Topic: Is Merit Requirement Per Rank Excessive? (Read 899 times)

I would like to choose Gold color. Bitcoin is a gold, so users who are real asset of the forum should be highlighted with Gold color.

It's never a waste as it highlighted the quality of the post and make it stand out among other posts on the board or replies in that particular thread although in the spirit of helping low rank users (trying their best in contributing positively to the forum through quality posts), if I was to be given the opportunity of having more smerits at my disposal, more allocation will go towards lower rank users but until then, most quality posts from members irrespective of their rank gets +1 from me.

So that leaves colour changes for profile names. How about purple or gold?

Wrong, the kind of approach seriously destroys the main purpose of merit system. Merits are rewards for good, high quality, helpful, constructive things; and constructive posts are always constructive ones because it is the fact, no one can deny constructive posts are not constructive ones, no matter what those posts composed and published by whichever ranked users in the forum.

Merits, in reality, is not a ranking tool. In my opinion, merits and merit system play important role to prevent shitposters move up, but the merit system should be called as high-quality-motivative tool.
I agreed with your suggestion, and the key point here is whichever titles or priviledges for potential new rank, it should not give them any financial benefits, that might cause another kind of abusements.

I think it is good to give people incentives. At the moment many members think that giving Legendary members merits is a waste. This implies that the only use for merits is as a ranking tool. I believe that this is of less importance than their use as a guide for active posters, and a way for them to modulate their behaviour to comply with community standards.

Custom titles is just one possibility. A non-intrusive image in  signatures is another possible incentive. I don't like animated avatars, so those could lead to the blocking of avatars, and would be counter productive. Changing the colour of profile names would be very easy to implement, and it probably wouldn't even require much of a change to the software.

I always look upon your ideas especially in the some serious discussions like this. I agree with you and not only for higher members but also to low rank users. Not, all can  create a good or constructive post that can be merited.

And I am one of the proof to it. LOL

I don't think theymos will add new custom title for users who earn above 2000 merits in the near future. There are some potential reasons for this hesitation:
(1) Currently, there are very limited users who actually received more than 2000 merits, only three for now, including theymos.
Theymos might consider to add new title if there are around 100 or 200 or more than 200 users reach that club of above 2000 merits-earned, in my opinion.

(2) There will be potential conflicts between Hero, Legendary and above Ledgendary ranks. It's just a potential conflicts, who knows when the new rank has not yet added?

Merit system did not affect me but there were many things that affected me on this forum from the time I joined till now and the forum was much worse and it's quite better now. 99% members out here have alt accounts to hide themselves. Legendary members according to you may not have any talent or skills but why do you feel they don't deserve being a Legendary? Why is it such a big thing being a Legendary? For me, Legendary is just a rank and I did not chase down the rank or be desperate to get it nor did I nor anyone else earns it. It's not a degree or a certificate to be proud of. This is just a normal forum for me so I don't really appreciate my rank as much as others do.

There are many Signature Campaigns that accept even such members if they have been reputed and quality posters and I have seen such members even becoming staff members so nothing is impossible here but still people keep complaining. Hence, according to me nobody actually gives so much importance to the rank except for Signature Campaigns.




Also, can you define what comes under contributing to your community mean? Sharing guides or something?


Now this merit thing was introduced to increase quality posting but I have seen nonsensical posts getting merited as nobody has to justify it just like positive feedback which was and is a craze even today.


What's my generation and your generation like lol

I have been using bitcoins since it was 5 years old and now it's 10, that's the main difference. I have helped many members who were clueless about trading and were trying to be trapped by scammers. And everyone in the world wants to make money which is not wrong and this forum gives you and many others to share information you get. It's not necessary that a Legendary has more information than you have and vice versa. Yes, there may be things you don't understand and know and I may be able to answer them which I do when anybody asks me.  


Being a Legendary member, I have information that I share at times with the community but doesn't mean that I have hardware knowledge etc. as I haven't been into mining or using hardware wallets or created my own coin. When I was a newbie, I was scammed of $200 and that happened on this very forum where I couldn't find the one who scammed me. I just learnt to be more alert and find scammers. There was a time illegal goods and accounts used to be sold openly and that's been stopped to an extent now. Most trustworthy members have gone to jail and turned out to be the biggest scammers. So what kind of extraordinary information are you searching for from Legendaries here that you can't find in so many bitcoin-related guides available online? This is a forum used to share information and everyone can share whatever information they have and no qualification is required.

I would encourage anyone who questions the value of being a higher ranking account to review this thread.

At the very least, this shows a hidden bias. I personally try to remove as much of that bias from the merit I send by soliciting people to make submissions to me of examples of high effort posts, made over a period of time, although I do make some exceptions to this, for example, if one person gives an accurate answer after many people have posted nonsense (so to highlight the accurate answer).

The above also gives the maximum benefit of the doubt to merit sources, that I don't think is necessarily appropriate to give all of them. For example, I have seen at least one merit source make subtle efforts to get rid of certain forum members they do not like, or get along with -- if you accept my conclusions of this at least one person's behavior to be "trying to get rid" of the person, then it would probably not be unreasonable to say they also make an effort to de-facto censor those who they do not agree with. 

Merit system didn't affect you since you're a Legendary when it's release. Do you think it's good to have a lot of Legendaries that has no talent, skills, ideas, and knowledge about the blockchain especially in the bitcoin community? I'm not saying that all of the new generations will become like that if there's a chance, most of them will just focus on the bounty and earn a profit without any contribution to our community.

The merit system wasn't created to make people's life worst but to act as a barrier, the legitimate and strongest individuals can enter easily instead of those bounty hunters and shitposters. In your generation, I can say that some of the Legendaries are not quite good and just making money through this platform without any threads created for the development of the community and the blockchain. I'm expecting that if you're a legendary, I should learn something extraordinary from you because you have the experience and you already said that it takes 2-3 years to be a Legendary, that's quite long to have a high level of innovation. If I'm not seeing you as an information giver, do you think the title of being Legendary is worth it?

I'm fired up this month, so how about letting us have custom titles if we can get to 2,000 merits. It's always good to have new levels for our ambitions.

When people have taken 2-3 years to get the Legendary rank, why should 1000 merit be too much to ask for? Not to forget, a person can get merited by many people for just 1 post as well. It's like a free bonus. However, I don't still agree with the merit system but people always have a problem.

I understood you feelings, because I started from zero (all of my 272 merits are self-earned), not from Full Member like you, but finally I have become a Senior Member from all my hard works, and my dedication to contribute the forum in my limited ability. The new era of self made users started in January of 2018, and please look at the fact now. In highest paid campaign in the forum, except Chip Mixer, most of participants are self-made users. I think it is the big rewards of merit system and the current rank requirements, the gift is not only merits as well as promotion, but it also is the higher competitive indicator of your account when you rank up with merit system.

I have 256 merits, 100 airdropped merits since the start of the merit system and 156 received merits from random persons that liked/amazed or what so ever. So what's my point of this statement?

Those 156 merits that I've received did not come from any merit source or a DT(a few maybe). I started creating big threads that might help our local and that's where I started to earn merits. I'm just a full member way back 2017 but look me now, reached the rank of Sr. Member because of hard work and dedication. If you're really interested in cryptocurrency, it will automatically show your ideas on how you'll create topics, sub-topics or anything that provides information. Basically, those who show negative opinions regarding the merit system was a mere bounty hunter who just wanted merits for additional payouts. There are also people I know, my fellow citizens, that are very fluent in English, skilled in BBcodes or other programming languages, and good at business and market strategy. They tend to boost their skills in this forum and able to received merits too. The merit system is normal, being a passionate member here will make you receive merit.

To those people saying that they're creating quality topics but didn't receive any merits. I checked some of your posts and I don't think repetitive topics can't be considered as high-quality topics. Show some extraordinary way how to deliver your chosen topic, there's a lot of ways to provide information in the viewers. Also, making another version of existing topics does not make it as a quality topic, it's just showing that you really lack idea and just taking advantage of it to do better. In an actual forum, committees will open a topic that all of the members will provide information about the said topic. If you're a member of an actual forum, you should abide by the regulations and participate in the existing topic. Comparing this forum to the actual forum, you're just discussing it only to your seatmates instead of contributing to the whole forum.

I'm finaleshot, proven that the merit system was fair and normal to a simple member like me.

I know and I totally understand that. I wouldn't want to either. It's a tiring process and hats off to those that try. It is not just about finding quality posts but you see also all kinds of spam, advertising and off topics, you report those in one thread only to find that a new thread was created with even more of the same.

I constantly see merits associated with ranking for signature campaigns, and for this reason I think that the Junior requirement should be raised to 10, and the member requirement raised to 25. For me. I believe that merits should be an indication of the opinion of the community about a post or topic. I use merits I receive, as well as replies, to decide if I should continue or expand a project or opinion. Upranking should be a consequence, and not a reason for the receipt of merits.

It isn't difficult to earn merits, I've got 3 alts with member status, and I have received the 1,000 requirement for a Legendary. I believe that one of my alts is the faster to achieve member status in this forum. My level of technical knowledge is far inferior to a large number of the members here, but I believe in Bitcoin and the Bitcoin Talk forum. I'm also convinced that Bitcoin started a banking revolution that is as important and far reaching as the creation of Central Banks. If you believe in the crypto economy, and you support this forum in its aims to help people to adjust to the dramatic changes that affect everybody, then merit will find its way into your profile. What is more important though is that you will be helping "ordinary" people to escape the tyranny of the current political elite.

The Fit to Talk English translation projects are pretty inactive at the moment. There are still merits to be awarded for members who would like assistance in starting quality topics in this forum.

I created the Mobile Image gallery for members to post pictures of local political events or traditional activities, and tell us about them in this forum. I believe that sovereignty and traditional values are important, and by understanding more about other countries and customs, it is easier for us all to work together in harmony.

The receipt of merits for the above projects should be of secondary interest. Maintaining Bitcoin Talk as an important international forum is far more important in my opinion.

Yes but usually there are shitposts in altcoins discussion section and merit sources might not feel like to go through garbage pile to find the gems.

There is another group. Those who stay under the radar because they are interested in altcoins and their posts don't get a lot of attention and aren't visible to merit sources.
Remember the user who made a thread in Meta a few weeks ago where he states his reasons why he thinks he deserves to rank up to Legendary?
He is a quality poster, but he is posting about Altcoins and merit sources don't go there (one does now).
If a user is interested in an X Altcoin for example and writes only in threads regarding projects based on that Altcoin - he is going to have a tough time earning merits.

I would contest this statement.  Good posters are the ones who are ranking up, even if it still takes a lot of time to do so.  There might be some exceptions to that, but I can't think of any examples--and if you can, please tell me who they are so I can give them some merits.

The people who complain the loudest and most often about the merit system are precisely the ones the merit system was designed to keep from ranking up.  It's mostly the shitposters who whine about not getting any merits, although certain members like cryptohunter et al aren't strictly shitposters and still complain constantly.

More merit sources definitely could help spread out some more merits, but the real problem is and always has been that there just aren't enough really good posts deserving of merits.  You'd think people would step up their game in sections like Bitcoin/Altcoin Discussion, but no.  They're perfectly happy writing one-line shitposts for their bounties, which they can keep doing at Jr. Member rank.

Ultimately, the system is working pretty well right now.  We've got more merit sources this year, and it seems to me that the worthy members are earning merits.  It's not supposed to be easy to rank up anymore.  It's going to take time even for outstanding contributors, so people need to be patient.

Oh! Is the merit requirements per rank excessive? Hmm, it depends.

If we are talking about Newbies up to Members then I will say NOT because getting 1 to 10 merits is easy in a sense that you know that it was feasible to achieve. On the other hand, for those Full Member and up, I think it is already excessive. The moment I heard that I need hundreds of merit first in order to rank up, it already makes my knees shaken up; the feeling that you are hopeless and just choose to surrender. Actually, sometimes I'm having an introspection and just came to the point where I tell to myself "Much better if I will be contented where I am right now" (I know some members out there feel the same way).

I know to myself that I am a good quality poster somehow, I make sensible opinions and help others as much as I can and yet I'm still here, stuck as a Full Member. Yeah! I know that I was able to get some merits but those are not enough. While running these things into my mind, I became less motivated as time goes by (for ranking up only) which leads me to giving up my dream of becoming a Legendary. My dream of becoming one of the highest ranked member here is not all about getting more money through sig campaigns but mainly because of pride. I am aiming for such thing because I want to boost my self esteem, I want to feel that I'm significant even within my local board at least and pay forward of course by means of helping others especailly my fellow Filipinos. But unfortunately, I guess it remains a dream forever.

Nevertheless, no hurt feelings at all. I live under theymos' house (this forum), I live under his rules . I understand that fact. And besides, I already learned to embrace the system as I stay here so it's not a big deal for me any longer. Here's one thing, as long as I can see that Merit System is keeping our forum peaceful and do not hinder iall of its members to grow then there's no problem with me at all.