Topic: how you guys think about MERIT ? (Read 937 times)

I didn't read all of your post, as it is a bit long, but I did notice a few paragraphs, and I'll respond to those with some general comments.

This is an English board, and English is the lingua franca of the financial and commercial world. Even the EU is going to keep English as its primary language after Brexit. If you don't have a reasonable command of English, then you are at a disadvantage, that isn't the fault of Bitcoin Talk, it's a fact of life. Bitcoin Talk is great in that it recognises that many members without English as a first language, can be valuable contributors to the forum, and it has created a number of local language boards for them. It is an unfortunate fact that members with very poor command of English bring nothing to the more serious threads if they cannot be understood. It is even worse if the their attempted post is meaningless spam in reality. I, and some other senior members, have tried to help the more responsible members to improve their communications skills, but unfortunately, it seems that the bounty programmes attract users who are only interested in pushing out garbled messages to display their signatures. I called them 'users' because that is what they are, they are members or even part of the forum's community. They are just here to pollute and scatter rubbish to try to profit from the labours of the more responsible forum members. You only have to look at the lack of interest in concepts such as The Fit to Talk English project to realise how deeply embedded the bounty hunting concept is in Bitcoin Talk, and the lack of interest that its spammers have in the well being of the forum, or in the world of crypto and Bitcoin.

Merit was introduced as a barrier to reduce the potential rewards of these 'users', and it seems to be working. To be frank, if you can't achieve a rank above member in the time it takes to gain the required activity, then you need to question your ability, and your motivation. It isn't the fault of the merit system.

Yeah it is so good. You are the only one not good this time because of nonsense topic like this. I'm so full with that word and please just find another topic that makes me interested. This is advice by co-newbie to not spread spam like this. It is great right?

The system is made of the merit sources and the members of the forum of which the former is also a part of the latter. Everyone who is in the system is a human. Thus the favouring will be there. This is what we have been lacking in the forum for 2-3 years now. People reply to topics without even seeing what others say. We dont care about who the above us is - even though I agree the number of members is also big but still there is not sort of personal interaction through the posts.

Punishment for the bounty spammers.

Get used to it or better yet leave the forum.

The only hypocrite is you. The forum has its problems and the problem of spam control has gone so far that the mods are unable to control it anymore and admins had to take this harsh step.

Why do you even need those merit points? So keen on ranking up I see.

Written rule by theymos and the mods in the stickies. Read before you post.

The system is working fine. The only thing is we need more merit sources.

Being one of those people - I can assure you one thing. We are tired of seeing the spam in the forum. Thus the radical measure.

No.

I posted similar thoughts in a merit thread in the Beginners & Help forum board but I will share my thoughts on merit here as well.


I've found that it's very difficult to get merit here. The system appears to favor people who were already here and established in the Bitcointalk forum when it was introduced (I believe only at the start of the year?).

It has ended up creating a barrier for newbies and new people who visit Bitcointalk as many do not receive any merit from the small portion of members who can distribute it.

The system (and merit givers themselves) also favors English speakers or people who have a well-developed English vocabulary. There are much fewer merit givers in the local / foreign language boards and they are much less populated. This has been confirmed by several merit-givers who have created their own threads on this. It's basically a form of discrimination against foreigners.

I find it quite puzzling that a forum that's been around for years, and based on decentralized networks and cryptocurrency, has managed to adopt and implement a centralized and archaic system of forum rewards that favor a select few. It's both ironic and hypocritical!

What's worse is that it's basically created a black market for people to trade their merit. People are paying for merit. There are telegram groups (and probably other social media groups) set up for this express purpose. Is that really what the system is trying to achieve?

I've been here since late last year and haven't been able to acquire a single merit point. I don't have the English barrier problem as English is my native language.

What makes it even more difficult for newbies and Jr Members is that there is an unwritten rule not to beg for merit... so you can't even ask for it. That will most likely just get you blocked from merit givers or possibly a -1 Trust (?)

I honestly think the whole system needs to be rehashed or redeveloped so that everyone has a chance to get merit (or maybe just turf out the whole system altogether??).

The global blockchain and cryptocurrency industry still has a lot of room to grow with new people entering crypto markets and looking up websites for info every month. Judging by some of the arrogant and judgemental responses from the Hero and Sr Members in this thread, if this and the other reasons above results in the reception they can expect to get from a popular forum board, what message does it send to them??   

It comes off as being very cliquey, protective and insular! There has to be a better way.

 

What sort of post is this ? It clearly looks like some spun text posted out by some bot. We re talking about merits here and you cannot control the urge to make a shit post even here. Have some shame.

I am new to this and i am still trying to understand merit...

I feel happy with the merit system. It really makes all the member who contributes shine and make easier to spot abuser or cheater. For OP, if you want to see how people react to merit in early days, you can see my thread, find it here https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.28909933

Yes , but  there are many telegramg group.

May be you have a better idea?

Thanks for answer, im working on it.

Report them in the proper format to the respective and they shall be given judgement by DT with a red tag. Provide enough proof as well.

Every user getting merited every month will mean the same thing that used to happen to the forum before merit was introduced. Ranking up based on post count and thus people used to spam to get ranked up. You idea is so dumb that it denies the existence and objective of the merit system altogether.

Merit is not something to be given out for free. Hammer this idea into your brain.

Let merit sale happen - it will only give the DT more opportunities to wipe out these scumbags who do engage in such sales. Just like account sales. This will decrease the clutter of spam and in turn the legitimate users who try to follow rules will be benefited.

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Please work on your English if you want to get merited for your posts (if worthy enough) in future.

Yes but many people sall merit and many buy. If every user get a little merit every mounth , it reduce the number of sales and the kill interest to buy merit.

I found your post difficult to understand, and had you posted it in the Fit to Talk project, we would have suggested changes such as -

To answer your post -

The activity system is the driver for upranking in this forum, your suggestion would just provide a second variation of activity. The merit system is not an upranking tool, but quite the reverse. It is a tool to prevent the upranking of spammers and low value posters.

Merit it is a good idea for this forum , but to my opinion not fully considered , many people sell merit its a very bad. i think may be if every user to get merit once a mounth it will be good. Number of getting merit depending of forum rang. For examle: 1 merit for Junior 2 to member and so on. It may be a reduce interest in buying the merit.

Merit is a good thing, this is important to quality our activity I think. Because Bitcoin players views as essential for all things.

Let's make quality posts and get Merit!

Honestly speaking, after seeing the number of posts by you, I thought lets see why you did not receive any single merits (Hoping I will give one if I find a good one).

But seriously!!!

Find me a reason and point out me for which one you deserve a merit please.

Please stop doing such things. You are giving a bad name to this forum. This a community where we talk about blockchain, decentralisation, bitcoin etc. We help each others to prepare for the future technology to make a big difference in the world.

Is it just me or does anybody else here also thinks that these accounts are made by some account farmer trying to farm these accounts and/or trying to asslick the merit system like the old pajeet shitposters do in general in order to get some merit in a sneaky manner?

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Regardless, seeing all these threads about crybabies tell merit is good merit is good - only shows that people are forced to accept it and are now forcing themselves to make some quality posts.

Watching.....

You should not think like, because then your mindset will not be motivated to be able to contribute to the forum. And many opportunities to get merit, I think in this forum many people are smart and professional, so you do not worry when you see your condition is still at a low level. Merit is still growing and now you should be able to do much better to get merit, you just need to contribute and also make a quality post and also useful. Believe that when you do your best then you will get the best too (Merit point).

System merit created to help the development of the forum because some time ago scammers and spammers very much at all, in fact now it has all been reduced. Merit has made many changes much better and we should support this useful move.

In my opinion it is good in general if the purpose must followed. But you know why sadly I get red trust because of merit that I didn't mean to have it. I did not cheat, I did not copy paste but because of my massage about merit I have red trust now. 

in my opinion it is a positive thing. Because with the merit then at least we will reduce the posting of less quality or spam. And for beginner or newbie like me, I will try to make a useful post/thread and can provide usefull information for all member in this forum to raise my rank.

good, with merit, then inevitably the person must make a post that is informative and useful to others so that they can take the rank. If only the post made carelessly until whenever they received no merit and could not rise to the higher rank.

Well, I think it really needed to stop the posts like you did on the OP.

Mate seriously (?) to find the opinion you had to create a new thread on the section.

You would not needed the whole lot of time that you have spent to write the OP, if you were looking around just on this meta section for your answers.

We need to shift our focus on something else than merit now.