Topic: Merit System Upgrade (Read 34946 times)

Last post one year ago. Looks like the Merit hype finally cooled down a little bit. Let's celebrate this anniversary by reawakening this thread, which was a textbook example of altruism.

Thread about a recent Cryptopia bankruptcy judgment, which was imho groundbreaking (I mean the judgment, not the thread ):

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/cryptopia-judge-1-crypto-is-property-2-even-wo-keys-crypto-remains-yours-5251040

Maybe even more important than the OP, is the extensive post I added, after having read some of the replies. It took me several days to refine.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/cryptopia-judge-1-crypto-is-property-2-even-wo-keys-crypto-remains-yours-5251040.msg54503106#msg54503106

Sadly, I am not a programmer or a whizz kid, and too old to ever be able to profoundly understand everything about creating and obtaining crypto (meaning the only way I could obtain crypto is by buying some or by campaigning), but I do have my legal experience and a portion of ideological insight and hope these threads can count as my very modest contributions to this wonderful community.

Cheers QA.

The message that I share my information to recover hacked accounts.

^
Then again, get to know the new characters, personalities ......

I miss PinkiePie... ah, so many forum characters.

For those new here, here's the link to the funnest thread on this forum from back in the day: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/attention-bitcoin-bbs-45298 (the part that was deleted can be found here - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.540198 - thanks to Rassah quoting it; spoiler alert: Rassah is the person with the "perverted" coffee table, of which I've seen first-hand upon visiting him in Baltimore).

Visit the WO from time to time

What about the people who got their SR Member accounts hacked and now have to start from beginning ?

We are royally screwed and I blame admin for not recovering my accounts or showing the least of interest in doing so.

Of course, you have to make these kinds of choices for yourself in terms of understanding your own ability to self-censor.

If you remain interested in bitcoin, then maybe you could just limit yourself to bitcoin related threads such as the WO thread... and tell peeps to fuck off if they want to discuss other matters with you?

Of  course, I did not always agree on your bitcoin views, but of course, there can be decent value to the forum and to you when there is brainstorming of ideas, especially from peeps who have been involved in bitcoin for a while, like yourself.

I understand that if you are not ready  or maybe your views may have evolved outside of forum tolerance levels, then it can be good to recognize that too.

On a personal level, I feel that I learn way more to post interactively rather than if I were to merely read posts.. but hey to each their own..... and speculatively maybe instead of seeing you posting during the expected BTC bull run to $50k and beyond, instead, we will see you posting about the BTC sales (and profit taking) that you are accomplishing in the $12k arena... hahahahahahaha Funny how patterns will have a tendency to repeat.   

Oh, I’ve turned into an occasional lurker. If I keep posting here I’m just going to get banned for no reason. Besides, this place isn’t nearly as funny as it was when I first came here in 2011.

I don't always know where to put myself if these were the options, I explained before how I get into BTC, short vers --> play poker for more then 15years, did all the different cash games, tournaments etc but also organised a "HOME" game.
@some point a fella dropped in cause he heard from a friend we were playing.... Now he didn't really was looking for a game but more fore a fun place, smoke a blunt, chill place, play some poker (stakes were not his usual high, i also played higher but it was a fun game etc), now he was an online king in HU playing with no question the BEST from Belgium @ that time and probably a TOP spot worldwide, "HU playing" but he discovered very early the BTC play sides and crushed them all "literally".
of-course he made all in BTC and HODLed as that was his main goal for winning.
Now he was playing @the live tables and lost a bit, if he needed to pay € he had to change BTC of-course and he didn't like to make those BTC-sells etc

Then it happened, i didn't knew anything of that guy and he asked me if he would lose its ok to pay me in BTC and i pay the winner of the game.

me---> what is A BTC?? anno when the price went from 360-ish to ATH "he always repeat i'm the luckiest ever to be introduced @that time"
he ---> highly intelligent guy explained me and provided me everything to handle and so on

then he lose ---> pay, all went good, lucky as i was "i was the winning guy"

then the game changed "No more HOME games with much peeps" only me, him and a select group of peeps playing online for BTC to each other

What i wanna say= i didn't ever hear the name BTC or WO-thread before that single guy, and he introduced me to this world so well so good, always took care for me and learned me so much, i'm absolutely no BTC-tech expert guy, but i no for damn sure he is, i would put myself in CATEGORY B, with the willing to learn all there is to know about BTC-)but i'm just not a good computer guy surely no programmer etc, what i am from CATEGORY A= an absolute crypto enthusiasts....... but when those guys talking about technical stuff then yeah sometimes i lose it and can't follow
of-course my longterm perspective is what it needs to be to be a BTC'er

as of today we still play our thing and i learn more and more cause of him and cause of being here, then why am I here, obviously to learn, mostly active @the WO, but also cause its a bit of a chill place were nobody cares if i go OT sometimes and yeah that maybe happens to often but then again everybody there likes to have a good laugh and the humor down there is pretty good, I also like to share some news there that crosses my path etc

so me = MIX A and B

and i think its better to have some Merit system then no Merit system, as I don't only use it as when i think something = of high quality, I also like to use it when I think something is good humor as for THX as when I see somebody is posting something with best intentions etc


BTW@ OP "QuestionAuthority" .......... long time no see :-/

Yes.  I have read some variations of  proposals like you suggest 10/1 or something like that, and that would cause some reservations of members to employ such demerits in such a system.

I like the idea of requiring 10 sMerits to produce 1 demerit, that way its costly to really mess with somebody. Even with this ratio, you're right, it would still bring out a lot of pettiness and there's already quite a bit of that going around these days.

Forum members have frequently raised the idea of antimerits (or demerits), and I personally believe that it is very unlikely that theymos would introduce such a system, especially when looking that the trust system and having the trust and untrust features. 

In my viewpoint, if such a system of demerits were introduced, it would result in a lot of unnecessary and petty squabbling and likely bring out the worst in members.

theymos did actually mention "demerits" when he introduced the merit system, and likely he has made some subsequent post on the topic that continues to show reluctance to entertain proposals to add "demerits" to the forum.

Below are theymos's words in his original merit system introduction post:

@nutildah - thank you for the kind words


After some more pondering; I've got an idea of "antimerit". If the forum have merits; then it can have a negative iteration of merit - the "antimerit".
If the senior users could have the power to give negative merit to overly active spammer/shitposter; it could prevent a lot of junk on this forum. The number of "antimerits" should be limited in some sensible way - to prevent misuse of power.

This is a pretty reasonable breakdown. Like you, I started off as B (I was a lurker for about 6 months before that), then I quickly moved into A. However, I did spend some time being a troll in D, but I think my intentions were good. Not getting into it immediately for the money (or shit tokens) is a sign of good faith that you're hear to do some learnin' and contribute, which separates you from 90% of other noobs which immediately launch into a career of mindless shitposting. Best of luck to you.

After some pondering; I have concluded that Bitcointalk members can be grouped in 4 distinct categories:

A - crypto enthusiasts eager to learn more about blockchain technology and also passionate about the idea of decentralized currency

B - people who like the idea of decentralized currency; but don't have time/interest/background to learn much more than basic knowledge needed to effortlessly use cryptocurrency

C - people who are here solely for income from bounty campaigns (those people are usually from very poor countries and I don't judge them because their economic situation is often the result of "effort" of rich countries)

D - spammers, FUD-sters, trolls, etc.

I'm from B category (with some  A mixed in) )
And I believe that this forum needs a policy which will detect and ban D group (as soon as possible), and also try to "convert" C group into A or B. (the crypto needs a wider audience and a mass adoption ))
Also, bear in mind that many of A and B users won't restrain from bounty campaigns, but that's not their No. 1 reason to dwell here.

Merit system is better than no system; but perhaps it needs some redesign and polishing...

My two cents...

I made a similar comment in the “gold 1000+ years BTC 10 years or some bullshit” thread. It’s all well and good holding on to something but that something only has value if people are actively trading it. The whole Bitcoin pool could be spread evenly between every holder on this forum and if none of them would ‘spend’ any the the effective value of bitcoin would be 0.

I don’t think there is a chance of stagnation any time soon but if mass adoption and TX fees durning increased periods of activity are not resolved then it BTC may as well be the proverbial bar of soap.

Actually the dude (dudette) I referenced is Filipino, but that's pretty darn close.

I kind of understand where you're coming from, but I truly think that its better than nothing and the place would be even more over-run by spambots if this hurdle wasn't there. Sincerely, the system is preventing account farmers from ranking up 50+ accounts just to be sold or used in bounty campaigns.

There's no way I'm not being at least slightly hypocritical here because I myself joined a sig campaign, but still I'd like to think there's a difference between me and your average Jake Zyrus over there. Not only did I initially come here to learn but I don't write the first ten words that come to mind and call it a post. Truthfully I almost never click on signatures and I don't know how there's money to be made by that form of advertising, but apparently there is...

A bar of soap can be currency if two or more people decide to trade things for bars of soap. The problem arises when people decide to trade for the soap and then lock all their soap in a basement.

Bitcoin is currency right now but everyone has it locked in their basement.

Technically we can't concede, because we've never resisted or denied those things . Bitcoin growth and development has been amazing. I could not have wished for more when I joined this forum five years ago.

You are right also, we appear to both be paraphrasing a point that the currency function will emerge naturally as a result of Bitcoin's continued growth. The lack of that function at present is no reason to dismiss Bitcoin.