I also noticed most merit dont come from posting in a thread but from starting one. <…>
Perception does often lead to think that thread starters are more merited than responses within a thread, although that is likely different depending on the specific board you are on. I created a post some months ago (see
Forum Merited Messages- Does size count?), and what can be derived from the information I gathered is as follows (see specifically section "4. Post Number" within the referenced thread- I’ve transformed numerical values into percentages to make the following clearer to read):
• 15% of merited posts were OP (thread starters).
• 33,16% of merited posts were amongst the first 10 posts in the page (OP included).
• 40,21% of merited posts were amongst the first 20 posts in the page (OP included).
• 13,86% of merited posts were between positions 21 and 100 on a thread.
• 45,93% of merited posts were on megathreads, on positions > 100.
Now the above should not be taken verbatim due to the following factors:
- The stat was derived around the end of May 2018, so trends may well have shifted since then.
- All merited forum section/subsections are aggregated as one. If we were to bring the information down to a board level (i.e. local boards, Bitcoin Discussion, Meta, etc.), I’m pretty sure there are big differences between them.
Unfortunately, interesting as it may, getting the data to update the analysis is rather painstaking, let alone deriving it for each board.