EDIT: Some hints for those that feel their posts aren't getting recognized by me...
- All of the following are generalizations, and ideals that I strive to. However, I may choose at any time to behave differently than what is written here. If you feel that I've failed to give merit where I've said I would (or you feel that I've awarded merit where I said I wouldn't), get over it. I'm human. I get tired, I get bored, I get annoyed, I have bad days, I feel generous, I have good days, I make mistakes, I change my mind. The fact that I've taken the time to write this policy does NOT mean that you can use this policy to control, manipulate, or change my behavior.
- If you have ever had a signature ad, then I've almost certainly already clicked "ignore" on you before I've ever read even a single post of yours. I generally wont see your posts no matter how high quality they are unless I stumble across them some other way. You'll significantly increase the chances of your posts being noticed if you have NEVER had an ad in your signature.
- I don't care how good (or bad) your english or grammar is. If you are sincerely trying to learn, or helping with CORRECT information where you can, then you deserve merit.
- Posts that are completely unrelated to the thread discussion, WILL be reported to moderators, will result in me clicking "ignore" on you, and will probably result in your post being deleted by a moderator.
- If it's obvious that you've posted in a thread without reading the earlier posts in that thread, your post WILL be reported to moderators, will result in me clicking "ignore" on you, and will probably result in your post being deleted by a moderator.
- While appreciated, correcting my spelling or grammar mistakes will NOT earn you any merit (however, I'll likely review your posting history to see if you deserve merit for other posts). Correcting any of my maths mistakes, or factual mistakes WILL earn you merit.
- I spend most of my time in the Bitcoin Technical Support, Development & Technical Discussion, and Bitcoin Discussion sub-forums. I'm much more likely to see your posts in those three sub-forums than any others.
- Being ACTUALLY helpful in the Bitcoin Technical Support or Development & Technical Discussion sub-forums (without a signature ad) will VERY LIKELY earn you merit from me. HOWEVER, don't try to be helpful if you don't know what you're talking about. Incorrect information posted in those sub-forums WILL be reported to moderators, will result in me clicking "ignore" on you, and will probably result in your post being deleted by a moderator.
- Asking well thought out questions in the Bitcoin Technical Support or Development & Technical Discussion sub-forums (without a signature ad) with a sincere interest in learning about something specific that confuses you will VERY LIKELY earn you merit from me. HOWEVER, nonsense questions, questions that are ridiculously vague, and questions that appear to have no thought or actual interest behind them WILL be reported by me to moderators, will result in me clicking "ignore" on you, and will probably result in your post being deleted by a moderator
- I ACTIVELY AND INTENTIONALLY AVOID the following sub-forums; Speculation, Off-topic, Politics & Society, and everything in Alternate Cryptocurrencies. Posts in those areas will rarely get noticed by me at all.
- If you post in a thread that is more than 3 pages long, it's very likely that I'll never see your post. I find that (most of the time) long threads no longer have anything new or interesting in them. Therefore, unless I've been actively following an interesting conversation in such a thread, I generally won't even bother opening the thread to read anything posted in it.
The Merit system is quite new, and I'm still trying to think through all the pitfalls and benefits. As such, this post is likely to change over time. That being said, I've made a few preliminary decisions about how I am going to handle the Merit sending process. I'm setting my policy here so that it is publicly available:
Policy: The vast majority of Merit that I send will be
1 2 Merit points.
Reason: There are MANY quality posts on this forum, and a limited amount of Merit to award. High quality posts will already earn a significant amount of Merit since they will receive Merit from many users.
EDIT: I am finding it difficult to find enough merit deserving posts to use up my sMerit as fast as I receive it. As such, I've decided to increase the default Merit that I send from 1 Merit to 2 Merit. This means that anyone that receives Merit from me will receive AT LEAST 1 sMerit as well.
Policy: As an exception to the previous policy, I will award additional Merit points at my own discretion to posts that teach me something that I didn't already know (and which I wanted to know) about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies.
Reason: Any post that teaches me something new is highly valued by me, and allows me to better help others.
Policy: If, unsolicited, you
send me a PM request
ing that I review a post to potentially assign merit, I will NOT review the post and I will add you to a personal DO NOT MERIT list, and I will not send you ANY merit for ANY posts for a period of 3 months.
Reason: I'm concerned about the possibility of my message inbox being flooded by people hoping to get my attention so they can get merit from me. To discourage this, users that attempt to request merit will be punished with a lack of merit.
EDIT: I have found a need to distinguish between someone that believes a post deserves merit and someone that wants merit without earning it (begging). Unsolicited request of review of a post will result in NO MERIT. Begging (See next policy) will result in negative feedback.
EDIT: New policy addedPolicy: If you beg for merit (make any request that someone give you merit), you will receive negative feedback from me.
Reason: Merit is intended to be earned. Begging for it means that you are trying to acquire it without earning it. This is a dishonest way of earning Merit and implies that you are an untrustworthy person.
Policy: I do not sell merit. Any user that offers to pay me for merit will be PERMANENTLY added to a personal DO NOT MERIT list, and will receive negative feedback.
Reason: If someone is offering to buy merit from me, then it is almost certain that they are offering to buy merit elsewhere. The fact that they may acquire undeserved merit will offset any merit that they would actually have otherwise earned from me. Furthermore, it is my opinion that purchasing merit (or offering to do so) is an untrustworthy behavior and therefore is deserving of negative feedback.
Policy: If someone identifies a substantive error (not a spelling error, or grammar error) in a post of mine, and posts a reply with a correction to the error, they will earn Merit.
Reason: Most of my posts are an attempt to help others. I can be busy or distracted at times and make mistakes in what I write. Correcting my mistake helps the person that I was trying to help, and deserves Merit for keeping me from accidentally misinforming the person I was attempting to help.
Policy: Posts in threads that I have already posted in will not earn Merit from me unless I feel they are on-topic for the thread AND I feel they add significant value beyond what has already been said in the thread.
Reason: I'm concerned about the possibility that users will post in threads that I have participated in just to catch my attention to get Merit from me. If your thread is not on topic for the thread, then it should be a new thread.
Policy: Posts in threads that already have more than 60 posts will not earn Merit from me unless I feel they are on-topic for the thread AND I feel they add significant value beyond what has already been said in the thread.
Reason: As threads get excessively long, the likelihood shrinks that a user will read far enough into the thread to benefit from new posts to the thread. The best, most well thought out, most eloquent post isn't very useful if nobody that cares ever reads it.
Policy: If you have already received 10 merit points from me in a given month, then I will not be sending you additional Merit points in that same month unless I have more send-able Merit points remaining than 10X the number of days left in the month.
Reason: If you have received 10 Merit points from me, then you are very likely receiving Merit from plenty of others as well. As such, I'd like to reserve at least 10 points per day for other users that are deserving of Merit and which have not received as much from me yet.
If you have any suggestions on changes or additions to my policy, feel free to add them to this thread. Any posts in this thread that are NOT for the purpose of suggesting improvements to my policies will be removed.