Topic: Merit Ranking System: A Bitter Medication (Read 344 times)

It actually reduced in between but I do not know why we have another wave of these topics recently. Is there some new signature campaign coming up with merit requirements  ?

It was a relief to see shift of members from merit system to other forum issues in between though.

As I have said in my post, it is a good for the forum, however, we know that not all members especially in the local boards are shitposters. It is true that no one is forcing these non-English native speakers to post and participate in English language discussion, and the reasons for that of course, is clear, for signature, for merits - in short, to earn. Now, the forum was created for learning, and earning is just a bonus, however, we can never deny the fact that it has become a source of income especially for members with no regular jobs, that is why ranking up is a very big issue for them, but then again, that is no longer the forum's fault.

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Anyway, I just want to clarify once again that I am not against the merit ranking system nor is blaming it. As I have said, it is good for the forum. I am simply elaborating some sentiments with regards to the merit system as this is a very big issue in my local board and with some personal friends who are so freakin obsessed with earning merits, wanting to rank up. This post was not intended to grab any merits (believe it or not) as I was not really trying to earn one.

Some musings as I release the toxic by-products of ingested food stuffs:

The Struggle Is Real!

Taking my forum rank to a bank for a loan: Denied
Taking my forum rank to buy a new car: Denied
Taking my forum rank to get a drivers license: Denied
Taking my forum rank to a University for admission: Denied
Taking my forum rank to pay my light bill: Denied
Taking my forum rank to deposit in bank: Denied
Taking my forum rank to court to pay a fine: Denied
Taking my forum rank to McDonalds for a Happy Meal: Denied
Taking my forum rank to the store for candy: Denied
Taking my forum rank and framing for "wall prestige": Priceless

Stop awarding merit to any thread in Meta unless it presents new information...

Also very bitter is the fact that the time you put into writing another Merit post, is lost forever.

Sarcasm, man, just that.

What is the "struggle"? Rank does not impede anyone from meaningful forum participation in the slightest.

You are absolutely right at this point. In fact, you have already done it.

Look, I get it. This is a struggle. But there are so many good users ranking-up already that I can't just understand anymore your (crying) points. The thread you just opened has been discussed so many times by now that it seems pointless.
Find your own voice, your original and useful contribution. I'm sure you have something to say far more useful than this.

I slightly agree with some points mentioned by OP!

Language barrier does matter big time if your country does not have a rather big community, As in my experience I am from Sri Lanka and we do not have a dedicated board but a thread which does not have many members. Therefore it is unreasonable to ask for a merit source. Many of the members from countries with smaller communities who are not fluent in English struggle to gain merits while some really fishy threads/replies posted by native languages get lots of merits in their local boards in bigger communities. (This is not a secret I guess).

I do not suggest that merit system is bad at all, i am totally against the previous method of posting shit and ranking up! (This is not military to rank up just by seniority! )But I think Jetcash's idea would be a really great move towards the merit struggle in small communities where there are no merit sources.


Having able to send sMerits (Not merits!) would solve this problem for some extent IMO. Do not appoint merit sources in little local boards but send some sMerits to some established members of those communities and they need to give them accordingly. The sMerit sender can ask for a report of how that merit was distributed!

Sorry no disrespect - are you echoing for yourself? I gone through the first three pages of your post history. Except this (OP) post - I could not find any other post where you actually tried to put any thought before posting. All of them are in Altcoin Discussion (heaven for spammers) board with one or two exceptions.


Some of your replies:
Nothing can stop if someone is willing to learn and apply. Here are a list of people who achieved 100 and more merits from 0! All of them were either newbies or Jr. Members. Dig deep, you will find there are members who are not native English speakers as well. I do not see any excuse. The biggest excuse is the person himself, who is failing to get merit. The person needs to realize it that s/he needs a change. The system/concept is working fine. Don't blame it.

Partially true but don't forget that everything has it's pros and cons. If the pros are greater than the cons then consider it a success. So far, merit system IS a success for the forum. There are few people who abused/are abusing it but comparing with the benefit of the merit system these negative impacts are really minor.

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I would say this one is not as boring as the others we see every day. I found it a bit different. OP really had a lot of thoughts in it before posting it.

My sentiments.........exactly.

Jesus Christ! Another topic about the Merit system...

The fact is that no one is forcing non-English speaking people to post in English on the main section of a forum, where it is expected that you post in English.  This has nothing to do with English.  People on the French board get pissed off when people mangle their language, and they have good reason for that.  Most people who are doing this sort of thing in the main section probably have another section in the local boards where they could probably be understood much better--but we all know the reason why they don't do that.  

Campaigns don't pay for post in the local boards, usually.  That's some bitter medicine for the rest of us, who can write proficiently in our language but have our posts buried under a mountain of shitposts and have a hard time finding people to give merits to because it takes too much time and energy to wade through those shitposts in search of the good ones.

I've said it a million times:  it's not supposed to be easy to earn merits.  That's the point.  The whole reason the system was introduced was to keep these shitposters from ranking up.  That seems to be lost on a lot of them.
This one I found interesting, especially for the point that I quoted above.  These threads are usually just merit-grab attempts, but I like rebutting arguments about people not getting merits because they're hard-pressed to write a sentence in proper English.

Spamming, trolling, and account farming has been some of the major problems here in the forum. From time to time, ideas which are thought to be the solution to these problems are implemented and introduced; which, of course, the latest was the merit system.

The implementation of the merit system was effective in combatting a wide-range use of account farming, as well as the use of multiple accounts in the forum. Yes, it was effective, but it also has a downside.

With the introduction of the merit system, most of the members were disheartened due to the fact that they can no longer rank up, not only because of the requirement for a high quality post but also due to some limitations.

First off, the language barrier. We all know the fact that English is the universal language, but it is NOT the only language there is. Therefore, creating a high quality post in English is too difficult for a non-English native, thus, they are having difficulty with their grammar and syntax. Sometimes, the language barrier is just too strong and English is not something one can learn in an overnight.

Now, one may say that, there are local boards where they can earn some good merits. But taking into consideration the relation between the merit source and the number of user in a local board, it is simply not enough. In my local board, no matter how constructive or great some of their posts are, it is simply not enough to earn a merit due to the lack of merit sources.

Third, I find the merit system more prone to spam since a lot of people are trying to post more, hoping for a merit source to spot their posts. I also noticed more and more threads are being created because of this reason as well. Although, it is nice to see that the quality of most of the member's post have improve.

Now, I am not proposing that the implementation of the merit ranking should be dissolve (as I also don't have any other solution or suggestion to solve the dilemna). But I only do wish to voice out my sentiments in hope that these reflects some of the sentiments of other users, especially those in the local boards, in view of the current merit system.

It is true, indeed. Medicine does taste bitter. As much as it is good for the forum, to the member's lips, it is still bitter.