Topic: Do you merit based on post or on the account history? (Read 1473 times)

Nothing is definitely - it all depends on theymos. You should know - there are many merit source applications currently pending, almost all of which are good contributors to the forum. So how can you say that for definitely?

There are many reasons - one of which is probably the easiest to say is that you are no better than other applicants based on theymos ratings. If so - you still failed to become one of them.

If you want to be useful - then contribute in any way including being a user who reports low quality posts, spam or fraud. Every 2 merit you receive from other users you can spend 1 sMerit to other user on community - it depends on who you send them to. So don't just stick to merit sources - even if you are not a merit source you can still spend merit like most other users.

Yes, if you can keep up your hard work and explore the forum a lot, after gaining enough knowledge, if you try it, then you can definitely become a Merit Source. There is no reason why you cannot become a Merit Source because if you can move forward well with your quality and quantity, then you can definitely become one.

But it was good to see your distribution system because to reach those who are not able to reach the next rank due to a few merits, such a post has been created in the forum, if they want that help, they can get help from there. Since you also said that you will help them, I like it, try it, you can also.

I don't think anyone will give merit because they are newbie and need it, we were all newbie and remember how difficult it was at the beginning, when every merit was of great importance to us.

Good observation, I agree with you that users are more willing to give merit if this post has been previously rated by another user. I don't know why this happens, maybe there are users who are not sure how exactly they should rate posts and even those posts that they found useful they won't rate either. I also noticed that there are fans who are more loyal to each other, maybe they enjoy communicating with each other, maybe they found a common language, or maybe they are even friends in real life, I don't know the reasons, but they definitely exist. )

There may be a case when you don't have a lot of merits and you need to choose only a few posts, that you consider the most useful.

This case is especially often when someone's post has been marked with merits by well-known forum members with high ranks. Then it is believed that since they have recognized someone's post as worthy, then others should do the same. But I am personally against such a herd instinct, because I do not like rank worship since it is often not justified. Moreover, such behavior blinds us to the fact that the system of merits, no matter how hard we try to find some common criteria inherent in all those who give merits, always remains subjective. And everyone who has sMerits can give them to anyone and for anything, if they consider it appropriate in their own system of coordinates.

I could give merit to any user for many reasons which may depends on my judgement at the time. Am not really a fan of profile check before awarding merits, and also, I know that in few cases I have dished out a few merits out of sympathy specifically to newbies thread and reasons for that are best known to me.

The bottom line is that provided a post makes sense to the individual in any special way that it's not stupid then there's no harm in leaving a merit on it if one so desire.

One thing have also observed in the forum is that some users easily gives merit to a post that have been merited by another user already, maybe because they think that if such a post has received merit already then it must be a good and quality post so let me add to the number. I may be wrong about this though as it's just an observation.

But even if so, then what? Firstly, it may be related to the fact that the person wrote more in local threads and simply did not appear in the main sections, so you may not have heard of him. And it is difficult to check the history of local posts due to the language barrier.

Secondly, sometimes  chasing some merit or trying to join a signature campaign can become a pretty strong incentive to write better and higher quality posts. And if this motivation works, then I don’t see any problems.

In the end, almost all those who are believed to be good posters on the forum do not disdain to participate in signature campaigns. And if someone is taken there, it means that it is at least somewhat deserved. No matter how one feels about signature campaigns, they really contribute to improving the quality of posting, especially considering that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get into them.

If you say so I wouldn't argue anymore because there are politics everywhere and any place politics doesn't show up it then means that world is not complete yet. The thing is i know is very hard to accept the truth because overly we felt that people are not becoming constructive neither are they doing the right thing to earn them merits, but if you look you would see that they are making efforts.

You missed the jokes - it was an obvious mistake, keyboard auto correction can be ass sometimes. He wanted to type "ignore" button not invite.

Both hold a valid reason for merit and also depends on the reputation of the user...if someone has a good standing around the forum and their post quality or forum contribution is  generally known then their post history needs no review,  but anybody that pops out from nowhere and then makes a good post..personally I will be interested to see if he/she is consistent with their post style and not chasing some merit or trying to join a sig campaign.

In norms merit is supposed to be given due quality post, and also sympathy, the sympathy aspect of it is a help some forum members render to other user that make them to rank up, for example, a member that had eight [8] merits and it remains two [2] merits to rank to full members, a full members that had two hundred and forty fifive merits [245] and is remaining five [5] merits to rank up to senior members, same application to Hero Member and legendary member, so can rank the person up without been bothered, but right now it hardly before someone will review someone profile and merit good quality post, because I could remember vividly during when I was a member and full members, sometimes you wake up and see merit on your profile, and when you check the merited post, is like a previous post you made sometimes ago..suchmoon has done that to me, even Ratimov during his stays in the forum and so many I couldn't remember, so you can only merit except you have merit fans or merit club.

I didn't say past history, I said past merit history, as in the merits that particular user gave or didn't give to others. I explained what I do in my previous post, so there is no need to repeat it now. I obviously don't need to check people I already know and those who are using the merit system to merit others. My quick checks are reserved for users I don't yet know.

This community is getting corrupt when you come to earning merit, and also sending out merit, now most people give out smerit to people they know, they don't merit base on you're qualified to earn merit, it's few people in these bitcointalk that merit users for free, politics have changed the system of merit sharing or merit earning this community.

The percentage of people whom received merit through response is not up to 8%, compared to before almost 78% users received free merit through replies.

Having Fan has changed the forum, because right now merit is been given not earned. You can not earn merit freely, except you belong to club with few people.

Personally I think merit is given depending on the post. I don't think anyone bothers about his past history while giving merit because quality posts are always given more priority when giving merit. I don't think there is any need to check a person's past history to get merit for posting good quality. Especially I never do this because I give merit only when I see that he has good quality posts and I give him merit if he posts something that deserves merit.

Hey Op, What you said is fine but I don't understand how you intend to invite the user if they keep posting locality or crap. By inviting them or what to do, they seem to be posting bad posts or posts of locality, then what to invite them, tell a little about this matter here.
And if you invite them, will they try to hide their posts from you? I don't think it will be possible. But if they post like this then they will not be able to earn merit that's fine but how will you be able to hide their post from you?

I also don't understand how he would invite this but I think they will be warned about inviting or he will warn them not to do this next time so they won't post like this again they will be warned. In this way, their posts may be hidden and not exposed. But I don't know how it will be, I think it may or may not happen.

How you want to combine posts and user past history to gain merit seems ambiguous to me because there are many users who post much better quality posts in the past whose posts benefit others and become a household name nowadays. There is no need to know their history because they are already familiar faces. By familiar face I mean they are one of the best creative people in the forum. So there is no need to relearn their history when their posts come up, I feel like their quality posts are merited.

On the other hand you will see when a member is offline for some time for his own needs then he comes back and after coming back he starts posting good quality here many people don't know about his past history but they will give him merit for his good quality posts so to me. The point seems to be to gain merit by looking at the current posts, no one is going to scrutinize the history of the past so much.

It's a combination of the post and past merit history of the user whose post I intend to merit. If the user has collected at least 10 merits, I expect them to become part of the merit system. That means meriting posts of other users they consider to be merit-worthy. If they don't want to do that, 9/10 times I won't merit that post despite initially wanting to do it. I have mentioned this several times. Be a team player. It only takes a couple of seconds.

I merit posts based on how I feel they relate to my thought process. Those posts don't even need to agree with my position but they've to be on something that strikes me as meaningful contributions. The only way I look at anyone's post history is if I want to merit more of their posts and that's after meriting the one that caught my attention. I review to see if they're more to merit from them. That's the way I do mine. I choose quality over sentiment.

I usually don't check account when giving merits, except in rear cases when I noticed something suspicious about specific member, like using AI generating tools and for some newbie accounts.
Merits needs to be spent but I prefer spending them on something good rather than randomly.

Which party are you inviting them to? "Ignore" button you mean?  Lol

I merit based on the post, not the account history. However, that doesn’t mean an account history can’t keep them from receiving merits. For example, if a user is constantly spouting nonsense takes or spreading misinformation, I will likely hit the invite button on them. That will keep their posts hidden from me in the future and thus unable to receive merits.

Out of approximately 24 merits you have given in the last 180 days, 2 went to those who were either banned or their topic was deleted. If you have sMerits then do focus on the Indian local board which is primarily in English. I would be highly thankful as we do not create topics or replies that can get deleted by the mods. We create topics and reply to those topics that are relevant. As we do not have anyone from the global merit source helping us I have pointed out your efforts to counter our local board work or you can call it as a comparison. Thanks for reading it as I am a fan of your replies.

Admiration is exactly the word that best describes some users' attitudes toward some arrogant and high-ranking users. To be honest, I see this as a form of blind worship for authority that often clouds critical thinking. Not all high-ranking users who have been on this forum for a long time truly deserve merits or any respect at all. Some of them have very weak arguments, lack communication manners, and delusionally consider themselves untouchable.

In reality, they often do more harm to the community than provide any valuable contributions. So I would say that blind admiration brings nothing good. Giving merits to users just because they have a well-known username is unreasonable. Interestingly, some users who do this believe that it will attract attention to them, thinking it would be great if these famous users sent them merits back. But in most cases, that doesn’t happen, as these high-ranking users are so self-assured that they don’t feel the need to acknowledge anyone else besides those similar to them.

Personally, I would say 'yes' because whoever is getting merit is definitely getting merit by showing his talent or creativity. I think there's no way to look at it both ways because he's getting merit in his efforts through creativity. Her post is better than mine, creativity shines and that's why she gets merite.

And you said about the local board is of course by exposing them in his native language in terms of home facilities and everything he will understand it better if he understands or learns from there. He can get the qualification, you are right I agree with you on this. Agree on the matter. Because we are like other people when we read a post on our local boards, we understand the posts very well, meaning we have no problem.

The only reason for reporting in fillippone threads is that many times we skip important posts. Which were actually merited posts. But they got no merit in those posts so they report to get merit. From fillippone's thread we can see that many important posts deserve merit but are not merited. However, through eight threads they can qualify by presenting their qualification quality full post which is definitely a good thing.

Yes, but anyway merits something to be given to people when their post found pleasing our helpful to people, but I wouldn't go further as I can't judge what anyone has decided to do with their merits provided the poster is worth receiving then fine it should be given. Like what theymos said.

In my opinion, others received merits because of how they resposne but you are correct on one point. They are fan of the users talking or maybe due to that status of the one posted. Clearly some admire most high ranking users that even though they dont need such merits still they received it.

Id say reputation relate to the merits given to some users. Others based on true quality. Depends, on each preferences. But theres no harm in that since its always their decision in the end.

Does it mean that those that are receiving merits are more creative and constructing in their post than the others in your own judgement? To me I will basically say 'No' because some of those who earned enough merits are just a fan of particular users due to either mutual understanding or maybe as you said from local board due to language advantages.

That is why you see some local board with poor allocations mostly reports their post to fillippone thread for a review and if they had enough there wouldn't had be a day were you would see people pipeline application just to make sure their post are being noticeable to receive merits.
But then, other thing I noticed is activeness because none would accept to merits inactive no low efforts accounts because they just posted except in some cases were there's a spree then such profile can receive merits.

I do, bud!

tbh, everyone has different perception when it comes to sending sMerits. For me, I do check whether it was merited by global members or not. I normally don't check feedbacks but only merit exchange history. Another rule that I follow is, I always give only 1 sMerit per posts, no more than that. Things I like, things I'm interested in, I try to merit those. For example, technical and coding stuff.

You should check where they came from. You should check their merit history to understand who has been sending merits to them and to whom they send merits. If you do not see any reputed or known forum members' names in their merit history list, then you should understand that that account probably belongs to an alt farm, and they have been abusing merits.

I have seen a lot of accounts like that which I mentioned above. However, since we do not have proof of multi-accounting and abusing the merits, we cannot say anything to them. All you can do is stop sending merits to them and ignore them. I am sure you know some of them as well.

If you say there is nothing wrong with both methods, then I don’t think you’re being blunt enough to call out what could I sense to have been the theme of the thread.
I say this because, merits was basically supposed to stimulate quality posting and when one merits based on profile, you don’t help the system in archiving its aim.
I wouldn’t say I haven’t been guilty of this, that would be some lie but then, some factors do cause this and that would be, having to be more focused on local boards where you feel there isn’t just enough merits in circulation due to merit source and allocations.
Even then, the merits are still based on posts but, you’ll find a certain group of users getting them merits more than others.

I give merit for a specific post, especially if it's for the first time and I haven't interacted with this user before. But I also notice that I tend to give more merits to users I know "personally," with whom I frequently engage in discussions and generally already know what and how they write, when I am familiar with their style. That is, I don't look at the post history before awarding merit for a specific post. However, I indirectly take it into account when it comes to familiar users.

Well, you can only speak for yourself and that's obviously what you did, but I'mma tell you that People do things for way way more supererogatory reasons. That can involve prioritizing personal friendships and relationships when running on a merit spree.
I really dunno what to say precisely to this; honestly, I've known you to merit post that is duly qualified with substantial facts, predicated in reverse knowledge and advanced discoveries/observations(This isn't a type of flattery whatsoever to seek for merit, I'm tryna prove a point).

That don't mean you don't get to be a little generous with low-ranked members most of times (which you don't hesitate if you find a suitable one...) regardless of what their post history looks like, as long as that post carries semantic load.

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If y'all distinguishing people strictly by what they were and how stupid they'd go about things most of the times, without considering their little efforts, how does anyone embrace change as a CULTURE which y'all portray then?

Technically your suggestion should be correct. However base on the current condition of merit distribution @Sexylizzy2813 is correct on his assumption since that’s what a merit sender wants to send merit.

I just want to add that earning merit in local board with a merit source is easier than earning here in global. I think your suggestion is fit on local board merit distribution criteria not in the global thread.

The reason why merit sources open or create threads and ask users to submit merit-worthy posts is that it is literally impossible for a person to find enough posts to merit, especially if you have a quota that you want/have to distribute. This makes it easier for them to find and merit posts that are good enough instead of having to visit every section and every thread for that.

Another good reason for opening such a thread as a merit source is that users will submit posts that might not be easily found because of them being posted on pages that are long gone and a source or even a normal user would barely read all the pages of a thread only to find which posts are worth giving merits.

Not really, all you need to do is be yourself and be helpful, on-topic, have something unique that you can contribute in a topic, and have the ability to express your thoughts in a good manner that wouldn't give readers a hard time understanding what you are trying to say.

If you talk about merit source on how they give out merit you have to know that many of them, I mean the merit source have their own ways of issuing out merit to members in the Forum, some open thread and you have the rules to follow before they give out merit, some you message for review but it ended months ago. For other members who merit the post of others in the Forum, I think some merit are base on how strong and informative the posts are while some do it base on how consistent the poster has been because is not all the time we have a post that has that quality the Forum requires and again is difficult to get merit these days, you have to start thinking outside the box, much is required to earn merit.

It should vary from case to case. A single good posts and some merits won't change a person. I have seen this multiple times. The opposite happens as well. Let's say you found a good post from a spammer and decided to send him a merit. Unfortunately, that spammer does not have the ability to understand the difference between a good post and a spam garbage. Otherwise, they could have learn from the senior members post. If you send them a merit, they will be encouraged to spam further and start creating merit fishing threads. I know one of my local who managed to become a full member just by doing merit fishing even though he is a complete shit poster. But after getting a couple of neutral feedback for shit posting, he gave up. The goal is not to let them grow.

I do that because time is the most important and valuable asset we have. Why should I get into a debate with someone who is not ready to change his views on any topic? Especially when his views disgusts me… It is a complete and utter waste of time. (and money too) If a dude is making 90% of his posts the same shitty way, I ain’t got no time to read the other questionably good 10% of his posts. (and that’s a very optimistic estimation btw)

And I don’t make my decision after reading only one post from that account. No, that doesn’t make any sense. It should be a long series of shitposting.

I do both. Some times it is the post sometimes it is the poster.

just why am i obligated to see/read someones posts when they have been proved to be worthless by prior posts?

my ignore list is so big the forum errors when i go to the list in my profile. and its thats big for a reason.. but it takes a fair bit to get on it.

I already posted in the thread just as many others but it the OP did not address the points or engage. He seems to be busy posting quite a lot elsewhere but not here. Is it appropriate to conclude that he seems to have forgotten to the lock the thread? When OPs leave threads is that a good sign to indicate the thread is no longer really needed?

That's good of you, some persons when they come across of post of some users maybe the rely of the person is not reasonable enough for them to understand, they will because of 2 or 5 posts of the person and condemn all the posts of the person by putting the user on ignore list, for me is improper, someone who you think that he or post lack value another person may come across of the post and find meaning on the person's posts, sometimes I read posts twice or three times to make sure I comprehend the exact message the person is passing to us,

when you read only once you may conclude that the person is writing trash because you have not understood the passage very well, at least a good reader need to read passage twice before you come to conclusions, besides each country has different ways of spoken English language, except England in which English language is their native language any other country adopt English language as official language...merit should be given by what you understand from someone article, I can count so many that was writing shitpost during their time of newbie, but if you visit their profile currently you will see that theirs transformation in them.

I think the history of the account affects my decision a bit. If an account constantly posts  crap then it is likely he is not going to post anything that interests me in the future so I do ignore the account in question completely anyway. When I do that, I can't give any merits to his "good" posts as I won't be seeing it.

Some accounts though post crap occasionally but I don't ignore them as sometimes they make good posts too. When I read these posts, I give them merits. I don't hodl any grudges  against these accounts even though sometimes they post absolute shit.

Long story short, I do ignore people if they are only posting shit. I don't do that when they sometimes post shit and yes, I give merits to their good posts.

Merits is based on posts and not the profile behind the post. But when it's a new account a merit source could look into the profile and send more merits if needed.

These days newbies that are trying to make good posts are intimidated by bullies.

The forum is fine but the members therein have different characters and different understanding of the forum. So, no one will actually control anyone.

After analyzing the quality of the post, merit is given as a reward for that post. Forum activity and merit system mainly play an effective role for users intellectual ability and rank up.

Everyone may have a different opinion about giving merit to a post. Also my opinion is that I want to help the younger ones in the early stages who are waiting for their next rank. I don't know if I will ever be a merit source in this forum but if ever I am lucky enough to achieve it , I will distribute merit to every board in the forum like these three members @fillippone, @hugeblack and @The Cryptovator.

Personally I like to send merit because am not merit saver so I like it but when I sent merit then firstly read this post when I understand those post maintain quality and quantity then I sent my sMerit. Am as a fresher member then I haven't enough sMerit then I can't sent merit when I earn sMerit then I go to her previous good post then sent merit.

Merit system is very extraordinary and important system for us because everyone send merit good quality post then I find out which post is good post. When I saw the merit transaction then I think it's quality post so others reputable member merit. Forum merit system really amazing for us I believe it.

Yes, post quality is subjective because what you think is quality and deserves 2 to 5 merit may not be considered quality by other users. There are various reasons why they sometimes don't appreciate it, one of which is because the users is on the ignore list or anything else. Some users also have a habit of sending merit to whoever gave they merit, it's a kind of mutually beneficial behavior, but it is also done on posts that are considered quality.

To be honest, both.

Firstly, If I like a post then I try to merit it. And secondly, If I know a person, whom I think as a good quality poster, I try to merit those. Something I would even check old post history or even merit history, to determine the situation. For example, I would check whether others merited any of his posts, if yes then what was that, and I would read it myself, and if I agree with the others, I would merit that.

In the end, everyone has different opinion of how or what kind of posts should be merited...

As a local source, I merit as I read; it's easier that way, but I also like to dive into new profiles if their posts are very intriguing and I'm spotting them for the first time; I like to satisfy my curiosity and explore for more. We have a different strategy for distributing our merits, which is what makes us unique.

Approach doesn't matter, what matters is the output ( rewarding quality)

And I also think why some people check the profile of the user before giving out the merit because probably is to look the profile if it is clean. Because of some of them have committed crime like scamming and have heavy flag on the profile and when they look and see that then they'll pass by.

I think if you find a quality post from the person, it is good to give the person a merit and from there he realised that it was because of the contribution he has made got him the merit so he would like to post qualitatively but if because you have seen low quality posts from him and you see quality post among them and because of the low quality post you didn't merit the quality, then the person thought would be the same that all his posts are low quality and that is why he has not gotten any merit. You merit might change the writings of the person mostly newbies who has not gotten enough knowledge in the forum.

I want to believe that it is not only you and me, but most of the people will agree with the point of why they do check the profile before they send merit. Sometimes a pure shit poster can get multiple merits in one of their good posts. If you and I send a merit into a good post without looking who it is, then we are going to feed a lot of trolls. I remember a forum user digaran who is a known troll. But often he had some good arguments in some threads which I agree with him. But I don't remember If I sent him merit for his valid arguments. So, the idea is not to feed trolls, spammers and the abusers.

People's tastes vary in assessing someone's speech, whether it's in writing, speaking or finding something that they think is quite motivational, situations like that don't only happen in real life, in this forum it's also the same in assessing and providing benefits to other members, sometimes I see.

By making ZZZZZZ posts you can get benefits and there are those who are creative with quality art can get points, this situation will occur very differently, depending on the taste that provides benefits, for that reason behind all the ordinary posts that get points, It is highly recommended for all members here to provide the best and quality contributions that are better than funny stories that end up getting the most benefits.

Definitely. You also voice my thoughts.
 

OP says that merits are freedom, but I would not so openly throw this "freedom" around, in particular to my alternative accounts. Yes, there is no punishment in the rules for transferring merits to your alts, but the same manager will frown if he sees a very similar sending of merits to certain accounts. Moreover, people who selfishly spend merits only on their specific circle, sometimes present themselves as alternatives, and once again attract attention to themselves for those who like to look for similar accounts.
OP, merits are not freedom, they are sympathy, they are gratitude and support, and sometimes it shows that people feel similarity with the thinking of another person. But the abuse of "freedom" will one way or another be reflected in the reputation of a "freedom-loving" person.

As a merit source, I consider the quality of the post instead of reading a user profile. For me, it's important to me how the post is valuable for the forum and users. Except push for rank-up, I merit based on post quality. Even for newbies, if they try to make a good post that has value, then I send merits. I always like to help low-ranking users who really need merits to rank up. Doesn't mean I don't send merits to high rank, but it's for appreciation based on post. Because I realise how hard earning merits are for low-ranking users here. Since they spent less time on the forum, they don't have enough knowledge to make a high-quality post. However, I don't visit profiles for sending merits. 

Everyone has their own way of doing it and it's okay because they earned the merit even though it's come free of cost. Still, it came out of their effort by posting quality so it's every user's right to decide how they want to spend it and even if they decide they don't want to spend it at all then there is no one is going to ask anyone.

I don't check the names of whom I merit but since I have limited sMerits available I'll be very picky but those who have more under their profile or merit sources can be generous if they want to.

Merit should be based on the post quality itself regardless of the account reputation or history since you are giving merit on the content not to the person itself. A anti-hero user here can accumulate a lot of merit by providing a content that has value on it.

I wonder who is the user you are pertaining that check to the history of the account first before they send merit. Usually merit sender gives merit on the spot to the post that they think deserves to get merit.

I give merit most the time without checking the user profile as long as the post is valuable in my own preference.

Usually, when I give merit to someone, my decision is based on the current post. If I see that the post (in my opinion) deserves encouragement, then I try to mark this by giving merit.

But there were several cases when I gave merit not based on a specific post, but for the user's active work on the forum, when I saw that his (previous) posts were composed quite constructively and informatively.

So, I can say that I used both methods.

It should be added that other users acted in approximately the same way towards me (giving merit) (as far as I can accurately assume from their actions).

Seen: let start from here too. We are talking about quality and not quantity. If you know anyone alt and you see the account then you don't have to meet a prophet to tell you of it and you have to leave it but if you know that the post is nice and it contributed meaningfully then giving merits to the account should not be a problem. Because the forum is meant for quality contribution and not quantity. And as I said I give merits to quality and meaningful Posts. Merit is freely given therefore you should also freely giv out without bias. You should not focus on another person smerits and how he or she send them but focus on yours how you spend yours. We have heard from sources who hoards smerits for months probably because they have not seen quality posts or tired to send smerits and we can't question them because it is in their possession. There are some people who have red/neutral tags because of violation of the rules but when they make quality post, and when users found interest init then they merit it without looking at the face/profile.

And definitely there is no way you give a merit to someone without seeing the profile name. Because when you read the posts you also glance through the name as scanning to know who posted it. Your ways of thinking is different from mine. You are in this forum to learn and to educate.

Just because you and I don’t do it doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to check the profile of an account before handing out merits. It’s okay to be critical of who you send your merits to, people have learnt from experience that farm accounts rotate merits among themselves and rank up quickly. I really don’t care how other users spend their smerits as long as they are not sending the merits to their alts.

When I had my post history review offer active, I was getting requests from all sorts of members.  After a while I kind of started to get paranoid about alt accounts abusing the offer and I started checking their trust pages, their merit histories and so forth.  But that was a special case.

Right now I'm being a horrible merit source and can't seem to get rid of merits fast enough, and no I don't check account histories or anything of the sort when I'm just handing out merits while reading a thread.  Lately most of the merits I've given out have been to higher-ranked members, and I've always been against that--but frankly they're the only ones who write substantial/interesting/humorous posts.

Anyway.

I use both criteria but I prioritize content over account history, If the account is not a scammer or a known spammer, I can give him merit.

Our merits are limited because you have to get merits to be able to give them, so its better to give them to those who deserve them, and that is members who contribute good content and have good standing on the forum, I do not support spammers ranking up because meriting their posts will give them an idea that what they are doing is ok with the community.

I do often check with their current post and not their post history because that's the subject I want to merit now if Im curious with the user of course I will check their post history so I can give more merit, others deserved too a merit not all post recognized reason why we have this kind of thread too.  [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source

Giving merit based on profile is wrong and merit should be given on the basis of quality and not quantity. And I also know that for those merit sources who asked the users to submit application check the profile and the posts submitted to know if it is quality enough to be merited. I give merit from the quality and good good contributed posts. Though everyone has their own way of giving merit. For those who are not merit source also have their criteria for sending.

This is a forum for active interaction to share what we know about cryptocurrency, so I prioritize the post but the post should not be coming from AIs so if the post is just too good to be true and I have doubt on it, I check the account history before meriting.
Many of the posts I've merited are from posters with which I am very familiar, so I have no problem when giving merits.

Merits shouldn't be tied to any limitations provided that the information are useful then there is need for such person to receive merits except for someone newbies who doesn't put efforts in making post rather creating posts that looks like merits begging or, trying to create similar post others has already created. Like i can see, there has been a particular method by some newbies creating post in other to catch people attentions when I see such I just skip.

But writing an article or an essay doesn't implies how quality a post should be because some times i finds it very difficult to sit down an began to read those lengthy articles instead of the poster to sum it and give just few words to enable reader understand it fully at summary sections.

In my opinion, that is probably the best policy.

Nobody should be actively rewarding scammers with merits or anything else but the same applies known account-farmers and spammers too.

Having said that there are far too many cliques within the forum where members have probably given merits when they read the name of the member but that does not make it tantamount to anything untoward.

What one member could conclude as a post not worthy of a second glance could be deemed as excellent by another whether based on the post or the account history or even both. Maybe that is why there are several merit sources to have a wider scope of understanding to what is actually being posted.

The correct one should be sending merit based on the post I read. I guess other would agree with me. But you should know why some people check profile before sending merits. I believe there are a lot of sold accounts, spammers, merit abusers, alt account around. Some forum members does not want to help these kind of forum members by sending merits. Even though a guy deserve merit for a specific post, I would still ignore him if he is a shit poster in general or a abuser. I have suspected a couple of local forum members of abuaing merits and I refrain sending them merits. If I feel a user does not have alt accounts, does not abuse merit, I am happy to send him a merit if his posts worth it.

To be on the safe side, I’ll just reply to your comment. 

I won’t be replying much to this thread since it’s more like a survey, and every answer is valid.

I’ve read a lot before that could be considered complaints or observations that some users won’t give merits to others they don’t like, or they have favorites to whom they always give merits...maybe because they know each other in real life or are part of the same group. It’s nothing new, and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as the post is deserving of merit. Even if it’s not, there aren’t really any rules in the forum stating it's a violation. In short, merit is like freedom.

I read the post first.  If I think it's novel information, or otherwise hard to come by, I consider it meritable.

But before I give merit, I would check the account name.  I don't believe in rewarding active scammers if they happen to hear something interesting and post it. 

I merit individual post often rather than going through the user post history or merit record but in the aspect of those ranking up I often go through their merit history or see their tag before sending merit to such, it's just a way of avoiding notably farmers and possibly shitposter/spammers.

individual post only

I use merit for what's intended for and that is content, so account history is not part of my consideration its not easy to create good content that generates appreciation,, so I gave it to them, but not from those proven scammers with many visible red tags, neutrals and red tags out of unverified accusation are ok with me.

No, I never check account profile, post history and etc. Merit just isn't such big deal that I would waste my time checking such things
Only exception can when meriting newbies. Don't want to rank up spamners, bounty hunters or cheaters who use AI for their posts.
I just have to admit that I click merit button too rarely, sometimes I just forget about it .

I don’t look at rank or post history before meriting a post. I don’t think a lot of people consider rank a big factor because Satoshi keeps getting merits even though the account is not active. I send merits to posts that I find helpful, interesting and sometimes funny. If I come across a topic and someone has already commented what I wanted to say, I usually merit the post.

Ive merited some regardless of their position or rank as long as Ive like the comment or topic he posted or imparted with the community. Sometimes a witty post could also be a likeable approach and also meritable.

For me we should based it on the quality of the post rather than the users post history were awarding merits for its content and not because of the person who posted it. Only my opinion.

What attract some people to merit a user is just a particular post the person come across, after you have read  what the person has written for the post that attracted your attention, you might check he or her subsequent posts to check if any need to be merited, because I could remember when I was a newbie in forum, after I have made different post for long time, you will be surprised that someone will just review your profile and merit all your posts, it has happened to me severally, so I believe that theirs some people who merit a single post and their is some who merit based on Profile.

If i read a post and i want to merit it, i'll just go ahead and do so, why do i have to go through the accounts post history just to merit a post i just read and i felt deserved merit. If i were to be a merit source, and i wanted to send a lot of merits to a particular user, then i would go though their post history and dump merits on as many posts as possible, but since i am not a MS, and i have limited Smerits, i just merit posts and that's that.

I think , people that  merits base on quality post  in the community are getting it right because it will make other to go back to learn more to improve in quality post, but there are some Newbies in this community today are good in quality post but they are still lacking merits base on the merit source are few in this community. To me, I will prefer to merit base on your activeness and quality post in the community, because there are some users who are good in quality post but they are not too active in the community which such people should be limit in merits earning, but those that are active and good in quality post should be feed with merits to encourage them, this is my opinion.

If I see someone give a great response to a question, someone helping others when they responded, someone close to ranking up, a response I agree with sometimes, or when I post a thread and people participate in the discussion are some of the reasons I'll send a merit.

The final reason I posted up there where I'll merit based on participating in a thread is subjective. I will not merit everyone, once I start seeing users who post a trash response just to get a merit, I'll not merit that user. I realize the merit system made it a little tougher for some to rank up, but I also feel it's not really hard to do still.

I don't usually try to merit some of the higher ranked/respected users as they don't really need it. Some aren't in sig campaigns and could probably care less if they get merit or have so much respect in the community they could care less. I try to reserve merits for those that there is still value in getting them. Some users kinda make it obvious when posting a thread that they are making the thread only to gain merits vs actually being interested in the subject they posted about. If you are going to make a thread, at least participate in the thread more than making the initial post.

I am not a merit source, so if I run out I don't get a refill monthly. I have yet to run out to this point, but It'll happen eventually.

Unless you are on my ignore list, I look at the quality of the post and the account rank. 6 merit for a JR member means a high quality post, unlike 6 merit for a legendary account. The account history is reviewed in case I want to send +5 merit or enough to rank-up.

I'm curious to hear how you determined that there are these two ways for users to decide who to reward with merit. 

I mostly give merits to posts that I think they deserve, not to users. it happens that some user who has negative feedback and proven to have bad attitudes sometimes writes a very useful and constructive post. I think that in such situations we should be objective.
Several times I gave merit without checking, but those were those who needed a small amount of merit for the next rank, while they earned enough merit to rule out the possibility of accidental.

Different people with different criteria for sending out merits, that is the beauty of diversity. Inasmuch as there can never be just one way of viewing what qualify as merit deserving post, I think its up to people to use their discretion to chose posts they believe to be merit deserving. Personally, I do not consider the ranks of the person, the history or anything, rather the content of the post. As a non merit source, the few merits at my disposal is always shared based on the content of the post in line with my conviction that they deserve to be merited. My method may not be perfect but it gives me satisfaction I need.
 

Both, the post quality and the way the user sent merit.

I only want give merit to user who're not in a part of local friends or gangs because if I give more merit to them, it means they will share their merit in bigger amount.

I don't care with negative feedback, how active the user is, how many positive feedback they received, how big their power in DT network, how popular the user is etc etc.

A few minutes ago, I read an answer that completely corresponds to my views.


Sometimes posts are just good, you shouldn't be a bore to demand from yourself the question of how high-quality a post must be for me to pay attention to it and deserve it.
People are different; I can give merit for humor, for sincerity, for a useful, but at the same time very simple post. However, those huge unreadable posts, to which many newbies devote a lot of time, are difficult to pay attention to, and most often, in the opinion of the prospectors, are not appreciated.
So be simpler.

Some is based on account reputation too 


Personally, there's no specific pattern I use in meriting a post. Sometime, it can also depend on my mood and how I enjoy the post. Among many creteria or factors that influence my merit sharing, checking of profile can not be part of it.

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I have noticed how merit sharing has reduced to some noticeable extent in the forum for quite some time now. Don't really know if it's due to lack of contributory conversation or the absence of some notable merit sources that are yet to be replaced.

I usually reward high-quality posts with merits if they make valid points. I don't check the poster's history because I don't think it's necessary. As long as their post is helpful to the community, I send them merits.
In my opinion, checking account history is mostly for merit sources, a regular users can choose to reward good posts without checking history.I only look at someone's post history if their response is exceptionally poor, which leads me to assume they're not a good poster

I prefer to send merit to people's posts that I read. But there are sometimes that I may send merit later if I have no enough merit left. I like to go through good posters posts sometimes in a way that I will click on their profile and noticed some posts that I needed to merit. I easily see some good posts of the user from the merit history and I will feel like to send more merit to one or two of the person's posts.

I've noticed that some accounts take different approaches when sending merits. Some might check the account profile first before sending, while others focus solely on the post and send merits based on their judgment.

For those newbies who are not familiar with merits, it's part of the forum system to reward good posts and encourage users to create quality content, especially those low-ranked users who want to rank up. We’ve seen a lot of low-ranked members really putting in effort to gather merits, as it’s the most important requirement for ranking up, along with high activity, since the system was introduced.

Personally, there’s nothing wrong with whichever method you prefer, but I'm curious, and I'm sure many others, especially newbies, would like to know some tips. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, especially from merit sources and those who consistently give and receive merits, even if they aren’t merit sources. Newbies are also welcome to share their thoughts here----this is an open discussion for everyone!