Topic: How to handle accounts scraping the barrel for merits and recognition? - page 2. (Read 448 times)

From time to time when I find myself looking at a couple of threads in particular threads, amongst other things I find myself noting two points. The first is how desperate some of these accounts are in their desire for merits that they would actually make such ridiculous posts seeking them. The second being why would some accounts even bother to merit those posts when in the long run it encourages them keep flooding those threads to keep the cycle going.

I have often wondered how many of the heavily farmed accounts that have infested the forum over the past few years (thanks to just a small number of certain members) would ever have been created by puppeteers had they not been encouraged by the possibility of a shortcut to ranking up.

What on earth would encourage the "DYING_S0UL" account to make post regarding a "4646" merit accumulation in a "Save your nice merit records here" thread? What was the significance of that post? What was the urge on his part to make it for the sake of saving a 4646 merit (although for some members it would help sucking up to campaign managers as it might sway opinion when applying for their campaigns). I will not mention any names or naims (not even naim027) but scraping the barrel does bring unwanted attention.


That particular thread has been inundated with several accounts that have a Bangladesh local board connection, many clutching at not-so memorable numbers including of course the utterly pointless "4646". Talk about scraping the barrel with the "4646 seems like a good record!" comment. Another account that was mentioned as being a farmed account "Bd officer" is also not far behind in that thread, albeit using a more digestible number output.

The other threads are where members are encouraged to report their own threads (usually unmerited) and those too are a magnet for account farmers to push for their farmed accounts to rank up as fast as possible.

I completely understand the mindset of the OPs behind the threads that I have mentioned and alluded to because they could be used as genuine tools to help contribute to the forum by helping members that are not operating industrial scale farming accounts but at the moment they are also being abused alongside the good work they aim to provide.

What do you suggest would be a good way to handle this matter and obstruct the work of account farmers whilst allowing genuine account operators to benefit from any generosity of merits being distributed? Maybe some possible outcomes:

- making those threads self-moderated
- making a list of names that breached the rules therefore cannot post and list the names
- limiting the number of posts a member can make in those threads in a set period

Is there anything else that you think could/should be considered being added to those sorts of threads to restrict the growth of farmed account operators whilst still facilitating the process that the OPs of those threads intended for genuine accounts?