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Topic: Is there anything unusual in these screenshot? (Read 718 times)

hero member
Activity: 1526
Merit: 737
September 21, 2023, 07:12:02 PM
#55
No, they do not owe anyone an explanation because this is all speculation, and most of the merits received are from high-ranking members from his locale and the English board.

I'm not sure if Op posted this because he values the merit system or because he wants to eliminate competition, as both accounts he posted applied for the same signature campaign he did.  Cool
No, I didn't say they owe an explanation but their name came up and the local board is involved with the accusation of something suspicious from the same local board if they keep their mouth shut then it will feel like there is something as Op said, isn't it?

I don't really know what is the point of this thread!

The OP was merely speculating, and nothing the user in question will tell us that we don't already know, based on how those merits were received. He applied for two merit threads and received some from both the global and local boards. Nothing to see here, just a decent poster being lavishly rewarded.

The point of this thread ended after the 5 first posts

I believe that this topic has been discussed before about excessive merit sharing on some local boards; I've noticed it myself in the past but didn't bother to create a thread regarding it. Firstly, I don't understand the language to judge; secondly, I don't pay too much attention; if they post on the other boards with gibberish English and zero effort, the post will be reported, and that'll be the end of it. I don't care what he does on the local board. On the other hand, I do believe that there's abuse by some users there, but I'm not going to get involved by trying to find evidence to back up this theory. Whether we have or not, it's suspicious to see a large number of merit transactions occurring on a few specific local boards.

Even if these two users mentioned earlier abused the system to enter a signature campaign, they'll eventually get caught because they'll fail to meet the necessary requirements in the long run and end up blacklisted.
legendary
Activity: 1414
Merit: 1108
Ranking up is not a crime. I can't say anything about this case without reading the posts,
You said it all in these few lines. Yes I agree them yo be unusual but, we have to come to terms with the fact that, the forum is run in English and being a global forum, you realize that some of the nations you would find here don’t have English as there first language. For those residing in those nations. They rely on translators to bring them close to understanding what goes on here and for the few that have learned the language, it’s just a few and a privilege for them.
Local boards I can find there are Pakistan and Bengali. Both of which are not native English speaking nations.

Hence, the unusual nature to it is justifiable by the posts which for good reason, you don’t wish to relate. It’s cool though but, we hope it ain’t what is perceived to be.

It’s a good find I must commend.
sr. member
Activity: 1260
Merit: 393
#SWGT PRE-SALE IS LIVE
It's all about Merit, if you stick to a merit system that is not moderated by the forum, what is seen in the screenshot is nothing strange. Anyone can spend merit on worthy posts, not on liked posts. This case needs to be reviewed, where the merit was thrown, whether to an appropriate post or an inappropriate post. Who spends the merit and on whom is it spent?
While it is only limited to suspecting the existence of merit farming as shown in the picture, as long as there is no connection between the merit giver and the merit recipient who avoids the forum ban, there is no reason to stab them with red ink.
hero member
Activity: 644
Merit: 591
#SWGT CERTIK Audited
Nothing wrong with these two screenshots especially in case of first screenshot Junaidazizi. You should not hide the name of merit sender, mis lead to viewers. some merit was sent by Ratimov and hugeblack. Merit was sent to these users when they were very close to next rank. when any member 25% merit away from next rank then there are some thread created in beginners and Reputation section for helping those users. Moreover a new thread is created in the beginners section for helping local boards member to give merit to those member who have not recieved Merit in their local board. Giving merit to any good poster when anybody deserve is not crime unless any cheat not involved.

@JunaidAzizi has been promoted to the Full Member payroll. Your posting habits have been commendable.
Congratulations on your promotions!



Moreover one can see the merit history of the users who received merit from different users and most of merit comes from legendary members.



legendary
Activity: 1316
Merit: 1610
The BSFL Sherrif 📛
No, they do not owe anyone an explanation because this is all speculation, and most of the merits received are from high-ranking members from his locale and the English board.

I'm not sure if Op posted this because he values the merit system or because he wants to eliminate competition, as both accounts he posted applied for the same signature campaign he did.  Cool
No, I didn't say they owe an explanation but their name came up and the local board is involved with the accusation of something suspicious from the same local board if they keep their mouth shut then it will feel like there is something as Op said, isn't it?

I don't really know what is the point of this thread!

The OP was merely speculating, and nothing the user in question will tell us that we don't already know, based on how those merits were received. He applied for two merit threads and received some from both the global and local boards. Nothing to see here, just a decent poster being lavishly rewarded.

The point of this thread ended after the 5 first posts
hero member
Activity: 2296
Merit: 755
Bitcoin = Financial freedom
No, they do not owe anyone an explanation because this is all speculation, and most of the merits received are from high-ranking members from his locale and the English board.

I'm not sure if Op posted this because he values the merit system or because he wants to eliminate competition, as both accounts he posted applied for the same signature campaign he did.  Cool
No, I didn't say they owe an explanation but their name came up and the local board is involved with the accusation of something suspicious from the same local board if they keep their mouth shut then it will feel like there is something as Op said, isn't it?

I don't really know what is the point of this thread!

sr. member
Activity: 630
Merit: 374
Have those mentioned users ever made any comments about the discussion going about them?

Possibly they can give the best possible explanation for this than others or members from the local boards at least. Or else there is something as OP accused. Smiley

They may not use a notification bot and are unaware of this thread. Did anyone knock them regarding this? Why do we expect an explanation from them since these two users are just an example in the OP? There are dozens of accounts with similar merit patterns. If you see they received most of their merits from a single or two person, then you may ask them what is the relation of those accounts with them. But when you see someone earned merits from their local board and those merits came from several different users, I do not see anything wrong here. But as we said, some merit abuse with alt accounts might exist. The problem is nothing is proved here. So, I don't think we can ask any of these users to explain what's happening. I just shared my unbiased opinion as a member of one of the local threads.
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 2916
If not for some kind of strict rules that most local boards have, we could have seen merit farmers using Google Translator to explore those local boards. That's if they are not even doing it now.

Sometimes they definitely try to. For instance there are at least two who try to get into Russian local board at the moment. The main problem is that automated translators are still far from being perfect, and we can easily see that someone writes in a very strange Russian and makes mistakes which are impossible even for those who just started learning Russian.

There are different rules against pointless posts, using automated translation, etc. So it's not such a good strategy to post in a language you don't understand at all, using just some automated translator. It could lead to big troubles.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 618
Local boards have means of supporting and spreading their love to one another, so if they see any little effort from their locals, they give it a helping hand. Another thing that I believe is that most members have a lot of contributions that they can share on their local boards other than what they can offer the community in general.
 
Some people don't have broad knowledge over something, but most have wide knowledge when it comes to any matter regarding what's happening in their locality, so there is every possibility of them earning merit for sharing their opinions and teachings on the local board. Those opinions and teachings might look awkward in generational discussions, but they don't on the local board.
 
Another thing is that, like most other members have pointed out and a lot of others can also see, some local boards are very generous in giving out merit to those who post on their local boards; it's no longer something new. If not for some kind of strict rules that most local boards have, we could have seen merit farmers using Google Translator to explore those local boards. That's if they are not even doing it now.
legendary
Activity: 1316
Merit: 1610
The BSFL Sherrif 📛
Have those mentioned users ever made any comments about the discussion going about them?

Possibly they can give the best possible explanation for this than others or members from the local boards at least. Or else there is something as OP accused. Smiley

No, they do not owe anyone an explanation because this is all speculation, and most of the merits received are from high-ranking members from his locale and the English board.

I'm not sure if Op posted this because he values the merit system or because he wants to eliminate competition, as both accounts he posted applied for the same signature campaign he did.  Cool
hero member
Activity: 2296
Merit: 755
Bitcoin = Financial freedom
But the important part here is that he has to reveal something instead of just asking someone else to dig deeper about possibility of abused the merit system.

but if the accounts make mistakes such as using the same bitcoin address or something similar, then accusations can be justified.
Actually you should blame the users who mentioned the username, @OP was only show the merit flow.

Blame us for what, exactly? Mentioning someone's username to provide context to the discussion is perfectly fine as far as I am concerned. I did not accuse anyone of anything. I even offered one possible explanation for the merit flow the OP noticed.


And it's not that hard to find too...Roll Eyes

It's easy to find who you're talking about, just not from Mobile.

Have those mentioned users ever made any comments about the discussion going about them?

Possibly they can give the best possible explanation for this than others or members from the local boards at least. Or else there is something as OP accused. Smiley


legendary
Activity: 3626
Merit: 2209
💲🏎️💨🚓
Some of those "BLACKLISTS" have an element of biased with the persons compiling them excluding users based solely on their DT distrust list without an actual accusation being made against the user on the list.  You would have had to have been around at the time the various lists were compiled to know who was sledging whom and take some parts of their lists with a proverbial dump truck of sodium-chloride.
sr. member
Activity: 630
Merit: 374
Based on your words, I highly doubt that by following this behavior, your community will have any hope of getting a separate board at all. Do you think expanding the local community by multiplying alternative accounts is the right thing to do? Do you want to show how fast the Bengali section is growing by giving merit to your alts, believing that no one sees it? Many are already closely watching this board. I see a lot of "newbies" who, from the first posts, run to the WO thread or very competently explain to everyone what and how to do on the forum. Do these accounts look like newbies, do you think? Anyone who came to the forum may ask himself, "How did I behave, and what was not clear to me here?" But unfortunately, we see a different picture. You will explain to your colleagues that you need to play fairly, and what you do in your local section, cultivating dozens of accounts, is very noticeable. But yes, everyone’s concepts of morality and decency are different.

In case you get me wrong, whatever I have said here is based on my assumption and in a general sense. I am not the entire community and haven't talked to anyone about this matter. I did not ask anyone why they did not try to catch abusers. It's generally why community members did not want to hunt down anyone from the local community. In fact, I did not see anyone from our community to catch abusers yet. I am very young in the Bengali community and unfamiliar with it.

I have shared what I personally think. I thought those could be the reason why the local community members do not want to hunt down other members. Generally, global members already have a bad picture when they see members from our local. Most of the local members do not have their back. Let's say I found something fishy in our local thread, but I don't have proper evidence, do you think it's wise to ask the suspected guy about the matter? Even if I ask, he may deny it, and he will think badly about me from now on. I don't want to create enemies on an internet forum.

Now, back to your question. No, I do not think growing alternative accounts will help us get a local board. Using an alternative account is allowed. But the worst thing is abusing those accounts. I don't know how many of them have more than one account and abuse the system. I have seen that posting in the Wall observer thread and getting some merits from there to rank up is a common pattern in this forum. Not the Bengali members but other community members do that as well. But as you can see, I did not even write a single post there. At least I don't remember writing there once.

Still, its not fair to lump all people from one region of the world together and we have to wait for more sufficient evidence to be revealed before outing cheaters and liars, for the sake of not condemning an honest forum member unfairly.

That's the point. If I start pointing out everything I suspect to be fishy, you and others will ignore me because that does not make sense. I have read a good quote in this thread or somewhere else: "Everyone is innocent until proven guilty". Usually, I don't look for other people guilty because that will make a lot of enemies. But what I can say is If I see something suspicious, I may let you know for further investigation as I don't like to get involved in dramas.
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1710
Top Crypto Casino
For a long time, I have strongly believed that there are many alt accounts in local boards, especially in the Pakistani or Bangladeshi LBs, but since every accused is innocent until proven guilty, we cannot take suspicions and build facts on them.
If any of you find any evidence or connection between any member in my Merit thread, PM me so I can put them on the ignore list.

LBs deserves the best, but it is better for them to know that developing an account until it reaches 5k is much better than creating an army of alternative accounts and will give them best payment rate with lowest effort (you need about 4 full member accounts aka 160 posts/week to make the same amount of high merit account 40 posts/week.)
There is a connection between overt merit abusing between farmed/suspicious/alt-accounts in certain local boards, that is a fact but we all agree it does not mean anybody is alleging all members of a particular local board are merit abusers, farmed accounts or cheats. The practice is not limited to local boards, the global board is also affected.

I agree, all members (regardless of primary/local board) should understand they should build up their accounts and their ranks with honesty and contribute along the way with constructive posts rather than resort to other methods. Unfortunately, that is not how it works when some try to control a number of accounts in the hope of enrolling them on to multiple campaigns at the same time because of the lure of potential income.

The other person is 2Pizza410000BTC. It took a few pages of browsing and matching the merit history from the screenshot shared by OP.
The name of this account has become frequently mentioned, and I have talked about it before. Whatever you doing, please stop it.

The account that gave him a merit (2Pizza410000BTC) is active in this local board (বাংলাদেশ (Bengali)), and all merits earned are from Wall Observer BTC/USD plus copy/paste method.

This account tried to post in different local baord Nigeria (Naija) but his post was in English.
It reminded me of an account that was recently banned (Unfortunately, was active in the pizza challenge)
I'm going to put him on my watch list, and maybe he'll start using an AI tool as the banned account did Grin.
That member has received 105 merits since registering on 30th May 2023 and considering it is 17th September 2023 and has reached Full Member rank, it seems he is on his way to where he wants to be because his previous three posts have been used to apply for signature campaigns.
legendary
Activity: 1484
Merit: 1355
But the important part here is that he has to reveal something instead of just asking someone else to dig deeper about possibility of abused the merit system.

but if the accounts make mistakes such as using the same bitcoin address or something similar, then accusations can be justified.
Actually you should blame the users who mentioned the username, @OP was only show the merit flow.

Blame us for what, exactly? Mentioning someone's username to provide context to the discussion is perfectly fine as far as I am concerned. I did not accuse anyone of anything. I even offered one possible explanation for the merit flow the OP noticed.
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 5937
Overkill? Hardly! It's a guy that abuses the forum and secretly builds accounts claiming it's his childhood friend or disabled wife, would you trust this guy enough after such lies and way of acting? No, so it's definitely tag-worthy!
I was talking about classic shitposters, not account farmers that abuse merit system and share it between their alts (by the way, I tagged my share of those).
legendary
Activity: 2828
Merit: 6108
Jambler.io
Considering the fact that in some countries average salary is equal to the most basic Full Member rate, I am only surprised that we don't have more of that.

Probably what's limiting it is the number of available campaigns, even if you would be able to farm 10 000 accounts, you can't have them all enlisted, so that's what's putting the breaks on it as far as I can think.

Would signature campaign managers take into account neutral tags saying that xyz is a shitposter (and we know that there are more spots in campaigns that there are solid posters meaning managers have to lower the bar in order to fill it) since negative for that is imho an overkill. 

Overkill? Hardly! It's a guy that abuses the forum and secretly builds accounts claiming it's his childhood friend or disabled wife, would you trust this guy enough after such lies and way of acting? No, so it's definitely tag-worthy! I think we've become way to lenient on this, just like the discussion if WW deserves a flag 3 or flag 2 or a Spiderman shirt because of technically that and this. From my point of view a guy that talks to himself or merits his own posts it's either a tag or a psychiatric case!
But, I don't care that much anymore!

Bangladesh community members should be the first to catch any abuse in our local thread. Some global members investigate the accounts and expose them. It's better to beat your son at home and teach him rather than police arrest him. The problem is we cannot speak without solid evidence; It will create chaos in the local thread. The community will be divided, and we don't want that.

Just like in Nasreddin's stories, it would be far better to give him a beating before he does something bad, no matter how many times you slap them afterward the thing will not get undone. But out of curiosity, since you mentioned members exposing cheaters, has this stopped them from posting or participating in campaigns or giving away merits? I just don't think it stops them, not in your board, not in any other local boards not on the entire forum, so kind of useless.

legendary
Activity: 2940
Merit: 7892
Bangladesh community members should be the first to catch any abuse in our local thread. Some global members investigate the accounts and expose them. It's better to beat your son at home and teach him rather than police arrest him. The problem is we cannot speak without solid evidence; It will create chaos in the local thread. The community will be divided, and we don't want that.

Thanks for your words on this subject and confirming some of the things I already suspected. The point you bring up here does make sense, but there has to be a way to discourage people from attempting to rank up alt accounts so they can enroll them all in the same campaigns. Short of shaming them, I don't see what the solution would be.

What's most annoying to me are the following:

 - merit farmers/beggars
 - alt accounts of established members that spend too much time talking about how they're a newbie
 - the resulting flood of low-quality posts.

For instance, I strongly believe that a previously red-trusted member who was caught with multiple accounts not too long ago still has at least 2 (as-of-yet unconnected) accounts active on the forum, and yes it looks like he was talking to himself recently in your local board  Cheesy

Still, its not fair to lump all people from one region of the world together and we have to wait for more sufficient evidence to be revealed before outing cheaters and liars, for the sake of not condemning an honest forum member unfairly.
legendary
Activity: 2072
Merit: 4265
✿♥‿♥✿

The problem is we, the local people, always want to give our locals a 2nd chance or the benefit of the doubt. Even if they are doing something shady, we tend to ignore it and don't investigate it. There is a reason behind it. The Bangladeshi community has a dream: to get a local board. So, we all want to help others and grow their accounts, so we can say we have a handful of active users. If someone has two accounts, I don't have a problem with it. But the problem is when they abuse it.


Based on your words, I highly doubt that by following this behavior, your community will have any hope of getting a separate board at all. Do you think expanding the local community by multiplying alternative accounts is the right thing to do? Do you want to show how fast the Bengali section is growing by giving merit to your alts, believing that no one sees it? Many are already closely watching this board. I see a lot of "newbies" who, from the first posts, run to the WO thread or very competently explain to everyone what and how to do on the forum. Do these accounts look like newbies, do you think? Anyone who came to the forum may ask himself, "How did I behave, and what was not clear to me here?" But unfortunately, we see a different picture. You will explain to your colleagues that you need to play fairly, and what you do in your local section, cultivating dozens of accounts, is very noticeable. But yes, everyone’s concepts of morality and decency are different.
sr. member
Activity: 630
Merit: 374
I don't know what I should say about this. There are some alt accounts in our local thread, and it's clearly visible. I do not have any problem if someone has more than one account because it's allowed. The problem is that people are sending merits to their alt accounts. Quote their own post and make a reply. One account is in trouble, and another account arrives to help it. Maybe someone will merit the post, seeing he solved some problem.

When someone is close to their next rank, they may get special attention from the local community, which I also support. Several things were discussed in our thread in recent times. I have seen users send PMs to members asking for merits when they are close to their next rank, and I don't know what to say about it.

The problem is we, the local people, always want to give our locals a 2nd chance or the benefit of the doubt. Even if they are doing something shady, we tend to ignore it and don't investigate it. There is a reason behind it. The Bangladeshi community has a dream: to get a local board. So, we all want to help others and grow their accounts, so we can say we have a handful of active users. If someone has two accounts, I don't have a problem with it. But the problem is when they abuse it.

Bangladesh community members should be the first to catch any abuse in our local thread. Some global members investigate the accounts and expose them. It's better to beat your son at home and teach him rather than police arrest him. The problem is we cannot speak without solid evidence; It will create chaos in the local thread. The community will be divided, and we don't want that.

So, whoever Bangladeshi is reading my post, I request you to watch your mate to see if he is doing any abuse, then warn him to stop. If they don't stop, expose them. The global community already had a bad picture of the Bangladesh community. Don't make it worse than this. It's better to have an empty cowshed rather than have bad cows.
hero member
Activity: 672
Merit: 557
But the important part here is that he has to reveal something instead of just asking someone else to dig deeper about possibility of abused the merit system.

but if the accounts make mistakes such as using the same bitcoin address or something similar, then accusations can be justified.
Actually you should blame the users who mentioned the username, @OP was only show the merit flow.

That's not enough, posting a same Bitcoin address or anything that can be used to account connections can only proofing they're alt accounts and deserve to get neutral feedback. Neutral feedback is fine because the signature campaign only forbid negative feedback.
legendary
Activity: 1064
Merit: 1228
No - I'm not as angry as what you read, but that's my first expression when someone tries to throw mud about someone else's reputation. The OP is clearly hesitant to reveal the name of the user he suspects because he doesn't want to ruin it. But the important part here is that he has to reveal something instead of just asking someone else to dig deeper about possibility of abused the merit system.

I'm sure there is abuse of the merit system in some local board - but without truly reliable evidence, we can't draw firm conclusions. The main obstacle is language - but if the accounts make mistakes such as using the same bitcoin address or something similar, then accusations can be justified.
hero member
Activity: 616
Merit: 713
Don't joke with my Daughter
For this action to be questioned the post need to read to know what is all about but however I think people that knows more than me has already given their thoughts on the post. But sincerely speaking we don't need to look into local boards because you can't fluently speak their languages, even though you tried using translators you may not get the exact topic on point all less a local speaker can get them translated for you and I to know what they are all about, so from my point of view you don't need to question such activities. Between why did you blur the sender and how can people give full meaning to this system.

Usually local board is a board to groom someone to knows about the forum especially they can go into deeper communication without your knowledge all less you can fluently read and write that language before passing any judgement, hence to me I will say stay away from others local board and focused on your own locale board I don't mean any hate words but politely speaking.
legendary
Activity: 2226
Merit: 1049
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
Like we all know, there are no particular rules guiding the merit system so users are always at the liberty of meriting who ever they want, and users are also at the liberty of only channeling their posts energy to channels or boards where they feel they earn the most Merits from.

So for those who find it hard to earn Merits from the global boards but easily earn merit from the local board, they have liberty to make most of their posts in the local board where they feel they are appreciated the more..

Take for example, if I must be honest, I would say that the I don't earn as much merits from my local board same way I do from the global boards, and because of this, I most of the times feel compelled to focus more on posting in the global boards than my local board.

The truth is that, any and every forum user who is interested in ranking up will try an find what and where works best for them in terms of earning merits, which is a crucial part and parcel of ranking up.
hero member
Activity: 2296
Merit: 755
Bitcoin = Financial freedom
These two boards don't have their own local boards yet, so is it possible to put them in charge of the moderation of those two specific boards to moderate this type of unusual behavior? Is that even possible? I am not sure!
The only possible and effective solution is for signature campaign managers to add an ignore list. Anyone on that list will be banned from participating in signature campaigns. It is updated weekly and members are reviewed once a year (if their behavior changes).

Also, campaign managers should review the overall post quality of the member if they are accepting in their campaign, not simply based on how much merits they earned in the last 120 days or so which will bring an end to this account farming via local boards where merits are generously shared.

The SMAS list you shared is old compared to this : [SMAS] My list of users banned from sig. campaigns

But you can find the compiled individual SMAS list from every campaign manager from Overview of Bitcointalk Signature Anti-Spam Campaign Managers

hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 508
What do you believe in?
Well, since you did not mention their name, it would be difficult to dig into those profiles, and without going through the profiles, it would be difficult to come up with any conclusion to know if those merited posts were really worth it. Like LM has said, "ranking up is not a crime." As I looked through the picture, I also saw that some of those merits were sent on different dates, so it's not really much of a problem. Read what Timelord2067 said: "It has been happening at the top." I didn't even know that anything had been happening at the top, and if it was so, it's not also a surprise that it will happen at the bottom, like he said.
legendary
Activity: 2492
Merit: 3597
Buy/Sell crypto at BestChange
These two boards don't have their own local boards yet, so is it possible to put them in charge of the moderation of those two specific boards to moderate this type of unusual behavior? Is that even possible? I am not sure!
The only possible and effective solution is for signature campaign managers to add an ignore list. Anyone on that list will be banned from participating in signature campaigns. It is updated weekly and members are reviewed once a year (if their behavior changes).

This is one of the oldest ignore lists[1], and I think @Lauda @Lutpin @yahoo all had similar lists and it was one of the conditions for joining signature campaigns.

You can ask current campaign managers or create a discussion thread about it.

[1] https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/my-personal-ignore-list-973843

legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 5937
From the start I'm not accusing the two as I didn't even bother to check what they post as I'm getting really bored about this, it' 's so obvious local boards are full of account farmers, they farm the merit step-by-step there then start polluting the BD and BH with merit fishing posts, make the 100 merit threshold and then instantly signature applications only for some of them to inevitably ending up in the wall of shame thread also.
Considering the fact that in some countries average salary is equal to the most basic Full Member rate, I am only surprised that we don't have more of that.


We just have to come back to tagging shitposter and spammers and that would eliminate the need for all the detective work
Would signature campaign managers take into account neutral tags saying that xyz is a shitposter (and we know that there are more spots in campaigns that there are solid posters meaning managers have to lower the bar in order to fill it) since negative for that is imho an overkill.


Both of those boards have well-recognized members on the global board. Irfan_pak10 from Pakistan LB and Little Mouse from Bangladesh LB are well known for their contributions. These two boards don't have their own local boards yet, so is it possible to put them in charge of the moderation of those two specific boards to moderate this type of unusual behavior? Is that even possible? I am not sure!
How exactly would they moderate how members spend their merit?
full member
Activity: 476
Merit: 212
Tontogether | Save Smart & Win Big
For a long time, I have strongly believed that there are many alt accounts in local boards, especially in the Pakistani or Bangladeshi LBs, but since every accused is innocent until proven guilty, we cannot take suspicions and build facts on them.
If any of you find any evidence or connection between any member in my Merit thread, PM me so I can put them on the ignore list.

LBs deserves the best, but it is better for them to know that developing an account until it reaches 5k is much better than creating an army of alternative accounts and will give them best payment rate with lowest effort (you need about 4 full member accounts aka 160 posts/week to make the same amount of high merit account 40 posts/week.)

Both of those boards have well-recognized members on the global board. Irfan_pak10 from Pakistan LB and Little Mouse from Bangladesh LB are well known for their contributions. These two boards don't have their own local boards yet, so is it possible to put them in charge of the moderation of those two specific boards to moderate this type of unusual behavior? Is that even possible? I am not sure!
legendary
Activity: 2492
Merit: 3597
Buy/Sell crypto at BestChange
For a long time, I have strongly believed that there are many alt accounts in local boards, especially in the Pakistani or Bangladeshi LBs, but since every accused is innocent until proven guilty, we cannot take suspicions and build facts on them.
If any of you find any evidence or connection between any member in my Merit thread, PM me so I can put them on the ignore list.

LBs deserves the best, but it is better for them to know that developing an account until it reaches 5k is much better than creating an army of alternative accounts and will give them best payment rate with lowest effort (you need about 4 full member accounts aka 160 posts/week to make the same amount of high merit account 40 posts/week.)



The other person is 2Pizza410000BTC. It took a few pages of browsing and matching the merit history from the screenshot shared by OP.
The name of this account has become frequently mentioned, and I have talked about it before. Whatever you doing, please stop it.

The account that gave him a merit (2Pizza410000BTC) is active in this local board (বাংলাদেশ (Bengali)), and all merits earned are from Wall Observer BTC/USD plus copy/paste method.

This account tried to post in different local baord Nigeria (Naija) but his post was in English.
It reminded me of an account that was recently banned (Unfortunately, was active in the pizza challenge)
I'm going to put him on my watch list, and maybe he'll start using an AI tool as the banned account did Grin.
legendary
Activity: 2072
Merit: 4265
✿♥‿♥✿
I'm inclined to think that in these two local sections, there may be users who are a common team of friends and regularly use their earned merits, like Twitter likes. Guesses about several farms from these locales have already been repeatedly voiced, and most likely it is so that some group owns several profiles, but they are quite cunning and temporarily elusive. On the other hand, the rules do not prohibit the exchange of merit in local sections, but you need to understand that even if someone manages to raise their accounts to the required heights, further steps will be an assessment of the quality of posts. Managers will be the judges of the acceptance of such writers who regularly publish their posts only in their native language.
legendary
Activity: 3052
Merit: 2313
Looks like merit abusing to me. You can put these guys and anybody trusts them in your distrust list and I don’t think there is anything else you can do about it. Merit system was a good idea which got old very quickly. Maybe the mods will do something about it but I doubt it too. Similar stuff happened in the past and I don’t remember anybody getting a ban for it. On the other hand it is possible that a person only uses the local forums because he doesn’t know English. Then you can’t do anything about it again. If this bothers the admin, he may ban giving/receiving merits in the local boards…

There are some people who use only the local boards indeed. Do you think these people shouldn’t be getting any merits?
legendary
Activity: 2828
Merit: 6108
Jambler.io
I think the OP seems to be questioning possible abuse of the merit system at one of the local board - but I don't think the OP has much guts to reveal who he suspects other than trying to throw mud at the reputation board.

Why, is the suspect Chuck Norris?  Grin
If the OP didn't have guts he would have used a throwaway account to do so, what he did is pretty normal he censored the name to show only the important thing, everyone could if they wanted find out as it has who the guys are, what was meant here was to simply analyze the merit distribution.
So, why are you so angry at OP?

Its nothing that we haven't seen before, that members of local boards sometimes tend to have a lower standards or are more generous when it comes to merit. Another thing is that its easier to express yourself in your own native language, so members of some boards that are not so fluent in English struggle to earn merit in general part of the forum, compared to their own local board. Then again, I also woulnd't exclude the possibility of good old merit abuse but that's something that is much harder to prove.

From the start I'm not accusing the two as I didn't even bother to check what they post as I'm getting really bored about this, it' 's so obvious local boards are full of account farmers, they farm the merit step-by-step there then start polluting the BD and BH with merit fishing posts, make the 100 merit threshold and then instantly signature applications only for some of them to inevitably ending up in the wall of shame thread also.

And even if we prove it, merit abuse is not tag-worthy anymore, having 1000 accounts is neither as long as they don't enter the same campaign it's just a useless investigation uncovering a dozen accounts while a hundred more are in the making. We just have to come back to tagging shitposter and spammers and that would eliminate the need for all the detective work.




legendary
Activity: 2940
Merit: 7892
I'm of the opinion that there are at least a couple of account farmers from both of the local boards that do send merit to themselves, but without substantiating proof there's really not much else to say.

If I spoke either of those languages I would look for similarities in posting styles. One day they will slip up and I will catch them.

However, without more sufficient evidence, its not nice to simply assume they are alts (in public anyway).
full member
Activity: 966
Merit: 151
Can you see anything unusual in these two screenshot? From the past few month i am seeing some unusual activity in some of the local board. I do not want to mention their name but some members are ranking up with unusual pace and they are getting merits in their every post in local board when they can not get few merits from the global board. How they are doing exceptionally well only in local board? What do you think what is wrong with them?


I don't know whose account it is, but if I look at my local board, there are members who really have good contributions and thoughts on the local board, they have good discussions. Some members may also be hampered by language, like me who is not proficient in English. Even though there is a possibility that this is an act of merit abuse, I am not sure there are still members who dare to commit merit abuse because it is easy to find out.
legendary
Activity: 3626
Merit: 2209
💲🏎️💨🚓
You should also look at their Default Trust of each other and and trust feed-backs they may have left.  Digging deeper, the tried and true methodology of the user creation date and even if they post one after the other (usually in sequence) are key indicators of insider meriting.  It happens at the top, so it's not surprising it happens at the bottom also.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 360
OP, I can sense what you mean but no one will be able to question anyone on who they send their merits to. That is a local board that will be hard for anyone to know if the posts are worth the merits. Another thing you should know is that those two local boards have enough merit source that his encouraging them to post in their local board. Until there are good evidence that they are merits farmers that is when the forum can look into this issue. Another thing is that maybe those members whom you screen shot their profile might be poor in English but can contribute in their local boards with ease. Nobody can tell if it is a bunch of merit farmers or not, only with good prove.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 666
The forum does not have a big case about merit distribution, keeping of Smerits when there are a lot of quality posts to merit is not even ideal to the forum. One of the simplest board to distribute merit to quality posts should be the local board, since understanding of your dialects is easier than in the general board. This will also enhance merit circulation is such local boards. If there’s no a case of selling merits, then distribution of merits to quality posts in the local board is fine.

Perhaps another reason for the recent merits he got could have been due to this post he made. Let me quote the translated version

Assalamu Alaikum my humble request to the respected members of bangla community I am not able to get full member membership for only 8 merits. Please if you help me with the said merit then I can get full member membership.

Go to my profile and review my post if you like it, then you can give merit to that post.

Thank you all

This is also enough evidence to show that the user was merited by those members after a review of his post history by their local board members .
legendary
Activity: 2100
Merit: 1208
Heisenberg
Hard to tell if the behavior is suspicious or not, especially for the second user, since some posts are in his native language. A few posts in English that he made and were merited didn't seem bad, like this one https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.62761915

Perhaps another reason for the recent merits he got could have been due to this post he made. Let me quote the translated version

Assalamu Alaikum my humble request to the respected members of bangla community I am not able to get full member membership for only 8 merits. Please if you help me with the said merit then I can get full member membership.

Go to my profile and review my post if you like it, then you can give merit to that post.

Thank you all

legendary
Activity: 2226
Merit: 2169
Need PR/CMC & CG? TG @The_Cryptovator
Regarding merits, the forum is strict about selling merit through merit sources. Otherwise, the forum or theymos isn't too strict about merits. I'm pretty sure the screenshots you posted have an unusual merit history. Since it's a local board, we can't decide whether they deserve it or not. However, someone may think the posts deserve merit, and they might send them. If you find something suspicious, like selling or exchanging merits, then provide evidence. We may take a look at that. Otherwise, it's not a big crime. It does increase merit circulation.
legendary
Activity: 1064
Merit: 1228
I think the OP seems to be questioning possible abuse of the merit system at one of the local board - but I don't think the OP has much guts to reveal who he suspects other than trying to throw mud at the reputation board.

The OP should know what to do when you really wants to questioning another user's reputation or activity on the reputation board - so you shouldn't play hide and seek over someone's reputation if you yourself aren't brave enough to reveal who the person is. I think the potential for abuse of the merit system can occur on various local board - even on global boards. But to accuse someone without wanting to reveal evidence would not be good. OK you probably don't want to ruin someone's reputation because of your suspicions - so what's the point of this thread?

Many users are encouraged to grow in their respective local board because they master the language well. Of course this can help them get the quality of posts they expect - but the limited circulation of merit to some users is not entirely considered abuse, but could also be because they have good interactions with each other.
hero member
Activity: 2296
Merit: 755
Bitcoin = Financial freedom
2nd one is pretty hard to find because my keyboard is limited,

As for the other member in the screenshot, I have no clue about who he is.
The other person is 2Pizza410000BTC. It took a few pages of browsing and matching the merit history from the screenshot shared by OP.

It is probably due to the low number of active members in both local boards so the one who has merits is trying to encourage them to keep the upcoming members active and it's usually the case when the active members are fewer.

Every local board has different source merit allocations from merit sources and every source has different meriting habits so you cann't get the same kind of treatment from your local board.

I can't able to read those posts to determine the quality of posts but it's true that the members received most of the merits from local boards while they equally posted the number of posts in global sections.
legendary
Activity: 1484
Merit: 1355
The first member is JunaidAzizi. He recently applied for "[Merit] Help newbies and those who have a little left to the next rank" and "[Merit] Help posts in local boards that did not receive enough merits", so most of his recent merits likely come from those threads. I cannot really judge the quality of his posts since I don't understand the language, but I don't think he is a bad contributor, and he probably deserve to move up the ranks.

As for the other member in the screenshot, I have no clue about who he is.
full member
Activity: 476
Merit: 212
Tontogether | Save Smart & Win Big
I saw abnormal behavior in some of the local boards and wanted to know what was happening there. This topic wasn't any investigative post indeed it was a general post to know about the possible explanation.
Well, if you want to get better answers, you should share the name of the accounts from that screenshot because without looking more deeply into situation its hard to say what exactly is going on and you can only do that by actually checking those accounts.

By the way, you don't have to adjust both width and height of the image you are sharing as one of those is enough while the other adjusts automatically. That way image won't be distorted when you mess up the ratio, like in the case of that screenshot you shared.

Thanks for the suggestion about the image size adjustment. I will keep that in mind next time.

I haven't accused anyone about merit farming. I just raised concern about this unusual behavior. I do not have the expertise to do this kind of investigation. I saw abnormal behavior in some of the local boards and wanted to know what was happening there. This topic wasn't any investigative post indeed it was a general post to know about the possible explanation.

Why not mention their name? So that they can review how this user earns merits.

Anyway, I found the first one and 2nd one is pretty hard to find because my keyboard is limited, and can't able to type in a different language.

Based on my own view of the first user, some of his posts are meritable and some of them are not. I don't know if I'm right; I just use a translator to understand the content, but I see that his posts are worth giving merit.
I think the one who can investigate further more about his posts history are those who use the same language.

As you have said you are not familiar with that language so Google Translate will not be able to give you a proper translation I think. Also as you have said some of their posts are meritable when some of them are not and i found this true after checking some of them. I think someone from that local community can investigate that matter more clearly.
legendary
Activity: 1792
Merit: 1296
keep walking, Johnnie
Ranking up is not a crime. I can't say anything about this case without reading the posts, if they're not worth the Merit, you may have a point.
It's easy to find who you're talking about, just not from Mobile.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with ranking and all forum users go through this if they don't remain passive. The author is trying to draw attention to the fact that some users are promoted very strongly and quickly, rewarded with merit. This looks suspicious. Sometimes this also comes across my field of vision and I feel bewilderment and misunderstanding when a user receives stacks of merit from one source over and over again. Well, probably the whole point is that he saw legendary huge potential in the newcomer, which pushes him to quickly rise in the ranks. Smiley You are right in the statement that it is impossible to objectively assess the situation using screenshots alone. If OP had provided links to these accounts, then it would have been possible to check the posts and then draw the appropriate conclusions.
legendary
Activity: 3206
Merit: 2904
Block halving is coming.
I haven't accused anyone about merit farming. I just raised concern about this unusual behavior. I do not have the expertise to do this kind of investigation. I saw abnormal behavior in some of the local boards and wanted to know what was happening there. This topic wasn't any investigative post indeed it was a general post to know about the possible explanation.

Why not mention their name? So that they can review how this user earns merits.

Anyway, I found the first one and 2nd one is pretty hard to find because my keyboard is limited, and can't able to type in a different language.

Based on my own view of the first user, some of his posts are meritable and some of them are not. I don't know if I'm right; I just use a translator to understand the content, but I see that his posts are worth giving merit.
I think the one who can investigate further more about his posts history are those who use the same language.

Edit:
Since they are looking for the username I think you talk about this one JunaidAzizi.
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 5937
September 15, 2023, 12:45:23 PM
#9
I saw abnormal behavior in some of the local boards and wanted to know what was happening there. This topic wasn't any investigative post indeed it was a general post to know about the possible explanation.
Well, if you want to get better answers, you should share the name of the accounts from that screenshot because without looking more deeply into situation its hard to say what exactly is going on and you can only do that by actually checking those accounts.

By the way, you don't have to adjust both width and height of the image you are sharing as one of those is enough while the other adjusts automatically. That way image won't be distorted when you mess up the ratio, like in the case of that screenshot you shared.
full member
Activity: 476
Merit: 212
Tontogether | Save Smart & Win Big
September 15, 2023, 12:01:52 PM
#8
I do not want to mention their name but some members are ranking up with unusual pace and they are getting merits in their every post in local board when they can not get few merits from the global board.
I don't want to make a comment without observing closely. It requires lots of time. Anyway, the above quoted statement is wrong although it's possible that in this case, it may be true. There are a lot of users who don't post outside of the local board due to the language barrier. Or maybe they post a few times only. That's why they don't get merit in the global board. I'm not trying to say that's the case here, neither I'm saying that's not the case here. We can't tell without having a further look. Do they post on the local board only? If they post in the global section, how many times do they?
Anyway, if it's a big farm, feel free to share with logic and proofs.

I haven't accused anyone about merit farming. I just raised concern about this unusual behavior. I do not have the expertise to do this kind of investigation. I saw abnormal behavior in some of the local boards and wanted to know what was happening there. This topic wasn't any investigative post indeed it was a general post to know about the possible explanation.
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 5937
September 15, 2023, 11:50:08 AM
#7
I do not want to mention their name but some members are ranking up with unusual pace and they are getting merits in their every post in local board when they can not get few merits from the global board. How they are doing exceptionally well only in local board?
Its nothing that we haven't seen before, that members of local boards sometimes tend to have a lower standards or are more generous when it comes to merit. Another thing is that its easier to express yourself in your own native language, so members of some boards that are not so fluent in English struggle to earn merit in general part of the forum, compared to their own local board. Then again, I also woulnd't exclude the possibility of good old merit abuse but that's something that is much harder to prove.

Thing about merit is that last time theymos adjusted it there was more than 50% more posts being written and about the similar amount of active members. Less posts and active members means there's abundance of merit (speaking generally, there are still some part of the forum that are undermerited) so merits are being shared left and right to everything that is not a shitpost.
legendary
Activity: 1960
Merit: 1908
Marketing Campaign Manager |Telegram ID- @LT_Mouse
September 15, 2023, 11:49:57 AM
#6
I do not want to mention their name but some members are ranking up with unusual pace and they are getting merits in their every post in local board when they can not get few merits from the global board.
I don't want to make a comment without observing closely. It requires lots of time. Anyway, the above quoted statement is wrong although it's possible that in this case, it may be true. There are a lot of users who don't post outside of the local board due to the language barrier. Or maybe they post a few times only. That's why they don't get merit in the global board. I'm not trying to say that's the case here, neither I'm saying that's not the case here. We can't tell without having a further look. Do they post on the local board only? If they post in the global section, how many times do they?
Anyway, if it's a big farm, feel free to share with logic and proofs.
sr. member
Activity: 1935
Merit: 290
September 15, 2023, 11:42:35 AM
#5
Ranking up is not a crime. I can't say anything about this case without reading the posts, if they're not worth the Merit, you may have a point.
It's easy to find who you're talking about, just not from Mobile.

It is a crime to take arbitrary merit from the local board only because btt does not mean that new members should be guided only from the local board.

Take a look at the top sectors like Bitcoin discussion, altcoins discussion where there are hundred percent good topics but no one has given merit.


Point: beginner and help
Here all new members are guided and taught well in all subjects.
full member
Activity: 476
Merit: 212
Tontogether | Save Smart & Win Big
September 15, 2023, 11:41:44 AM
#4
Ranking up is not a crime. I can't say anything about this case without reading the posts, if they're not worth the Merit, you may have a point.
It's easy to find who you're talking about, just not from Mobile.
I have checked some of their merit distribution behavior. They were just sending their merits to a handful of members and it looks like most of their post is getting merit when those merit is circulating between a few of the members. I do not want to accuse anyone directly because I do not have expertise in identifying merit farming activity. I think what is happening there is wrong so brought this topic forward. It is not about only those two boards there are other local boards as well where this same thing is happening. A group of member is trying to abuse the system because of no moderation activity in some local board.
hero member
Activity: 1643
Merit: 683
LoyceV on the road. Or couch.
September 15, 2023, 11:33:07 AM
#3
Ranking up is not a crime. I can't say anything about this case without reading the posts, if they're not worth the Merit, you may have a point.
It's easy to find who you're talking about, just not from Mobile.
sr. member
Activity: 1935
Merit: 290
September 15, 2023, 11:30:32 AM
#2
Of course this is wrong
I think these are all inside merit connections. Because if they have so much skill or ability to help new members then why don't they get merit from any other board.
Only from the local board why so much merit is taken?
full member
Activity: 476
Merit: 212
Tontogether | Save Smart & Win Big
September 15, 2023, 11:17:47 AM
#1
Can you see anything unusual in these two screenshot? From the past few month i am seeing some unusual activity in some of the local board. I do not want to mention their name but some members are ranking up with unusual pace and they are getting merits in their every post in local board when they can not get few merits from the global board. How they are doing exceptionally well only in local board? What do you think what is wrong with them?


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