Topic: Is it easier to earn Merit without a signature? (Read 559 times)

In most cases your participation won't affect on getting merits. It mostly depends on quality and usability of your posts.

I myself personally don't look if a member is wearing a signature or not as basis for giving them merits it is like having a personal biased on signature wearers which I don't think is right in giving merits. I also always look on the posts itself but not who is the one who post it as I don't look for their names in order not to affect if I will be sending merits or not.

If you think his answer was helpful, why didn't you send him a merit point!! I think this is the answer to your question "treat others the way you want to be treated"

Can someone tell me how exactly i can earn merits im a new newbie

Data on the Merit Dashboard is show in terms of awarded sMerit on the Section/subsection tab.
Direct link:BitcoinTalk Merit Dashboard.

Yes, we had an interesting conversation on Meta regarding the Altcoin Section recently as can be seen in this thread: Should ANN and services threads be excluded from the merit system ?. I don’t think we’ll change anything, but at least we blew some steam off on the matter.

The Dashboard is pretty big, so a laptop is better suited to see the amount of available information and to play around with the filters.

Is this order by total merits or merits per post? If latter, then this merit system isn't so great afterall. I mean, economics is ok but altcoin Ann, please.

I won't go and see for myself because my phone doesn't show that properly, I tried.

putting signature and removing signature wont affect anything. all you can do is to keep posting and dont lose hope share quality content and you wil see some differences. earning merit is tough but not impossible

If your post is good enough, signatures shouldn't be a problem, and now many people have set up signatures.
Therefore, what matters is the content of the article.
But to be honest, the Merit are really hard to get.

Honestly I didn't agree with you. Wether some member doing signature campaigns or not should be the base for giving Merits. I think sometimes person who didn't do bounties does not mean that member contributes to the forum greater ways. May be that member is shitposting more than the member who do the signature campaigns.

I think some members looking at their reputation in the forum ( I also think it matters ) before giving away their sMerits. Though Bitcointalk is not a money making place, I don't think getting some passive income while contributing to the forum is not a big issue. I don't need to do any signature campaigns to earn few bucks since I covered my income sources. But sometimes we didn't know about other members story from their point of view.

I don't encourage to do Bounties or signature campaigns since most of the occasions it ends up creating spammers/shitposters. That's how typical behavior of humans when it comes to the money. Finally I want to quote what our great "Theymos" said about Merits. However at the end of the day, it's up to the members how they should spend their hard earned Merits since it's theirs not the people who commentating( including me) about how they should spend

It's aboujt how helpful your posts are, how much thought and work you put into them and some luck (the person who is reading it needs to have some sendable merits)

There are some who prefer to give merits to signatureless members.  They think that by being signatureless, that member's intention is not to make bitcointalk a money-making site but to really learn and contribute to the community (this attitude is highly encouraged which gives that signatureless member a thumbs-up).

Many will scrutinize your post first if it deserves a merit then look at your post history if you are a spammer/shitposter then they will analyze your intention and decide if they will give you a merit or not. (Hence, the merit that you will get does not depend on just your current post but also on your previous posts)

However, most of the members do not associate signature campaign and giving merits.  They just look at your post and then decide if it is merit-worthy or not.

Earning merit is somewhat hard to earn as for now. There will be no difference even your wearing signature or not its up to the quality of your post to earn merit.

This is very common question which you have asked.

First thing you have to know that there are no relation between signature campaign and merit, cause merit is totally dependable on your contribution to this forum. If your contribution or knowledge help others then you will get merit, and other hand signature campaign is the main key to earn money for all bitcoiners, so everybody in this forum can use signature campaign from very first day if they are eligible to the certain campaign.
But my opinion is that dont focus on merit just focus on learning and grow your knowledge day by day so that you can contribute to this forum with lots of new and good thing.

By the end wish you happy bitcoin or cryptocurrency journey...

It's hard to get merit, but as long as we can access in bitcoin forums it is an with be. We cannot do about thier meriting system.

The signature does not affect merit. It is not easy to get merits, but it is necessary to make quality posts. For today very few moderators handing out merits.
If you participate in bounty companies and want to continue to receive merit you should not do a huge number of meaningless posts just to reach a certain number of posts per week.

thank you

To me it does not matter if you are wearing a signature or not. I know that there are a lot of Sighaters on this forum and they dislike and also discount anything that a signature member is posting, but that is their loss. I have seen some of the best posts being done by signature members on this forum, because they are measured and judged by their signature managers and by other people that hate them.

A member that does not belong to a signature campaign can simply post what they want, but signature campaign members have to abide by the signature campaign rules and have to scrutinize every post they make. Quality posts takes a lot of time and extra effort.  

There is no relationship between them and they will not affect each other. Signature is just a promotion method. It doesn't matter with your posts. Sometimes the signature will be deleted because of its own data problem, but it won't affect you to get merit.

In relation to post positioning and its relation to getting merited (quality/interest aside), I did an in-depth study on merited posts analyzing features such as with/without image, with/without quotes, post number (position within thread), post date, time between posting and receiving merit and post length. You can see the whole study here: Forum Merited Messages- Does size count?.

In terms of post position within the thread, 15% of merited posts are OPs (first post), being 40,21% awarded to posts within the first page of posts in a thread.
Surprisingly, 32,58% of merited posts are on mega threads, 40,31% if we count post position 201 onwards. Ann sections and Economy (The Wall Observer is the extreme case) are behind these cases. These sections conform their own ecosystems and follow patterns that only happen there.

(post number is post position within thread. This is a global overall view, which will vary if we focus on a specific forum section/subsection).


Aside from post position, images tend not to help (statistics and a few others a logical exceptions).  Also 56,50% of the merited posts are merited within the first 24 hours, adding up to 76,97% within the first week after the post is published.
Post do not need to be too lengthy either, since 65,07% of merited posts contain less than 100 words, with an additional 18,41% between 100 and 200 words. Longer posts do seem to get more merits, but cases are fewer and have studies and information that require the post to be long.

Even with all the said above (which is really about the meta-structure of the post), it is the content that matters, and that is not statistically derivable.

I believe that the idea should be to post less, but with much more thought and/or research in each post. The more post of this kind, the more chances (but you need to invest a lot more time). On the other hand, posting lots of crappy posts standout way too much on the posting history, and the history is what builds your character and is often checked before awarding merit.

It won't make any difference if you decide not to put on a signature. The merit will be given only when your post is deem fit for it, not just removing a signature. Those with already merits like 10 and 100 merits obtained it automatically when the merit was introduce into bitcointalk forum.

From what I have seen, simply posting more does not increase your chances of receiving merits. Quality is still the primary requirement.

1. I think the first post in a thread is more likely to receive merits, so starting more threads may increase your chances. However, quality still seems to be a necessary requirement, so a single post with thoughtful, insightful, and valuable content is more likely to receive merits than any number of mediocre posts.

2. I believe that a reply posted earlier in a thread is more likely to receive merits. Replying early gives you the chance to state something that hasn't already been stated. Also, once a thread winds up or starts filling up with worthless replies, readers stop caring about it. Take this reply, for example. It might a quality post, considering the time and effort I have put into it, but it is #33, so I doubt that many people will read it, and even fewer will consider giving it merit.

3. Don't bother posting in "mega-threads". There are many mega-threads with hundreds of replies and none of the replies receive any merit. Anything you might want to say in a mega-thread has already been stated many times, and nobody cares about an opinion that has already been stated 100 times.

4. You will easily exceed the activity requirement for a rank long before you reach the merit requirement. Unfortunately, many people have not yet figured that out and the forum continues to be flooded with worthless posts.

Anyway, that's how I see it.

- I don´t care if you are on a campaign. You are supporting a project and that is not wrong. Most times you will get nothing.

- No. Posting 10 sh*ts a day won´t make you earn merit. Posting 10 great posts increases your chances of a merit source finding them and you also help the forum.

- I don´t take into account if you have also "fill in" posts, as long as they are not in "serious discussion" or sections where they are irrelevant. Campaigns require them and if the forum does not want these they can limit the number of posts allowed for campaigns.

Now, there just one thing that will get you perma-ignored: Trading merit or farming accounts. That is a NO-NO.

Excellent data! That leads me to my next question, is it good to makes tons a post every day? Would posting 10 times a day increase the chances of getting merit? Low quality posts would make it lower, but let's assume each post is of the same high quality. Would more posts mean more merit? Or would members check my profile and see lots of posts per day, and that may come off as spam?

To be honest, I think that it has nothing to do with your signature when it comes to the point of gaining merits. The merit feature is still new so it will take some time to inculcate the habit of awarding merits to others. If you are concerned about it then you should focus on sharing your knowledge in a best possible way with others. Since there are some limits on the outgoing number of merits, everyone would consider high standards to determine the quality of the post before sending the merits.

In my own opinion, the best way to earn merits is not to expect or focus on the merit itself. Being genuine in helping out to this forum is the main key for you to get merits. No need to rush things just to rank up with all shitty posts.

Types of post that mostly get merited are good quality, conatructive in any ways, contributing to the forum. Even if you have signature you would still get merited if your topic or post is helpful and informative.

I've been taking a look at the data I downloaded this weekend. Focusing on all the merited users, the aggregates are as follows:

Rank   %WithSignature   AvgTotalMerit_NO_Signature   AvgTotalMerit_Signature
Jr. Member             53%             3,52                                       3,11
Member                 74%             8,67                                       9,71
Full Member           78%           10,20                                      12,31
Sr. Member            75%           16,11                                      15,71
Hero                      74%           12,44                                      20,10   
Legendary             74%           18,92                                      25,05
(I’ve skipped out the other ranks)

The merit taken into account is the received merit through a merit TX (therefore not considering initial airdropped merit per rank). The average is simply the rank’s total receives merit divided by the number of users in the rank that have received a merit TX (done for signature and non-signature bearers).

The signature is derived from checking whether the merited user profile has content in the Signature field, or not. We cannot therefore distinguish between a campaign signature and a personal signature (such as a personal message, a bitcoin address, etc.).
In addition, the signature is “as is now”: If a user dropped his signature yesterday, he falls into de “no signature category” (to do it 100% accurately, we would need to know the signature status at the moment of receiving the merit TX. This is impossible with current datasets).

The data suggests that baring/not baring a signature is not significant on the lower and mid-range levels, but has a positive influence in Heroes and Legendries. Perhaps it has to do with a larger amount of posts being placed (therefore, more writing more posts and better content could lead to the average being significantly higher).

No, merit are not related to signatures. If you post badly you will never get sMerit.

Thanks for your information.

Useful thread for newbie to keep in mind in the future. I guess quality of posts is much more important than any other factors (eg: wearing signature or not) thanks!

Merit's acquisition and signature have nothing to do!
If you publish a good article and others like your article, they will give you Merit!
Will not affect your Merit because you wear a signature!

I think each case should be judged on its own merit. (pardon the pun!)

If the person is providing quality responses and contributing to the forum in a 'normal' fashion, trying to join in and genuinely here for the right reasons, then of course a signature campaign shouldn't influence someone's decision to award merits or not.

I find it fascinating that people would purposely overlook someone because of wearing a signature actually, i think its childish and akin to bullying almost. My take is, if you are here and you are active, contributing, looking and learning- you might aswell wear a signature right? You shouldn't be judged by someone because of what you're wearing! 

Just my opinion BTW.

I don't look at signatures, so they don't affect my attitude as a merit source. However, I think that signatures have an effect on the poster. This thread is an indication of this to a certain extent. The need to post continuously regardless of the potetial for decent posts, reduces the quality of posts in my opinion. This can affect the reputation of the poster. Another problem seems to be the need to 'jazz up' low value posts with pictures and formatting, and this can result in the poster being added to ignore lists.

If you prostitute yourself by selling your signature, you have to put up with a lower quality in your love life with the forum.

If we filter the dashboard on the section/subsection tab by the month of May (so as to get a close reference and not a cumulative one), it would be altcoin Ann, Russian, meta, marketplace, economics, and altcoin discussion in this order.

Some of the above have their own ecosystems. Altcoin Ann for example awards often the OPs who create the Ann and these back to some of the contributions to their threads.

Regardless, it’s not a matter of which are the most awarded sections, but finding how to contribute to them through your posts and create well versed opinions or information based content. Visibility also needs to be pondered (I don’t mean posting arts, but where you post. I.e. mega threads are likely to be not read by many since they tend to be spam threads - Wall Observer is an exception for those in that ecosystem).

There is no directly connect merit with signature campaign. But I think indirectly connected. Because every bounty has a condition like you have to post minimum 15 per week. This is the main reasones for spam on forum. In case some one visit your profile he will see spam and he will not give you merit.

So my suggest make some constructive and useful post to earn merit. There is no any shortcut way to earn merit.

I guess it really doesn't matter at all because merits are based on your posts. If you were able to contribute a very helpful quality posts in this forum and someone finds it deserving to get merits then you will certainly get one. It really depends on the people reading your posts.
In my own opinion, the best way to earn merits is not to expect or focus on the merit itself. Being genuine in helping out to this forum is the main key for you to get merits. No need to rush things just to rank up with all shitty posts. It would be so self satisfying and fulfilling seeing someone agreeing to my posts through a merit which I really made effort of than posting shitty posts and asking merits to someone just to rank up. We should start by developing our way of thinking and the way we do post in this forum for us to evolve in a way where we can contribute not only to the forum but to the soon to be new crypto enthusiasts that needs our assistance when it comes to crypto knowledge and technicalities.

There is no direct relationship between them; merits are a reflection of good posts not wear the signature "This means there will be no change if you maintain the same level of your posts."
However, if you are an average post/topic and do not wear a signature, I will give you merit and vice versa.
Merits like fish, you need patience and care to collect them but do not concentrate on raising them.

Having a signature won't stop you from getting more merits. Merits are usually earned if your post is reliable and helpful. If the other users thought that your post is quite helpful then they will send you some merits if they have sMerits. sMerits are the merits a user can give to other members who have good quality posts.

I think it does not matter, it depends on the quality of the post , the person that decides to give you merit it would not be concerned about your signature at all, at least me personally would not do something like that

Thanks for the reponse. I knew some people don't. Not sure why some people said that it can't make a difference when it does for some.

It looks like the ANN, trading, and META receive the most merit according to the website. Try those

Hi DdmrDdmr,
Can you tell me that which sections are more merited than others??

Thanks in advance.

I think it definitely has an effect, some of the more senior members have stated that they don't merit posters with a signature. Not sure why really, especially when some of them have signatures themselves (although plenty practice what they preach and don't have signatures - campaign ones anyway). Theoretically if you are posting quality posts, you'll still be earning merits, just be aware that you are possibly limiting your 'merit earning' potential. Personally I have a signature as it is a way of earning some passive money while I'm scrolling around and writing posts here and there, but thinking about dropping it after this campaign and concentrating on just doing one or two quality posts a week. That way I have more time to spend researching and coming up with some original posts. All depends on what you're here for really. I'm not overly fussed about ranking up, but would like to move up over time, more of a pride thing I guess.

I don't give merits to members of signature campaigns for exactly that reason. I know that there are at least a few other people that also do not give merits to members of signature campaigns, but I don't know how much of a difference it makes overall.

I'm here for quite some time and I was without signature for a few months, didn't see any difference in the amount of merit I got and I have received more than 200 till now

Some people are paying attention to your signatures just to figure out what type of person you are or at least what are you here for.

I personally support only Bitcoin and trying to popularize it, I have one or two Altcoins I like / because of anonymity and security/ but my signature is only for Bitcoin and  Bitcoin related services.

Nope, the signature shouldn't affect the chance of getting merit as long as the signature is not irritating for the eye or vision. Look at me for example, I don't have a signature and I never tried to have one. Still I'm stuck without merits (or a very few merits to be precise). But I'm not giving up or anything, I know the merits will come to me pretty soon.

I agree with that for sure! I've had merited members comment saying that my posts were helpful, but don't send merit. I don't really understand how sMerits work exactly, well I kinda do, but you're right. There have been a couple times when I really see posts that deserve merit, but I don't have any to send.

There's no connection about merit and bounties/signatures. If the post you're doing is valuable and it helped others then you deserved to get merit. With your post on altcoin discussion, mostly people in the forum doesn't have interest on it so only few or most are the new people that came in are only looking to that post. There are threads that are helping other members to rank up.

Look at this thread --> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/overview-of-services-2727673 they are under the "giveaways".

I also don't think a sig campaign would have an impact on ur merit points.

I too have been battling to rack up merits. As you can see from my post count / activity I'm well above the quota for full members status but I'm lacking on the merit points. I've also posted comments and threads that I think were fairly helpful but I think the problem is that because the merit system is still in its infancy, most people still need to get used to the idea of actually giving out merits. Also their is a limited number of sMertis that each person gets, sMertis are sendable merits. Like I would have gladly drop you a few merits but I don't have any sendable (sMertis) available to me...lol

A signature is a kind of passive feature that does not presume anything bad in my opinion, as long as your posts are aimed at contributing to the forum, and not at quick responses to cover the signature campaign posting requirements. If the posts are ok, then the signature does not conform an issue.

Social bounties on the other hand very often clog one’s posting history, standing out, and tend to define a profile as you say of a non-contributive forum member. Those I believe should probably avoided if possible.

I appreciate the helpful comment. I saw a post awhile ago about someone talking about how participating in a signature bounty lowers the chances of earning merit because it shows that the user wants to do bounties, rather than providing value to the forum or something like that.

The signature per se should not affect chances of getting merit. Most merited members bear a signature with no issue whatsoever. Participating actively in social media campaigns that require heavy reporting and/or spamming on the forum will affect chances, as often merit is given to a post after contrasting the posters posting history. Nevertheless, that is not your case.

It’s the post’s content and placement that matters most. Some sections are way more merited than others and sub-ecosystems do exist around the forum.

I’ve looked briefly through your posting history and found nothing wrong with it. I believe that you’ve even diversified posting in multiple sections (you were more concentrated on altcoins before) after asking in Meta a month ago.

You can study forum merit stats in case they come in handy here: BitcoinTalk Merit Dashboard .

I've been stuck on here trying to earn some merit. I made a helpful post here a couple weeks ago: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/why-the-market-cap-will-explode-in-2018-due-to-altcoins-3949893 Or at least it was helpful according to the comments.

I used to make really helpful posts often. I've been doing a signature bounty for the past couple of months. Would this stop members from sending me merit? Also, what's the incentive once members do get merit to make good posts? I've seen so many 1000+ merit accounts make such useful posts with their signature bounties.

My signature bounty ends in 2 days. I'll remove my signature and see if that makes a difference.