Topic: Does inactive users deserve merits? - page 4. (Read 748 times)

I think the whole essence of the merit implementation on the forum was to give quality posts a thumps up(merits) so even if the user has been inactive for some time it really doesn't matter because it's the post you are meriting not the users although given out of merit have turn out to be someone sentimental IMO. I have also seen some quality posts of individual that have been barred due to one or two errors that they refuse to take to correction but I always wonder of it will be good to merits these posts base on the fact that they have been ban but on later the mentality changed because the merit is actually given for Worthy posts .

There are no standard rules regarding awarding merit to which members are currently active or inactive. Only merit goes to posts that really deserve to get merit. and once again how someone assesses other people's posts and gives them marriage may vary. So, for example, if you think the post deserves to get merit and you are sure that the post is informative, high quality, and most importantly, it really deserves to get merit, then in the end there is no problem giving it regardless of whether the account is still active or not.

Unfortunately, perhaps there are still many people who view the relationship of being married as just to increase their rank. Maybe there are still many people chasing them just to increase their rank so this will also have an impact on the goals of making future posts. even though as you said, merit is given to posts that really deserve it, not because of rank but indeed the post is informative, adds to the experience of understanding and is indeed contributive to other members.

It's your merit, you're free to do with it what you want provided you're not abusing the merit. If you see a post that you feel adds value to the forum then it should be awarded the merits irrespective of how old the post is or the status of the posters. Accounts with red tags that have contributed something meaningful to the forum deserved merits. You're not meriting the person but the post so being inactive shouldn't deny a quality post of been highlighted with merits.

Haven't you noticed some of the old topics that were posted before the merit system was introduced are been merited for their quality. What should be merited are quality contributions and this should be done irrespective of the person that made the posts or the status of the account.


Why did you have to look through the account to know it was banned before deciding to merit the account. There's no waste of merit when you're meriting a quality post. Satoshi posts has been receiving merits for his quality contributions to the forum and the account hasn't been active for years. Merits are for quality not account reputation or status (been active or inactive).

What if the account is a ban account ? Because I think there are many active users that deserves merit and they need it more. and given to an inactive users whom have stayed Upto 6-7 year who might likely come online or not or a ban account, is like a waste of merit in my own view. But if the system permit it then no problem.

You are meriting the post itself, not the poster or user, so for me even if you see the user is not active anymore but the post deserves a merit, then I guess meriting the post is not an issue. Newbies might come to read it, and see it as a concrete example for a quality post, so it’s still helping.

However, if you are hesitant to give away your merit since the poster itself will no longer see it anymore, that doesn’t matter. Regardless if it’s an old post that deserves a merit, you should decide it for yourself since you are the one responsible to merit someone or something that is worth to share.

In theory, one should merit posts based on their content (1), so there’s no conceptual restriction to refrain from meriting posts from accounts that have not been active for a long time, or that are not actively participating in the Merit System for that matter. Some may refrain from doing so, and that is their prerogative really.

In the big picture of things, lets call being inactive for a very long time an arbitrary number of 3 years or above. Going over my Merit data (as of last Friday), it seems that:

-   Overall, 1.704.769 Merits have been awarded to date (total sent sMerits since inception).

-   Out of those, 15.538 Merits have been awarded to accounts that have been inactive for > 1095 days (2), in 2.791 TXs, from 513 accounts, to 968 receiving accounts.

It may seem a like a lot, but it really only represents 0,91% of all awarded Merits.

-   Without detailing who sent how much to whom, which is really not the point here, we can see that the core recipients are satoshi (6028 receive Merits), Hal (2699), Laszlo (1584). Them three alone account for 66,36% of merits awarded to inactive accounts as per the 3 year criteria established above.

-   Going over the top 20 Senders of these sMerit TXs, they aggregate sending 11.337 (72,96% of merits awarded to inactive accounts as per the 3 year criteria). They are obviously essentially Merit Sources, which more often than not may find themselves with some sMerits surplus they wish to spend on older posts/homages or whatnot.

All in all, the way I see it, the amount sent to these inactive accounts is close to a drop in the ocean (0,91% of all sent sMerits), and the top recipients are key historical contributors to bitcoin.


(1)   Obviously, other factors come into play at times, but that’s another debate.

(2)   Date difference in days between the sMerit TX and the recipients current last active date. Accounts that have become active afterwards are therefore not accounted for.

You nailed it, direct to the point.

If you think the post helps you and you've agreed with it, that deserves to be merited, it doesn't matter the user account status. (inactive, having a red tag, or even a banned account).

Look out for this user account, which has been inactive since December 13, 2010, but until now year 2024 received merits.

The Merit system is not moderated directly by the forum, you are free to give merit to any post, even posts made by users who have not been active for a long time. As long as you consider it appropriate to give merit based on the quality of the post, there is no prohibition on giving merit to users who have not been active for a long time. Merit is awarded to worthy posts, not to posts you like.

Merit is for good posts. The user shouldn't matter.

Inactive user deserve to be merited.
Negative tagged user deserve to be merited.
Banned user deserve to be merited.
Scammer deserve to be merited.
Cheater deserve to be merited.
Abuser deserve to be merited.
Troll deserve to be merited.

Only an account who never post don't deserved to be merited because there's no way for someone to merit him.

Good quality posts definitely deserve merit but if the member has been in the forum for a long time and is unlikely to return to the forum then it is better not to spend merit there. If you search, you may find many more such members who are regularly posting from active in the forum, you can send merit to those posts if you want. This will increase his enthusiasm towards his work and help him in his rankup. 
It is completely up to a user to send merit to another user's post and which post to not send merit to that user. But you have definitely raised a good point here that will give those members who are in doubt whether to merit cents for inactive members a chance to comment.

Even those active who don't deserve merits still getting one. Why do you ask?
Sending merit is based on the feeling of the user towards the post. If he feels that the post is constructive, he will give merit to that post.

You don't believe? Just look at Satoshi and the amount of merits the account has. Satoshi wasn't even active when the merit system was implemented, and yet Satoshi surpassed most of the users here in terms of the number of merits, so don't look at whether the user is inactive or not. If you feel that the post needs to be merited, just send merits on it.

Since merit system is not moderated, everyone has the right to choose whom to merit, but let's consider these two reasons for meriting an inactive users, maybe he has contributed a lot prior to the time that he left or became inactive, secondly, secondly if the inactive user has done nothing to deserve receiving merits then it all means that one shouldn't do such except on a quality post that everyone could reason along with being of a merit standard, if you're giving merits, do it with the conviction that you're giving to appreciated the quality effort contributed and not for being inactive just like that.

"Does inactive users deserve merits?" - this is determined only by the merit holder who is ready to press the “+Merit” button and send it to an inactive user. I want to say that this is a personal choice of everyone who is ready to reward the posts of inactive forum members.

From the point of view of the merit system that has formed on the forum, it is not advisable to give merit to an inactive user, because the idea of merit is to circulate in the forum community. It will be better if merit is given to an active user who will help his ranking.

But as always there are nuances. What if an inactive user eventually returns to the forum? Then he deserves the same merit as the active ones.

There are merit sources on the forum in which merits are constantly generated from time to time, that is, there can't be a shortage of merits, therefore, there is no need to save merit and even inactive users can be safely rewarded.

I believe that a post (whether from an active or inactive user), if deserved, should be rewarded with merit. Personally, I regard merit on other people’s posts as a “sign of quality” and if one of the forum users left a merit, then this post contains some useful or interesting idea that can't be ignored.

Well yes, there are some useful post that are being noticed late or became relevant at the current time. Imagine the post of satoshi are still receiving merits up to this date, this proves how useful his/her invention to our current time. This forum is also created without the merit feature, it was later introduced and surely play significant role in this forum. Those who are inactive but made good post surely deserves to be rewarded with merits. Inactive accounts might comeback to this forum with full of merits, it would be a great surprise for them seing their account full of merits because of their past contribution.

Let me ask you a question, what do you think is the purpose of merits? Is it because you see it as a way of ranking; or is it because you admire and view the post as knowledgeable?

Personally, a post deserves a merit if it is knowledgeable that it definitely helped or supported someone in their problem or query. Additionally, merits are also rewarded to posts that I feel they deserve it because it provided a good insight or discussion on a certain topic.

Bearing that in mind, ask yourself that question- even if the person is inactive but he/she created a thread or a post that helped hundreds of users, do you think he/she still deserves it?

Every merit deserving post ought to be merited irrespective of whether their posters are active or now. As the posts are not deleted and are seen by everyone who joined the forum, the standard of meriting a post should be visible in every post made on the forum. Newbies will also be able to see how the merit system is applied, in a way that posts that deserve merits are given merits.

Merit is not only something that helps a user rank up, it also helps to identify how important/effective a topic/post is. So from this point of view, inactive users/topics also deserve merits.

And this is also possible that the user can come back anytime.

If merit is supposed to be given to a meritable Post without minding if the user is inactive I also assume that merit should be given to a ban account because even its a ban account it has also contributed meaningfuly to someone else. Because if you said a ban account should not be given merit, that is to say you are not given a fair judgment.

Provided that the post is quality enough then you can give them merits, I have came across a post that has spent many years and the user in question has not been around (active) for about 3 to 4 years but yet i still find people giving that post merits. Although if you don't have merits you can report them to merits source those that says report any post you find quality to merit them, except that user is ban and i don't see any reason to waste merits on their profile while they already been ban here.