Congrats anyway, you have done a great job but I would poing out one thing. hugablack recieved a good part by participating on different forms of merit giveaways. Also a good part of your merits is also coming from merit related posts and threads. Ofcourse you have probably done a good job but it doesn't really contribute the forum discussion. Implementing a merit system to let people talk about merit, throw merit for that talks, look for merit abusers, get rewarded for that stuff etc. doesnt seem like a great achievement and a significant forum improvement.
P.S. Sometimes it feels like I can create a new thread with my own analysis of pros and cons of merit system (there will be too much to let them drown in spam of already existing threads) but this section already got too much merit talks. Most of them are baseless and people woll hardly take serious anything new.
You are probably right, I was rather new when the discussions about the new changes stated. I was still unaware of the whole system here but I saw some flaws /well, at least for me as a newbie/ and decided to give my opinion.
~snip, like this one, just follow the original link~
Back then I was thinking like "hey, I can tell theymos what it can be changed so the forum can do better" and for me at that time he was like, you know, he is The Guy - "hey me and Satoshi were drinking coffee together every morning for more than two yeas or so." /that's how a newbie thinks, I guess/. So I got involved in this pre-merit discussion, It was very interesting for me but I did't had the knowledge to be more helpful /I'm still faaaar from what I want to be, but it's a log way ahead/ so I started coming with ideas of what I, as a newbie, can do to help the others. I saw many people were asking the same questions about the activity and ranking and I made the activity calculator, which I was thinking that should have been done years before me and tried to make it more popular so the newbies can stop asking the same questions all the time. Had some other ideas how to list all the bounties and browse them by different criteria,but by being more familiar with the system here I saw that this was a lost cause.
After a few weeks came the Merit system. I was already aware that there's gonna be some changes, but no one knew what will happen /well except theymos/. Then everyone stated discussing how the system had to be adjusted, I was also enthusiastic about it, reading and suggesting. Then I stated collection points from some Legendaries and it was like WOW, I'm just nobody here but hey some Legends do appreciate what I'm trying to do and it's so great/well noob thinking again, I know/. That gave me more enthusiasm to continue and I did. Well, I "grew up" in a way and my perception for the forum did change too.
I did't help much for the bitcoin development, it's true. I got some people involved in crypto and help them to open wallets and buy some btc so I can say that I tried to popularize it, tho. I'm trying to do what I can and learn in the mean time. I have family, kid and full time job / plus a "new" old house, which I renovate at the moment so we can move in hopefully in April/ so I'm pretty short in terms of free time, but I'm still attending a free course for blockchain on edx. Hope will improve my understanding of the all the aspects of the blockchain system and be more productive here.
Meta is where everything started. If everyone was informed with a PM about the changes, things could have been different. All the sMerit I got, I distributed to newbies and people deserving it. I think I walked a long way to this rank, and the honor to wear an avatar. I'll continue doing what I like, reporting rule-breakers and learn.
Enough said.
Cheers!