I have been inactive for a few months and after returning, I just have one question. I have read all about this merit system, but how do you tell if the post is deserving merit? all of us have different views on a constructive post? Do those posts have to fulfill a certain points or is it absolutely to personal estimation?
Well, man, this is actually a personal estimation, so I can only give you my own point of view. To me, a thread deserving merits need to be:
- Original, of course. I always check if it is plagiarized before giving any merit.
- Made by a user with a certain kind of activity. I always check the user post history before meriting, because sometimes I`ve discovered that the user is just copy/pasting his/her same thread all over the forum, or that the user is just making bounty reports or begging in previous posts for merits, I don`t know, I just always take a look at the post history, just in case, and to the profile, if the user has a well-deserved negative trust, then I think twice.
- Needs to make sense to me. Even if I do not agree with the post, as well as the user can build a logical speech and be able to make his/her point in a reasonable way.
- Posts that implies a lot of job, even if I`m not particularly interested in the matter, I`m used to rewarding really well-done posts, with tons of effort behind, mostly if the posts are rather informative or interesting.
- Informed replies. If a user is replying and it is clear to me that he/she has a point and that, actually, he/she has read the whole thread, answers included, so he/she is actually giving a well-grounded opinion, and not an opinion based on the OP only or, worst, on the title.
- Good attitude towards the forum, in general. People actually concern about the forum, about how to help, how to improve it, how to join a conversation and make it richest...
- For fun. Sometimes one just merit another because the answer/thread or whatever is insanely funny.
.... that`s all that comes to my mind so far.
Wich kind of users I NEVER merit (and that usually ends on my ignored list):
- Merit seekers. There are a lot, some of them can make a good job hiding their true intentions, but, in general, this kind of user always take another`s one merited idea and try to make a poor copy.
- Merit beggers. Well, obviously I never give merit to someone asking for them.
- Trolls. Some people feel intelligent just by trolling others. I use to ignore them.
- Nonsense or off-topic replies. There are many on the forum, as "Thanks, really informative", or "Well done, sir", or, "Bitcoin changed my life too). I hate this and I ignore them or report them (depends on my mood). And if I see this kind of useless posts in someone`s post history, I don`t merit that guy, ever.
- People complaining. If you are just complaining about a ban, about merits, about ranking, about another user (unless it is something really serious), about whatever...ignored.
- ...etc
Actually, I did make a post some time ago related to your question, you can read it in here, in case you are interested:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.34309665