Topic: How bad posters reduce the availability of merits - by a merit source (Read 394 times)

English is not the native language for most of the forum members. So why don't you azvn learn English from forum itself which having so many helpful threads instead making excuses.English is also not my native language,but I never give up. Sometimes we are thinking that "X" person's English is the perfect but trust me, no one is perfect. We are learning from womb to tomb.
I have already bookmarked above mentioned references and for the SEARCH function I think this is the best reference
coly20032003: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/tips-guide-for-forum-search-3127909

With this thread, I hoped to make bad posters realise how they damage the prospects of other members in their sub-cultures here. Many of my policies aere personal, and may not have a wide ranging impact, but I thought that it was worth mentioning them. For example, lets consider the thread title that appears on the index page. I use this to filter a lot of threads, and it is mainly designed to speed up my scanning of the boards. I appreciate that these are very broad generalisations, but that is really the only efficient way for me to handle the spam problem.
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Behaviour that leads me to pass over a thread when I look at the title.

- The inclusion of glyphs. This is beloved by advertisers, and it distracts me from the topic, If the text in your title isn't interesting, then a glyph  isn't going to make me think that the topic has any value, quite the reverse in fact.
- Capitalised text. This is the Internet equivalent of shouting. If you have to shout to get attention, then it probably isn't worth listening to you.
- Generalised comments. A non-specific title such as 'Bitcoin', 'problem', 'please help'. or similar tends to indicate that the poster hasn't used the search function, or is begging or making some other post that wouldn't encourage reading if the topic was mentioned.
- People I ignore - One of the advantages of the ignore system is that it greys out the thread if an ignored member has started it. I ignore people who slow down my thread scanning by adopting various practices. The inclusion of unnecessary graphics, heavy text formatting, english that is difficult to comprehend, making posts that are designed to increase post count rather than providing benefit for the forum, and a few other things all get the poster onto my ignore list. Of course, begging for merit is one of the major reasons for ignoring posters.

So here is my plea to the pooposters. If you see a decent thread that has the potential to gain merits for new members, then keep out of it. I'll repeat that ' KEEP OUT OF IT ' , you won't get any merit, you may get your post deleted, and by depriving the decent members of the chance to earn merit, you will earn their dislike.

Why don't you start working on improving it? Some references:
TMAN: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/tmans-guide-to-getting-merit-3182178
FtT Jet Cash: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/another-initiative-for-newbie-and-junior-members-4186147
Some books from nev1d's recommendation: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/how-does-knowledge-of-english-relate-to-receiving-merit-4310050
There are more! Learn to use the forum SEARCH function.

A friendly suggestion mate: Invest in yourself first, everything else will follow you later.

Shitposting didn't really start. It's always been around and always will be. The problem we have is it's currently an incentive to shitpost with the promise of getting paid to do so via bounties or signature campaigns. It's only a huge problem because of these factors. Otherwise it would be much more manageable.

Spam is everywhere you look on the internet be it Reddit or some other type of forum. No moderation will stop it and no amount of reporting will stop it. The best way to tackle these sort of issues is by removing the core of the problem. Signatures.

Exactly. There are much more posts worth banning than meriting.

I can't answer for LoyceV but 9 out 10 Newbies I come across are copy paste bots.

U make me laughing man  Can I know why
With me, I give up about merit system...it not work for me because my english isn't good. I also have job to finish, so just join here for bounties and funny chatting. Don't care about merit anymore


Strange but nice idea...U can create a thread to suggest for admin

My ignore list is reserved for cheaters in my giveaway campaigns (from a year ago by now), so I don't put shitposters on there. But 3 out of 4 times when I go look for Newbies with good posts, I end up getting them a ban instead of Merit.

Long term, I still hope this will improve. Shitposting didn't start instantly, and it won't disappear overnight.
But, merit isn't enough, as shitposting still earns them money.

Upon reading this thread something came across my mind. More like another reason why there'd be shortage of sMerits. I think awarding undeserving accounts (bad posters) contributes to the shortage of merits (for those account farmers circulating their own merits). Since those accounts wouldn't really receive more thus putting those merits to waste. If merits are rewarded to people who are deserving, it's highly probable that the member would pay it forward, circulating the merits more.

Im new here and i just wonder why this forum all about bitcoin, alt coin and decentralized platform but forum system like merit  is all centralized. A lot of ppl abuse merit system.
Just a suggestion about "Thanks" system to make Merit system become decentralized  that everyone can give Thanks to others so all quality post can be judge by everyone. All merit will be decentralized by exchanges from Thanks to Merit.
It will be fair for everyone.

After analyzing 100+ recent and top merited posts, I categorized posts into following Major Categories, which surely wins hearts and merits:

1. Statistical & Analytical Posts
Bring up some facts and figures, people love facts and it’s always helpful to get a quick insight of any thing. (No, I'm not saying you should start analyzing merits, it has been done plenty of times). Remember this is top category to earn merits, spend some time on your data do your own analysis. Always remember search first, if such analysis already available don’t waste your time. Move to something else, #Bitcoin is not limited to circulating supply or market value its a vast system you just need to explore.

2. Technical Posts
After statistical posts Number#2 is technical posts, but try this only if you have expertise in it. Don’t copy paste from google in trying be a scholar. You don't need to be an expert of Bitcoin or Ethereum. There are plenty of other technical sections not only bitcoin or Altcoins but in Project Development many questions are related to Blockchain, programming specific like C++ and JavaScript focus on OP's question and be precise. Do this and if your post don’t get a merit, blame me.

3. Helpful Posts
"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."
Help someone today, solve someones issue, guide him/her to the solution, be supportive. Even if you don't earn a merit from this, at least you done something right. You can sleep in peace today

4. Funny/Critics Post (focused)
Yes people love funny posts but it must be strictly related (to topic) and original. Don’t try to bring top reddit post or most tweeted tweet to bitcointtalk, we have already seen it. So bring your own creation let it be a meme but something new never seen before.

Do you know I AM HODLING post is still earning merits today? It's been 5 years and this is one of the most merited post on the bitcointalk?

I can create a separate topic on this and list down example posts in each category. But then it will be another merit specific thread so forget it.

There you go.. let's prove Jet Cash wrong here... next time make it easy for him to find meritable posts:)

It is really sad to see people who make shit posts/threads are driven to the mindset of earning income, than to contributing to the forum. The whole purpose on why this forum was created was to provide support, discuss about news relevant to cryptocurrencies, give helpful tips about investing or trading, etc. but it has became a breeding ground for spammers and alternate accounts. Even if an individual's mindset is to earn profit in the first place, it has totally defeated the purpose of this forum due to their selfishness (as what you mentioned OP).


Due to the number of people who are profit-driven, they exhaust every means in order to earn sMerits. They thought that by creating threads like those, they can earn sMerits but subconsciously they do not realize that they are only contributing to the problem, than to address it directly.

Yeah, well, it took a few years before the shitposters and account farmers messed up the entire forum and it became necessary.  Those things were not problems from day one, and I'm sure the solution was not an obvious one.  I'm sure Theymos had to do some seriously deep thinking about the best way to solve them before he came up with the merit system.  As I've said many times before, previous to that system some DT members were tagging shitposters and there was an enormous backlash because of that in Janurary, with Meta being filled with the butthurt pleas from the affected shitposters.  It was actually amusing, but it wasn't a good use of the trust system.

Interesting analysis from Jet Cash as usual.  If I were in his shoes, I'd probably focus on one or two sections here and stick with those.  I have numerous sections on ignore--mainly the worst ones like Bitcoin Discussion, where it seems most of the spammers congregate.  I would not even waste time there looking for posts to merit, because the vast majority of them are just here to spam for bounties.  Meta, Reputation, Scam Accusations, Trading Discussion, and some of the technical sections like Exchanges and the various ones devoted to wallets are where I usually find some interesting posts.  I do like Economics, but that's another section that's been overrun with garbage.

Good for you, JC, for taking your "job" seriously.  I have no doubt you'll be a diligent merit source, and I'm looking forward to that blog.

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You will find a long list which seems abusing the system but lately I came to this understanding...

Every system has a System Loss and so does the merit system as well. It is absolutely okay IMO. Good thing is - merit is doing exactly that it wanted to do. People are spending much time in reading and thinking more than once before making a post.

Celebrate the good outcomes and avoid the losses.

I joined this forum recently and my initial impressions about this new merit system is not quite good(just like most of the newbies). But after spending some times, I have realized that this is the best thing happened to this kind of a knowledge hub(it should have introduced way before than it's introduction in earlier this year).Now I am using search button more often than post button and damn it helps me a lot.I think if someone posting good quality stuff, helping other members and be active in the forum rewards will come as a bonus while you have gains lot of knowledge.
                                 When I reading your post that I have remembered these lines said by Albert Einstein" The world will not be distroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything"One last thing,check these
Top merited recent replies how the merit system get abused by [ANN] threads (not the thread actually but the members) by giving huge amount of merits for some shitposting which should have given to where it actually worth.

some qualify quote but never get merit, because it's in top of comment.

People always try to create more articles to earn merit, but most of these articles are spam. New people think that just posting many articles will have merit, but they have misunderstandings about merit, merit always comes from quality articles.

Yeah, so much spammers
 Now I am participating in a sig campaign where I have to make 25 posts in some specific boards.

Few weeks ago these boards were more restricted as it was some other campaign.

So I put those boards on my watchlist and from time to time I check if there is something interesting going on.

Nothing, 90% of the boards are just spammers. It's very hard to find some post which I would like to comment.
Find something to merit must be even harder lol

I''m starting to see threads claiming that there is a shortage of sMerits, and I wonder if these posters are aware that some of them are reducing the supply of new sMerits through the source generation process. I've posted several times that I put posters, threads and whole boards on ignore, and obviously I will not award merits to posts that fall into any of those categories. Also, I will leave a thread if the starting post is just a rehash of a tired old concept, or if most of the initial replies are low value spam garbage. I'll go into this in more detail if/when I start my merit source blog.

So how does this reduce the total number of merits available for Bitcoin Talk members? I've often got a merit wallet with a three figure number of merits that I can award, but it's hard work, and I take the responsibility seriously. Lets say that I decide that I will go on a post hunt for 10 minutes or so whilst I am drinking a coffee. It should be easy to give away 20 or so merits during that period, and were I to award them, then in 30 days time the merit system would replace them, and I could award the new merits to more posters. If I spend the time putting members on ignore, reporting posts, or just skipping out of threads, then those 20 merits won't be awarded, and the new merits won't be generated.

So next time that you want to complain about the shortage of merits, just remember that it is the selfish pooposters who cause the problem, and not the system. If you are a pooposter spamming a worthless bounty, or scammy ICO, just remember that you are depriving better quality members of the merits they deserve. You can also reflect on the fact that many of the members are starting to despise you for doing it.