Topic: Is the first Merit the hardest Merit to get? (Read 588 times)

You're right that once someone gains at least 100 merits he/she should stop thinking about merits a lot and continue to do their best to contribute helpful information on the forum. If someone creates good posts which are informative and could help others then that person will definitely get the deserving merits. But, the ones who are only here to accumulate merits and do not give much attention to the quality of their posts are the ones who don't get any merits.

Anyway congratulations on your achievement! Quick question, how did you became a merit source? Just wanted to know your story!

What does Theymos look for when he selects a merit source? What are the qualifications one need? I know you need to be knowledgeable, helpful, quality poster but apart from that that does one truly need?

I remember that I was here on the first day of creating the merit system, and it seemed confusing about how to obtain it, but it was easy from the first day, and I think that within about 4 months I was able to collect 150 merits, which was very difficult at that time, and after a week or month from that (~ 5/2018) became a merit source and then Merit became  a something that is not important to me.
I care how people feel about this, but other than wanting to increase your profits, you should stop treating merits as if they are something exciting or worth pursuing after the first 100, and then enjoy creating posts without Merit attention.

First merit is hardest one if someone is fully new to this forum and didn't know about merit system much. As a newbie one didn't know how to contribute in good Manner. Usually merit are given in the base of quality of post, helping others which is only possible with some sort of knowledge. some users are so lucky that they recieved their first merit in their first 10 posts. In beginners section I checked out that many newbie promoted to junior just answering some sample questions but many users with more than 100 posts still asking for one merit especially bounty hunters.

Talking about the first merit, it also depends upon luck too. Sometimes a newbie asks a simple question in the forum or responds well to any query and he will usually get a merit. Other people may not get a first merit even writing a lengthy post too. I think there is no way to know on which post you will get a merit or on which post you will not get merit.

A simple rule of thumb is that if anyone is active in the forum, responds and discusses the topics, he will get the merits sooner or later. Don't wait for merit, just keep posting naturally and the merits will come automatically.

When you say it is easy, it is quite understandable, but when you say it is very easy to earn merits and yet you don't have enough of it, it is purely ironical. Merit is not easy to earn to be honest. You cannot just type for people to applaud you. Among the three things that contribute to ranking in the forum which are;

•   Post
•   Activity
•   Merit

The easiest to get is post while the hardest is merit. Merit is never easy to earn and any day it becomes easy to earn, that day marks the collapse of the merit system.

I think it is very easy to get merits if you do quality and good quality and beautiful post to get merits not only first but at first it is actually a bit difficult I think.I am new in this world and when I got merit for the first post I realized that it is very easy to get merit if you post good quality and if not it is too late.In fact if you do good work, there is nothing new or old, if you have merit, you will get respect. This is what I saw when I came to this forum.In fact, it takes long time to understand what I saw myself eating, but it is easy if you try hard.

If everything is been equal it should be the first merits but some people have less advantage because they're not well advance on bitcoin knowledge like others so it becomes had to get their first merit (and that's fine because we're meant to grow on the forum). If two newbies joins the forum and one of them is well educated on Bitcoin and knows things that the average bitcoin users doesn't know then he has a higher possibility of getting merit before the other newbie and also rank up before them. Next thing you should know is the chances of your post been merited increases when you're participating in discussion on a board that has more meriters because they'll get to see your contribution more than others not writing on a well exposed board. I'm not saying you should start spamming boards that have more merit sources in search of merit (don't participate in discussion you don't have an idea on) or you'll end up getting yourself on ignored.


In summary, don't post to get merited but post to contribute your knowledge to the discussion that's ongoing on the thread, you shouldn't care more about your post getting merited or not. What's more important is when your post is adding to the value of the discussion and serve a purpose to someone that reads it. If that person has merit he'll merit your post. When all your attention is on getting merited, your post will be of less value as all you'll be doing is trying to impress or lick ass the merit sources when what you should be doing is contributing to the discussion that's ongoing.

Wow, how interesting to look at these data. It feels like it's some kind of flashback that allows you to analyze your past actions. I would not ever have remembered myself exactly which of my posts received the first merits, but now I looked at the spreadsheet and was a little surprised. After all, this was a post in which I simply shared my personal experience of getting to know this forum. Not a post where I analyzed some information or shared my impressions about the test of some service. But just my personal story. And it was posted in the Beginners&Help, which to me is another testament to why newbies need to visit this board.

Thanks for this data, it will really help a lot of people for both research purpose and other things, I used the search button and found my name so easily, the sheet is too long for me to scroll down..

I created a list that linked each profile to their first received sMerit TX some time ago on another post, so I’ve gone ahead and updated the list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_I7WfxSnzOe7wvjE9dJ-aqH59PnfsMnKSVzycYljrx0/edit?usp=sharing

Your data is on row 14961, showing this (bounty related ) post to be your first merited post, received on the 2018-09-19 18:21:50.

It’s quite interesting to see some of the first posts linked on the list.

Of course first merit are the hardest one, as a newbie often does not have enough experience or knowledge to share to get rewarded, in addition he is not familiar well with forum rules, traditions and etc. Of course there are exception, but for me first 10 or even 100 merits were most complicated to get. Imo, the path from Member (10 merit) to Full Member (100 merit) was more difficult than getting 500 merit to rank-up from Hero to Legendary.

When user has already a solid amount of merit, he already know what to post, where to post, what is value and demanded. When you are new on the forum, you simply search and ask, than make a post worth meriting. I am glad that we have users who reward questions and topic from new forums members, because a lot of high ranked users often dont even pay attention to new users.

I can’t actually remember the merit which have me the hardest time, but after I earned my first merit which I can’t even remember how long that was and how I did it, I just realized that it was a motivation to my beginning, which in turns made me push harder to see if I can earn more, but it was all a struggle to me, until I earned my first 10 merit then i believed that I can be able to earn more as it was just a matter of how much time I’m willing to spend on the forum and how much useful information I can be able to pass to others which could help them in one way or the other, from then i just started earning little by little until I reached the level that I am today, someone first merit and first anything usually have a different kind of feelings that it gives to the person, the feelings of that new beginning is always different.

 I'd say yes too. The first one's looks hard to get to me because when I started it looked as if I was just creating threads fit for only replies and nothing more. I got frustrated to an extent when I'd create threads, someone else gets merited for it. Back then I hadn't understood how merit giving worked. In my mind, it was supposed to be like this; create a nice informative post, drop a link if the work's not yours and then watch how the merits will drop like rain. How I was so disappointed.
Determination and continuous good posts will direct merits your way and if you're able to solve a problem from those posts as well, it helps hasten the process.
 The first merit seems difficult to get because in my own view, that's the time you're trying to prove yourself on how much good and quality posts you can deliver and some merit sources/givers will just be looking to see how regular you'd remain at quality posting.

Of course - many account farmers have proven it, right?
Beginners' knowledge is very limited – in fact they tend to have difficulty posting something in the correct and good writing format. However, if they are able to write something in a good and correct writing format and are able to utilize some merit thread - then you can be sure they are an alt account that is being built.

In fact - beginners find it difficult to get their first merit without proper guidance. They mostly write something that is confusing and even tend to be considered spam when quoting other user's posts - but if they have good knowledge and the posts tend to be of high quality then they are merit farmers who hides behind beginner accounts.

You have spoken well and it seems you know many things about the merit system which is very fine. When someone, especially a newbie has the mindset to earn merits in whichever way, it is always difficult for them to earn the merit.
But immediately you stopped making merit a priority and start learning and making posts that will help the forum and impact you as well, that is when merits will start coming naturally. But at a point when you are above the rank of a fully member, you need to step up your post quality in order to get fresh merits flow.
When I was a newbie, I started receiving merits from the first topic I created. Although not on the topic but during conversations.

This is true, at least that is how it should happen. If a newbie posts something that is appreciated by the community then that should be spotted immediately and would probably result in merits but in many cases that does not happen. What can also happen is that far too many debatable or (what one could consider subjectively) unworthy posts from established/non-established members receive a disproportional number of merits but that is the way of the forum. Democracy is expressed in various manners.

In my opinion, it will be different for different people. Cause not everyone knows all the things from the beginning.  But if he was a hard worker then it could be possible that getting first merit is easy.  

If he was a lazy cat then never gonna happen to his anything like that. I have see many people around they like to get money without any hardwork  so those kind of people will face hard to getting merit.

Even then there was some more factor that exploring skills. Here I remember that my first merit was on a simple question to know. In the past time my thought kinda like that the getting merit was very difficult. But after knowing the some factors it kind of different now. So now I wanna say one thing that  in the beginning level you will get easily made it if you have the patient explore and also have some skills  on using devices and browsing  internet.

Getting first merit is not the hardest but still this depends on the person, if the person focus on getting merit, it will be hard to get, when someone is desperate to get merit that is when the person will be rating any of post he/she made and that is when he/she we look frustrating. For someone to find it easy is when the person concentrate on learning and like to reading, this is when merit will be coming unexpectedly. Getting merit is easier for who is not desperate and difficult for who is egger to get it.

yes, getting first 1-10 merits are the hardest of all, I received my first merit after 3months of registering on this forum on this post.
and it is hard for users who are also new to this forum and new to bitcoin because they know very less about bitcoin to contribute in this forum,
if a user is newbie but have in depth knowledge of bitcoin and working of bitcoin then community will identify him and will give merits according to contribution and value he is providing,

Congratulations on your first merits. Welcome to the forum  

Without doubt you are absolutely right, there are many many many many more! examples. Some are simply shameless begging and some are flooding the WO thread. Another trend has been for what appear to be posts made for merits in the Save your nice merit records here thread. The number of pointless posts made there in the hope others will see and then merit them even though some there are posting images of merits  and activity that, well, simply do not fit the bill according to the thread title.

Begging for merits can be carried out in various manners from the blatant demanding to the subliminal requesting (and many more different ways).

I think @OP is totally wrong about those meriting threads where reputed members and merit sources try to support the members to get merits for their contribution to the forum. The OP misunderstood those threads and thought that someone who begs for merits gets merits from those threads. I strongly disagree with OP's opinion and I believe he really doesn't understand the motive behind creation of those threads. By the way those threads aren't for everyone because if someone doesn't qualify to get merits due to low quality posts then that person won't get any merits from those threads. On the other hand if someone makes good quality posts but those posts didn't get any merits then the merit sources from those threads try to help those members for their contribution by meriting their posts.

There is nothing wrong in helping those members who deserve to get merited for their contribution and The Sceptical Chymist is the best example on the forum who tries to help all those members who contribute their share to this forum. His post history checking thread has helped many good members who deserved those merits and someone like him should get respect for doing such a great service. He's one of the most reputed members of the forum and he has contributed a lot to the forum and also helped those members who made good quality posts. I truly respect him for his great thinking and he's someone who's trying to help all those members who are making good posts but aren't getting enough merits for those posts.

To @OP! Getting merits isn't hard if someone focuses on contributing valuable information on the forum. The ones who are contributing good information on this forum are getting so many merits within short duration of time. I have seen newbies receiving so many merits by sharing valuable information in the honest way while there are many other newbies or low rank members who have been begging for merits but they aren't getting any merits. If someone really wants to earn merits then that member has to provide valuable information on the forum, and if providing valuable information is hard for someone then surely getting merits is also hard for that person.

Unfortunately, I've also noticed users on local boards racking up merit way too fast. I haven't bothered to check if it's by begging or not, but the user that was mentioned in the previous post has quite a lot of merit in posts that have been deleted, which is quite suspicious if you ask me. Anyway, I'm not going to put all eggs in one basket and claim that all local boards are abusing merit, but we can agree that it's happening in some of them.

Personally, I rejoined the forum in 2020 or 2021; I can't remember correctly, I had only two accumulated merits (250 from senior members and 2 from users), and it took me approximately less than a year to surpass 500 merits. I would have received more if I wasn't away for the last year in the military and generally had limited access to my phone and computer, but I'm saying that acquiring merit is feasible if you work hard enough and create constructive content.

It really depends on what are your first posts about, i which board and topic you posted them and who saw them from the forum members. Sometimes it is just a matter of luck, of right time and place. Also, newbies who came to the forum to present some worthy project or service (exchanger, mixer, etc.) or are managers of a new signature campaign earn their first merits very easily. But mostly, I notice that the less merit a user currently has, the harder it is for him to earn new ones. Most often, merits are sent for those posts that have already been evaluated with merits.

That's your opinion and you are entitled to it. If you want, ask the admins to lock those threads and explain what rules they are breaking and see how that goes. While you are at it, you can also tell The Sceptical Chymist to stop his post history checks where he looks into the posting of certain members and rewards them with merits if they ask him to look through their posts. Maybe he should be banned, the prick.

First merit is not a first million, so, no merit is hard to get. I didn't even know about Merit when I got the first one.

No one gives you merit because they learn more about you. You get merit if someone thinks your post is good, nothing more, nothing less.

This is the next merit-begging thread, definitely! I notice that there is a tendency people open threads like this and are getting merits, while actually the whole post is a total nonsense, so, this is another similar one.

What's the point of the thread that has one typical question but the whole post is full of words that still aim one question? People open similar threads and get merits, you probably can't notice that but I noticed, it's an easy way to open a little bit emotional long thread about Merit or some kind of struggle related to Merit and then you get some easy merits from someone who is probably naive and empathetic. But this time, this thread didn't get merits and that's good indicator.

Getting your first merit might seem easy sometimes, but for beginners, it's actually the toughest. When you're new, you're not sure what works. When I got my first merit, it was a big surprise. Now, I've learned to take my time before posting. Some people have good ideas but don't have the patience to express them well. A good tip is to read posts that got merits to learn what works on the forum. And I think everyone has a nich that goes well for them . They are lot of sections with different topic on this forum, just find a topic you know stuff about and share your insight it makes it easier

Once you start on the forum, you can get your first merit any time, any minute, but what matters and what can determine how quickly you earn your first merit is how you started, either with a sensible and quality post or with some joke comments or topics. I remember when I joined the forum, I did not make my first merit on my first topic or comment, but before my activity could reach for a junior member rank, I already earned my first merit, and before my activities could also reach for the next rank, my merit was already reached. So, OP, no merit is too difficult to earn; just don't expect it in a rush by trying to please anybody; just be yourself and come up with some organic comments based on your experience, and you'll see yourself receiving the merit.

I’ve looked a bit further into how long it took for accounts to obtain their first Merit, and unless I’ve messed-up somewhere, this is what the overall data looks like:

I’ve compared the date of the first received Merit against the date of the account’s creation if greater than 25/01/2018, or the 25/01/2018 if the account was created before this date (date when the Merit System kicked-off (*)).

It surprises me the amount of accounts that, overall, have been merited "as soon as possible", in a day range of [0..1] days with regards to the above definition). A lot of this happened on the first days of the Merit System, but still.

Due to the above, I took a look specifically at accounts created during 2023, with the following results:


Though the numerical base is now logically smaller, the percentage of accounts that get merited on same day or the following after their creation is way more than I’d expect. Most 2023 merited accounts are receiving their first Merit within 30 days, with only 21,8% after this period of time. Of course this is a running year, so data is still moving, and accounts still being created (or very recent).

2022 created accounts:


I’ve left the base data here if anyone wants to take a deeper look into it:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ATURn8YgMo5MtFxeiwx6F25JzVewQaRQkTe3-aqmOXA/edit?usp=sharing

I considered throwing the Rank into the charts, but didn’t want to overcomplicate it here on this thread (i.e. to see how a concrete rank played with the time to receive the first Merit).

In any case, not all late first merited accounts suffer later down the road. I’ve seen in the data accounts taking over half a year to receive their first Merit and then becoming Legendary later on. It all depends on the effort and time one can put into the forum (plus a bit of savoir faire I guess).

Notes:
- (*) Technically, the Merit system kicked-off late on the 24/01/2018 (forum time –> late UTC), where 127 accounts received their first Merit. For the sake of simplification, I’ve assumed that these 127 accounts were merited of the 25th.

- I’m also performing a simple datediff in days, not performing the calculations in hours (i.e. if someone created an account late on the 01/01/2023, and received his first merit early on the 02/01/2023, this counts a 1 day to receiving the first merit (although technically only a few hours).

- Obviously, accounts considered here are those that have been merited at some point.

- Other interesting stuff could be breaking the data by the board where the first Merit was received, Meriter, etc.

Same shit, different name.

Merit will come easily if your primary purpose for posting is to help. We have many merit sources here, and I believe they are adept at finding organic posts that are helpful to the community. You may encounter difficulties if you prioritize merit over the quality of your posts, as this could lead to disappointment if your expectations are not met. Most merit hunters are often participants in signature campaigns or aspire to be accepted into them. However, as I mentioned, merits will naturally come your way as long as you consistently create organic and helpful posts.

Usually, it's easier to earn merits on local boards, but only if the merit sources in that board are genuinely helpful to their members in ranking up. In my opinion, while merits shouldn't be the primary focus, based on my observation, when a member receives merits for their posts, they become more inspired to create valuable content. I believe we can encourage this behavior within our local community. Having more active members on the forum is beneficial as it leads to a greater exchange of ideas, which ultimately benefits all of us.

That's a thread in the Indonesia local where members can provide links to their posts and threads they believe deserve merits. If merit senders agree, they can reward them appropriately. I don't see that as merit begging. Merit begging would be: Hi, I am Pmalek. Please, please give me 5 merits sir. I need it to rank up.

Such threads where people can 'show off' their quality posts exist in many local boards. The Croatian and German subs have them too. In the reputation board, there is Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source. It's been there for years and there is no problem with that whatsoever. If you feel like you haven't received the merits you should have, you are free to post there. It's impossible to catch and reward every post because they can easily get lost and buried. Such threads are useful. 

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.62387639

This is just one of the topics he beg for Merits... With this system he could have ten account ready to be Full Member by now.
I think that is wrong, when it's people without Local boards that maybe contributes good but don't even get close to the Merits a Mertit whore get.
And now I don't think about myself, I normally post low quality posts (but doing my best) but the most thing I do is to read other post, and learn about bitcoin.

And this is only ONE example. I promise you it's a least many many many many more!

Cheers buddie.




I am far away from annoyed But say that everyone play on the same terms is a lie.


I really agree with you. But 99% of them doe's actually participating in campaign's.
I also see people reply to something from "another account" like they forgot to log out from their "other account" and did a mistake... This seems to happens a lot!
But forum members are fast to find it out and point it out, so that's good!





Thanks for all other answers, fun to see how other people see on it! Hope you all doing great! -BabyBandit-

First merit is not the hardest to get. As a newbie, what you need is to put a little effort and you will be rewarded with merits. What established members do is to understand the purpose the newbie came to the forum. If it is a genuine one, I.e to learn about bitcoin, getting merits will not be difficult for that newbie in as much as they can make understandable posts.

---

Instead, I can say that the difficult time to earn merits is when a user attains a hero or legendary level. The idea that such a user doesn't need merits again will partially be planted in the heart of merit givers.

I’ve always been of the mind that getting the first few merits is relatively easy, but doing so in the mid-to-higher ranks is not; at least that’s the perception I get overall, backed by looking over the Ranked-up tab on the Merit Dashboard.

Sometimes being a Newbie or Jr. Member plays in favour, since the meriting bar may be lower for some awarders. Of course it could also work the other way round for some, since those that tend to make the best posts are those that are more versed in the matter. On other occasions, people get a first few merits and then struggle for a while (i.e. long gaps) before becoming merited regularly. There are so many factors involved, that pinpointing which Merit is the most difficult to achieve is bound to vary from one to another.

It goes without saying though that, for those that do not put time and effort, it definitively will take a long time to come-up with something original or informative, thus the amount of people we see trying to take shortcuts via plagiarism.

I can perhaps come-up with a quick chart later on to show how much it too each member to earn their first Merit (not right now though - gtg), though numbers lack the specifics behind each case (i.e. content, persistence in posting, boards, rank, etc.), which is what really tells the story.

I don't think so. It just happens so quickly. If you are posting in order to earn merits you will never get any. Believe me. You should always cast aside the thought of "Merits" and think of "learning". I still remember the first merit I got. It was from "Ratimov" and it was so sudden. I didn't even expected any merits either. I only posted the questions I had, or answer the questions if I knew. Contributed where I could. If you are determined to learn and contribute, of course you will get merits. It's not that had. I even worked with some legendary members. Helped them translate their posts to my local language and also got merits there. 

This is a common misconception. I don't know about many local boards, but if you compare the merit per post stats for Russian board for instance, you'll see that the number is nearly the same as for entire forum, which is including huge Bounty board, Off-topic and everything else. Try to ask merits for getting a new rank on a Russian board and it would be interesting what result you'll get. I bet you'll get a report on such post for merit begging and not merits!

If you know some exact case it doesn't mean it can be scaled.

You are absolutely correct!
I have actually anticipated in just single bounty that's phase 1 & 2 and it happens that the project also launched their phase 3 but along the line I got some important information and also came across people saying about joining bounty is a scam but then my knowledge isn't that exposed to know my left and right towards the forum. Actually my first merit didn't take me much time but I guess it came before that rage of months you made mention maybe or above that..

But before I started seeing merits as if I work to earn them was when I had an encountered with one of my thread I created and people poured out their heart towards me then I learnt my lesson and began to make changes including changing my posting pattern, in fact I am now very patient to read the whole lot of topic in order to derived something very important from that topic and replied according to what they are saying. After which then it started flowing and I have never gaped a week without at least receiving a merits from people around here.

The fact is when merits become the major target of a user it became a burdens to the mind, and partially it also affects our posting styles since we are wanting to earn merits by all means by then we may still end up not even seeing any of it. But when user share his heart and mind or give a good post that is free being merits attractive that is when they will see it coming and off course people who are giving out merits always want to see improvement before rewarding merits to newbies.

So in my own case it's still shocking to me and I can't even say how come about it but was rising the way couldn't expect. It's true newbies should stay away from bounty's for them to earn merits otherwise reports aren't counted as quality post rather being a no effort post.

It all depends on how you post. You can get your first merits for the first post you make here if others deem it good enough. But that doesn't happen most of the time. Like with anything, it takes a learning curve to figure out how to generate quality posts. Many new users simply don't know it due to lack of experience and lacking the knowledge to discuss bitcoin or whatever the topic of discussion is. It takes time to get there.

A few things need to happen for you to get merited. First of all, what is meritable is subjective, and each individual decides for themselves. If you are helping someone or posting recommendations the right way, it helps if you are the 'first responder'. If your post solves the issue and/or shows intelligence or logic, chances are someone will like it. Obviously, those who were the quickest to find the solution, have greater chances to get merited. If your post was the 30th in the topic, but the issue already got solved after posts 3 and 4, chances are very low someone will find what you wrote useful and merit-worthy if it only repeats what was said before.

Besides being quick, being visible is also important. A quality post is less likely to be merited if the right people don't show up to participate in the discussion. A person with sMerits or a merit source will need to be there and like what you wrote to merit you.

To sum up, quality first and foremost. Then quickness and being seen by people who share merits. 

You can't go around accusing everylocal board on the forum like that mate. From what you said here. @ pytagoraz didn't beg for merits, he got his merits from a threads in his local board where you are to drop your best post and get merits. Some how I still don't understand why you are so annoyed at the local boards. The merits source are given to some local boards to help award good posts. Not all local boards have enough merit source e.g NIGERIA which only has @CryptopreneurBrainboss for the now and of course a lot of other like Igebotz, Charles-Tim have applied and hasn't been approved yet. So what I'm saying here is that the local boards aren't their to share merits. But to bring people with the same Language together. Alot of people don't speck English and sometimes you can never find them on other boards but on their local board. So if they aren't any merits source there on their local board, how do you expect good posts to also be merited?.

Earning your first merits is never too difficult you just have to learn and understand how the forum works. If you can do that then in a matter of 1 month you can earn 1 or more to take you to a junior member or member rank.

OP, I don't think getting merit will be difficult for you. I received my first merit after about three or four months of being on the forum. But yes, at that time I was "ill" from the bounty, and of course, no one would give merit to a bunch of reports. But after completing my stupid journey of hunting for shitcoins and the next steps to expose scam projects, they gave me a lot of merit. The point is that you can’t just sit and wait for someone to come and give you something. Publish what you know; your skills will probably be useful to the forum and community. People see sincerity and know how to be grateful. The main thing is not to go out of your way to always be where there is an opportunity to catch merit. In addition, ranks that have a lot of merit cannot transfer some of the merit to their alt accounts. Firstly, this is not fair, and secondly, the community will see this, and it may turn out that, due to greed, a person will ruin his account, acquiring a bad reputation.

Can you pointed out which user did this? I mean you can't just write this because of your own assumption or anger. It's correct many new accounts get a lot merit in local board, but we don't understand about the language, using google translate isn't really accurate though.

If someone else is begging in local board and the moderator didn't delete such kind post, even more it get supported by the other users, it's worth to take an action.

Personally I don't care if someone get 1000 merits in local board, the problem is if these users are participating in signature campaign.

Everyone has a different story, and we tell it based on our experience here in this forum. Based on my personal observation and experience, my first merit was not hard to get; it came easy to me, which was a bit surprising as I was never expecting it when I got a merit added to my profile. This was from my first thread, which I created when I began my journey here.
 
The place where I experienced some difficulties and it almost turned into a nightmare for me was after I crossed 10 merits and achieved a member rank. Ranking up to full member was like I was chasing 10,000 merits and not 90 merits extra; it was as if everything was going very slowly. 1 merit added to my merit count looked very odd to me, and this was the time when I had a missed feeling regarding whether I was ever going to get enough merit for my rank or not.
 
But lucky for me, after sometimes being able to make enough and rank up to full member rank, I have never had a hard time again making some merit, as I hardly look at the flow of it again as they were just coming in more than I expected them, and sometimes I got the required rank merit before I met up with my activities. Full member merit was what gave me a hard time to achieve.

That's a good point, you can think you posting super good, but if it does not fit the forum it will be useless.



Seems like the way to go tbh! I like the way you thinking.




I disagree here, in the "Local board" you can basically just say "Hey I am new here and want to be Full Member could you guys please help me?" and whops, you got like 50 merits in a couple of days.
I just saw one example some days ago. The user: "PytagoraZ" https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/pytagoraz-3559721
Got a lot of merit just because he begged in the Local board, I don't say it's wrong, but you can't compare it with someone that don't have a local board and need to start from scratch and use the brain to create good posts that other users like.  




I had no idea about this, thanks for sharing it to me buddie!

No merit is any easier than another to attain.

If you make a high quality post that is informative, positive for the community and worthy of being a merit, then you will get a merit. If you do not make a post that is worthy of a merit, you won't get one.

I believe that this applies to any member of any rank. At least, it should. I am sure some people favor others more than others because of relationships, but, that doesn't have much to do with what you are asking.

My view rarely goes to the username, much less to the merit counter, I just look at the comment if looks useful to me, I merit it, now it's another thing that I deplete my sMerit as soon as I receive it 

I don't think there's a correct answer to OP's question.

I also think this might be a merit-begging thread disguised as a discussion of the merit system created by a newbie who knows exactly how important merits are and what the earnings potential is by virtue of being a higher-ranked member of the forum.

The fact is, it doesn't matter if it's your first or 6000th merit that you've earned; if you're a poster who's good enough to stand out from all of the crap posts that have infested most sections of bitcointalk, you're going to earn merits.  If you're just average you might get lucky and write something a merit source or some other member who's got sMerits to give out finds interesting.  In that case I'd still say any merits you earn are going to be equally as hard to come by. 

Come to think of it, I've seen so many 1-merit Jr. Members around that the first merit a newbie earns might just be the easiest, especially since there's a thread dedicated to the members who're most generous to newbies.  I'm usually very low down on that one, because I don't hand out merits to compete in that thread or for charity.  So who the fuck knows?

That's true because after I got that correction I started watching out for things that need to be done so that I won't fail any rules, and as for being eager to earn merit desperation causes it and it makes one not to concentrate on why he or she is on the Forum.
Before giving out merit I believe that post or that user must have sent a message that's informative, like you said no one would waste his or her merit on thrash post. Have learnt a lot and I believe I still have more things to learn from older members like yourself.

Actually, the first is about the easiest to get now if one isn't constantly checking time. In 2018 when the merit system was introduced we could talk about difficulty getting the first merit for newbies (and most users too) but it's not that way now with merit sources and others putting up threads to help people rank up. I acknowledge that it might take genuine newbies time to find these threads and to post in them as the usual navigation problem most of us had coming here too. However, if they do find them, just a single merit doesn't take much to give out if they've enough activities for it. Again, I've come to realize that most people find it enticing giving merit to those are at the verge of ranking up. Perhaps, it gives them satisfaction knowing they helped push someone to their next rank. So, in that case most newbies easily rank up if they aren't having just bounty reports. This is often the problem with newbies who register here and head straight to bounty hunting.

The first merit is hardest for some but if talking about a longer journey, it's not hardest. It can take you one or two months to get your first merit but the hardest challenge for you to rank up with merit system is the first 100 merit.

You will see earning first 100 merit that is requirement for Full member rank is the hardest. After Full member rank, first 100 merit, you will feel ranking up is more easy. And earning from 101 merit to 250 merit will be easier. You even can earn 150 merits more quickly than first 100 merit.

Because after first 100 merit and time for it like 3 months or 6 months, you have enough knowledge about forum, merit system, Bitcoin and surely you are more helpful in forum. Earning merit becomes easier because you already are more knowledgeable and more helpful.

For spammers, yes. But for those who learn how to make quality posts on discussion boards, no. Although, there are times it's hard but not all the times it depends on where you posts but usually it will get merits for what it deserves.

Getting first merit could be hard or easy depending on your position, most of the people saying it's not hard is because y'all hard someone who introduced you to this forum and guided you on the does and don't or have been here early enough to learn and had gathered enough experience. but for a total beginners  without much guide is not just hard but very hard.

On like me how i got my first merit was unknown to me, I had thought on making quality post but isn't working I felt I was been pushed but the day I just decided to speak from my heart without any form guidelines on how to position my speech for merit that day I got merited. I felt like is a magic the joy was high...
So getting merit will only be simple for you after reading all this thoughts and replies here if only you will listen to the advice.

To be honest i don't think that the first merit is difccult to get, but that depends of each person and the quallity of the topics that the publish or then thing that they share.

My get my first merit when i publish a message sharing my open source project, and that was my message number 6, previous 5 messages before it don't get any merit

However, I must emphasize that achieving merit constanly depends on the relevance and value of the topics you engage with or the content you share. It's essential to focus on contributing meaningfully to the forum, and over time, these merits will naturally come your way.

You are correct just as I have said earlier newbies often post with desperate manner to earn merits when they removed that mentality and know the right things to do or to post earning merits becomes so easily and that must be if the older members has seen your efforts and understand that you have come to stay then you will earn merits. let me just say we the older members here knows those that are serious and those are only eager to earn merits quickly and zoom off to the next rank, yes there is no crime earning merits but it should be that such person knows what he is doing and not just to come spam and expectingly to earn merits, believe me or not no one will want to waste their merits in such people including you you can't merits such profile if you were in others shoes.

Shouldn’t this post be in the reputation board?[/hr]

I believe I earned my first merit from the first thread/ post I made in this forum, I didn’t expect it tho and I had no idea what it was. After my fist thread I took some time to explore the forum and check how things were done here, read the rules got exposed to some external tools that made the forum more simpler for me.

Sometimes you’d just make a post and all of a sudden you’ll receive merit notification without you even expecting it, while sometimes you’ll make research hoping you’ll get some merits all of a sudden you’ll receive notification that you post has been removed or you’ll come back to find your post in the archival board. As you continue to grow in the forum merits becomes more easier to get that’s if you keep up what you were doing initially without changing.

If you have no guide on this Forum believe me you won't have any idea of what to do to even get close to getting a merit, that's how to get your post in line.
When I first joined the Forum I made my first mistake by posting without dropping a link, but I was corrected by lovesmayfamilis and she scouted (thanks to her) some of my post and boom I got one in almost a month.
So to me the first merit is the hardest to get if you're running off the line...

I don't think getting first merit is hard instead I would say that it wi take some time to earn your first merit because you must improve your posting ability in order to create good or high quality posts that will surely attract merits especially if the topic you posted in the thread is helpful not just for newbies but to everyone as well such as news, tips and cautions (hacked exchange, sim swap attack and more). Well, some newbies got their first merit because the sender intentionally gave to the newbie as a motivation to create good posts.

No merits is hard to earn it only depends on how your first post likes, and whenever other members looks at your efforts or consistency then earning merits could be as easy as what one could ever thought of. It's difficult to you because you always wished to earn merits but that isn't the logic there, the main thing is how to settle your mind and feel free in every discussion you are engaging yourself the more real you become the earlier you earns more merits. So that is why people often says first time merits is very hard to earn.

The first set of merits are definitely the hardest in my opinion because this is the time you have a lot of figuring out to do.  You need to constantly revise your posts to learn what contents are merit worthy and how to constantly improve post quality so you can churn out quality content consistently.

Momentum gets picked up especially when you're close to clocking a new rank.

I been here a month now and finally got my first Merits

(I really like the point with them, it shows that you have been here long and have contribute with good posts! Thank you guys with a lot of merit I have for sure read a lot of your helpful post!)
What Merits is the hardest Merit to get? Is it the first one's or maybe the later ones? I understand this is a bit confusing, but maybe to a new account people are aware to not giving out Merits to easy just because so for example someone that had bad intention here getting ranked up to fast.
And some people are lucky that are a part of a Local Board and I see that them get a lot of much more Merits then the rest of us! Nothing wrong with that at all, but just noticed it! But.....
Can't that be a bad thing? Because for those people, it would be easier to make more accounts and then maybe get in more of this "sign campaign?" Or maybe that's it's not against any rules. What do I know  

Just a interesting question I started to think about.... I think it can be logical to have it harder to get Merit in the beginning before the forum learn to know you.
I don't know... What do you guys think? and What do you guys think it should be?
But should it no also be like... If you are a really good guy that can handle posting good, you are good in words, can't then people get like to high standards for that person? So it can be hard for him also to get Merit.

I am pretty bad in words, and explain my self, often it don't come out as i want it, but very rarely it does. So I would guess getting Merits for me will be very hard since I am not in a local board!  
But hey, that don't bother me, I am in no rush at all to get Merits! I just enjoy to learn things about crypto on this forum that I basically do daily.

I don't think the Merit system is wrong or bad in anyway I really like it. But say that some people don't take advance of it, is wrong. But hey nothing can be perfect!
You need to make some effort to be a part of the forum and I really like that concept, but it just that it's way easier for some people to rank up faster then other, and all of these people that rank up fast.. Maybe they don't can contribute to the forum as they should with comparing to the their rank.  

Maybe a possibility is that... One person create a lot of accounts and beg for Merits and then join a lot of Signature Campaign, but that's maybe it's not wrong and are allowed.

Excuse me for not being on point on everything and know how everything works, it was just some thoughts  I had.  


Thanks in advance for answers! & I hope I i didn't step on anyone toes. - BabyBandit