anybody, better to report with screenshot for evidence.

Its kinda unfair with those who work hard to get it. Hope they'll get ban as well as the seller of merits.

It is side effect of a new system implementation, people will always find a way and solution for their improvement. Same with merit that us created for improvement, merit buyer did that for their perspective improvement. I think to stop this phenomenon will not be easy as long as there is demand and supply, the transaction will happen.

I gave you a merit for this post
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/china-will-block-all-sites-related-to-cryptocurrency-and-ico-2890839

I did this for a couple of reasons. You make a lot of posts in the alt sections, and I passed over those. Your real posts are articulate and apposite, but you are posting on low activity boards. The post that I awarded merit is in the legal section for example. Do any merit awarders visit thaat board?

The other reason that your post was of benefit to me is that it has made me think about some of the less well frequented boards. I will certainly look through the legal section later today. Maybe one of the few weaknesses of the merit system is that valuable resources such as the legal board are being ignored. Forum members with merit to award can rectify this, and maybe we should encourage them to visit those boards.

I know even you is only new in this forum you know the rules and regulation of this forum, since merit is not for sale you should report who are wanting to help you to rank up by selling merit to you, merit is not need to gives to people who are not contribute in the community it should be given to those member who deserve to have it.

A $28 for a single merit?! So expensive. I wonder why some users would rather spend a lot of money for merits when it can be earned for free by making quality posts at the first place. I also wonder if did they even consider the return of investment after buying? Because for me it's not worthwhile. Anyway, I can't blame them because even me find hard to earn but I still do believe that is not a valid reason to do such act because as far as I know it is not morally good. I feel pity to those buyers because they are so desperate.

Oh! who is selling the merit??
If you found someone please report to the moderators of the forum.
We have to take serious actions because for low ranked members like us, we don't find benefit of this merit system. it is benefit to only those people who are corrupted and sell their merits, if it really happen.
There are still some generous members in the forum who give merit to the quality pots, No matter at what position you are right now.
Those generous people are also disrespected due to selfish people. I also saw many post like this.
If it really happens, then we need help from upper ranked members and their advice how we can stop it.
I think Some generous members will definitely help us.
Thanks for the information.

I think an obvious solution is to offer merit rewards to those reporting merit sellers to get them kicked. 1 merit per merit seller kicked. Reporting merit sellers is merit worthy in my opinion.
Yeh ironic I know, but when money is involved you need to create a financial incentives to direct it's value, it's just how it works.
And no, I'm not offering to report merit sellers for merit, or wanting merit in general, or have any merit to offer.

Who are you exactly referring to as we here? nigger you are overselling, we are getting free merits in airdrops by theymos. you could as well get an easy 1 merit if you could show your 19 years old sister to me, you will get 1 merit only after successfully delaying my inevitable burst of *com.

When somebody buys merits, how could they keep joining bounties, campaigns and earn money by garbage posting? if you have money to throwaway, donating them to the forum would be considered a contribution. if not today, someday any undeserved-bought merits would join the ignored/deleted/off limits and you could get tagged almost immediately.

Beggar, I'm afraid to merit random members, some of them have been tagged by Lauda and other respected DT members. I wouldn't dare selling merits(either my own or my source merits) even if I could. if there are desperate members who'd pay more than $10 per merit, I would encourage you to publicly state that you are going to buy merits out of desperation and then sign a message with the address containing the funds.

If you need a shortcut to get some merits for signature campaigns and you could accept the **terms, you should have no problem getting merits with money. I will not take any money from you, nor will I give you any merits, I would simply mention your situation at the next board meeting where theymos would attend to discuss the forum. if he agrees on selling merits and you agree to the terms, you'll have your legit merits.

Now lets lol.
*you know what I meant.
** terms: 1)- No signature allowed for a week. 2)- I could have the power of banning you for 2 months if you were garbage posting.

No matter how unsympathetic this may sound, the market of merit exists. For example, they now offer 19 Merit at a price of $ 20 per 1.

What a nice move, setting yourself as a bait is a good technique to catch who's the real guilty. Well, I already expected that kind of sceneario due to hard earning of merits so it's not shocking to know that such kind of transaction really happens.

I admire you for being honest and obedient member of this forum. I suggest you to report those accounts to get punishment. Don't be afraid because you are on the side of truth (unless they knew your identity and might revenge).

Is that real? 28$ for a merit, who willing to pay?

From what i could see, you have only been concentrating on earning through those bloated facebook and twitter accounts. More than half of your post count consists of "Reports". You are already going to get some of those tokens for that. What more do you expect?

If you really want to earn 'merit', then first stop viewing Bitcoin and the forum solely from those money-tinged lenses.
There are lot of people running challenges and such to review your posts. Spend sometime looking for them. People are even offering merit for doing some detective work if you think your posts can't be enough. A good place to look would be Joel_Jantsen's Merit Distribution Thread (Newbies Welcome).

You may FEEL entitled to merit but with your current level of posting/ knowledge, sadly, you are not.

Any of the new members who fall for buying merit will find themselves in a vicious circle of shitposting and paying for merit.
The steps in the vicious circle are simple:
1. Not getting any merit because your post history is mainly "Quote in Quote" Reports.
2. Buy 10 merit for, say, 150$ to upgrade to Member.
3. Join as many campaigns as possible to recover the investment now.
4. Make pointless posts to complete count and again get your post history filled with Reports.
5. Back to Step 1.

For anyone willing to work on this, I suggest take a 2-week break from the campaigns. Just read and learn about bitcoins. Read the book, the core blog, the Satoshi institute website, maybe even try running a full node. Find you forte and knowledge well with which you can make substantial posts.
Otherwise, there is no use in being a cry baby. Help yourself so the forum can help you.

I think if there are no member that are willing to buy it, there will be no seller. However, it is really nice idea to report anyone who is selling it.

I think this is expected by the admins to happen, that is why we can report them easily to the admins and then soon will be punished, so the only way we can contribute here is to caught and report them, in their way they just put their accounts in a risky situation and possibly get banned.

Such a thing should be actionable, when there is someone who sells merit point then he has violated the justice and also has made a negative stigma against the forum. Should people who buy also blamed because when they can get a merit when they can make a quality post. Indeed the actors of merit exchanges can still be found, our current task is not to help the bad guys who try to sell merit, besides our active role to be able to inform all the information to the moderator is also a thing worth doing. Because when we can uncover a bad case then we can improve the credibility and quality of this forum.

$28 for one merit. Are you serious? I don't think so, my friend.
You can earn merit by contributing to the forum through your constructive posts. Getting merits by contribution, don't have to spend money to get them.
Furthermore, merit exchanging violates forum rules and destroys the original objectives of merit system. And you know what? Sooner or later, you will be found by admin, moderators or by other users in the forum, then your account will be under high-risk of banning (temporary or permanent depends on level of abusement).
Good luck my friend.

lmao

I also saw Beyonce for a few moments but she was in a hurry, I couldn't consummate with her. here you go with one lol. if you are believing the OP, you should believe me too. he probably was in a telegram group, where garbage posters usually go to reorganize and has probably heard a greedy high rank member offering a rip off deal to some of the newbies.

If anybody would like to buy merits in bulk for $2 per merit, theymos would only generate +1 Million. you would need to offer $2,000,000 dollars. or you could just donate $50 to a forum's Bitcoin address and then sign a message with the address you are donating with in a post on this thread, I will not then go through your posts to find the meritorious ones and will not merit any of them. you would be donating with nothing in return. we will accumulate all the donations and reward the top 3 members except admin, staffs, and Chipmixer participants (what was that don DarkStar? why shouldn't we reward your birds? they're already earning most of the money from signature campaigns, they have 50 out of 77 merit sources as their own friends, it would be unfair for anybody rejected by you. don you are literally a don DarkStar_leone of this community).

No body is willing to donate without expecting something in return? of course I'm aware of the signature/ess challenge with so many generous sponsors, donating $10 up to $25 for a week, but most importantly, there are sure merit sponsors. no matter what happens, somebody would receive merits and a cash prize on top. brilliant idea, not only I'm going to earn merits for my contribution, I'm not even paying any money for it, in fact I'm getting paid to earn merits by contributing. I'm not earning merits just by contributing. full stop lol.

I have been on the bitcointalk platform for quite some time now and have been wondering how people get merits.I have tried to contribute meaningfully to discussions, I am yet to receive any merit point.I kind off resigned to fate.Your information is very revealing and at the same time very sad.I think the merit system should be reviewed or some other method introduced to make it fairer when distributing such points.Those who sell merits should be punished.Merits points should be made available to new comers.I will still ask here,How do I get some merits point?I am overdue for the next upgrade.Thanks for the write up

Today I saw how they offered to sell Merit and for an extra fee to write a quality post that the bitcointalk administration did not suspect ... I created this topic to discuss how we can improve Merit in order to eliminate such precedents ...

While its not against the rules to buy/sell merit (unless you are a merit source) its frowned upon, others have said it and I don't need to rehash that.

What I can say, is that if someone is sending you unsolicited PMs, that IS however against the forum rules, so if you report their message, they will be banned.

Jesus H. Christ!  $28 for a single merit?  That's like the black market rate for a Suboxone strip, a similar crazy-ass markup (and no, I don't participate in either black market).  I'm stunned.

OP, there are trusted users here who can see pretty easily when merits are not being given in good faith, i.e., are being bought or exchanged between alt accounts, and these users (like actmyname & Lauda, and I'm sure there are more) are tagging these morons.  As long as it takes a clean trust score to participate in campaigns, all is well with the world.  These jizzbags think they're going to get away with it, but they're wrong.  They're not going to get away with it, just like they don't get away with copy/pasting.  Big brother is watching, homies, and this time here it ain't the government.  DT folks are on pa-TROLL.  *Slips back from Huge Black Woman Mode*

I'm curious as to who is offering to sell merit here.  I know all the idiot noobs are willing to buy it, but I'm wondering if we've got old-timers here who are selling merit points in bad faith, against the spirit of what the merit system is about.
A loser with more money than brains or morals--and there are quite a few on bitcointalk from what I've seen.

Buying Merits will be useless. You would still need to make quality posts to where your merits will be given. If not, the merit that will be given to you will be suspicious.

Though we can not rely on reporters of merit abusers, we should let the users realize that there is more than just earning here in the forum. Thank you because you are not one of them.

$28 for one merit is mad. That values a Legendary account at $28,000, I've given away more than $5,000 of merit so far.

What sort of loser would pay that amount of money for something that he could get for nothing if he made a bit of an effort..

I think that you yourself can easily find it in the telegram, many who sell and buy Merit! Many just change to multiply ... I think it's bad

I think the sale of Merit is damaging the bitcointalk. I can not sell everything, I think Merit is more than money. Not for sale Merit created ...

At 28$ per merit I would break the law. Jk don't report me.

I don't think it's that big of a problem, if someone receives a big quantity of merits at once it's usually very easy to identify if they send it to themselves or bought it in any case. People have been able to buy accounts legally in this forum for years and it was never stopped.

Good for you.  You've taken the first steps to becoming a citizen by not breaking the law.
The next step is to report those accounts that offered to sell it to you...  :/

I propose here to discuss the objectives and the results of Merit. Why I touched on this question.
I and many new users are faced with the fact that for promotion you need to somehow get Merit.
I began to read a lot about this and ask people about how they got Merit.
I was touched by the fact that many newcomers tend to buy Merit, and do not deserve it from other users, offering quality posts.
I learned the situation about buying Merit, and easily found willing to sell me Merit at a price of $ 28 for 1.
I can afford to buy, but this is against the worthy goal of "Merit". Merit is more than money!
As you see Merit, I did not buy it!