I think it is best to revisit THE FACTS:
This is the main thread of my quoted reply:
Now... hold on... I know what what you guys think: "Look! Yet another a$$hole complaining about the merit system". Just read the post below before posting.
Let me tell you a few things about myself:
Before joining this forum, I have been reading the broads here for about a year on everything Bitcoin & Altcoin related, Exchanges, Trading, what to invest in and what not etc.
As you can see, I have joined at the end of Oct 2017 and by the time the Merit system was implemented, I was a Jr. Member thus
0 Merit by default.
Since then, I have managed to get approximately 0.5-1 merit per day and managed to rank to Full Member before having the necessary activity.
I even had my own
FREE post review service thread:
vlad230's post review service - Jr. Member and up where I helped people increase the quality of their posts (across 10 pages) and have seen a big difference on the post quality that people had before the Merit System was implemented so, this system has definitely helped to improve the forum.
I have noticed that It's been about a month since I have not received any merit although my posting habits have not changed, I'm mainly interested in Mining, Bitcoin, Altcoins, Trading, helping people with whatever I can etc. and I do have a few threads that I manage and try to create a good resource especially for miners on this forum:
I have noticed however that the majority of merit is only sent out in some particular boards (Meta, Reputation etc.) or for stuff that is not really Bitcoin & Altcoin related like hundreds of merit statistics.
I am not really interested in being a blood hound for scammers, rule/merit abusers (although I appreciate the people who do it) and what not, nor am I interested in merit statistics but does that mean I don't get to rank up on this forum?
On the other hand, I see there is a lack of merit sent out in the Mining, Altcoin, Economics or Local (Romanian - no merit sources here BTW) boards where people have real issues that need to be sorted out.
Isn't this the purpose of the community?I realized some of the boards I mentioned have become spam hang-outs for a lot of people (and this may get your post buried instantly, thus limiting the people who can see it) but for some that are really interested in these topics is really hard to go on.
Maybe a solution for this issue would be to:- select a few merit sources that are interested in these topics and regularly posts there for a better distribution of merits
- have something like a "Rank-a-Thon" (similar to Hackathon ) where a list of users would be selected and the merit sources would go to their posts and merit whatever they find good
UPDATE: I think a good start to creating the lists of users that the merit sources would review would be people whom already got the activity but are missing the merits
What do you guys think?
This is my reply :
I have the same sentiments with you.
The intention of merit is to prevent spammers and encourage us to make quality posts. However, what is happening now is instead of making posts to share your knowledge and learn from one another, the forum community is now posting for the sake of earning merits (especially the low rank members like me).
This is the link of my first thread :
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.40069856Moved the above thread twice (from altcoin discussion to service discussion (altcoins) to beginners and help). I moved it because I noticed that the merit distribution on the altcoin discussion threads are fewer compare to other threads.
Threads that have been moved to different categories:
1. COMMON MISTAKES of BEGINNERS during ICO, AIRDROPS, and BOUNTY CAMPAIGNS
Links:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.40034893 https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--4505759https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.400698562. How to Get a Merit
- Main thread link is missing (the thread is about me, a newbie, asking for high-ranked members their criteria and parameters on giving a merit. It is encouraged to answer in an objective form and not subjective (i.e. make quality posts, etc). One newbie also commented on the post that it would be beneficial for us if high-ranked members will quality the number of merits per the said criteria.
@The Pharmacist commented and warned me to "nuke" the said post because it is highly discouraged by this community. Hence, I locked the post and(most likely) the moderator deleted it.
@The Pharmacist, requesting for you to verify the statement above.
Links:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--4539282https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--4539295EXPLANATION
Recently I've found a user encouraging others to move their threads from one to another board just in a seek of merits. Actually, the user has done it several times, from alt to beginners, from meta to beginners, and so. The user also explains to others this behavior as a good way of earning merits:
I have the same sentiments with you.
The intention of merit is to prevent spammers and encourage us to make quality posts. However, what is happening now is instead of making posts to share your knowledge and learn from one another, the forum community is now posting for the sake of earning merits (especially the low rank members like me).
This is the link of my first thread :
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.40069856Moved the above thread twice (from altcoin discussion to service discussion (altcoins) to beginners and help). I moved it because I noticed that the merit distribution on the altcoin discussion threads are fewer compare to other threads. I am MISQUOTEDI think I was misquoted on the statement above.
I DO NOT ENCOURAGE others to move their threads to seek merits. I may be guilty of moving my thread to earn more viewers but when you examine my post, I am just replying to the original thread and not encouraging others. As I have said, encouraging others for a bad conduct is a big accusation.
MOVING THREADS MISTAKESMy post Common Mistakes of Beginners/Newbies during ICO, Airdrops and Bounty Campaigns was moved from Service Discussion (altcoins) to Beginners & Help because of the suggestion of one member:
Thanks for the tips!
All correctly on topic! Addition: in status "newcomer", should not write posts in other themes, except as "for newcomers"! It matters!
Thank you for the recommendation. I moved this topic to "others-Beginners & Help" section.
My 2nd post How to Get a Merit was moved from Beginners & Help to Meta because the question is directed to old users of this forum hence I decided to move it. The post is not meant to earn a merit so accusing me that moving this post to earn a merit is way of the mark.
If you will notice that I moved the post twice
1.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--4539295 (from Beginners & Help to Bitcoin Discussion - I forgot to change the scroll bar to move the post to META hence it moved to the default scroll bar of Bitcoin Discussion. You can see the content of the post that I stated that the post is moved to the META)
2. The second post - I successfully moved the topic to META.
@The Pharmacist, kindly verify the first paragraph above (i.e. The post is not meant to earn a merit...)
High-Ranked Members ConcernFirst, I would like to say that I am not generalizing all the high-ranked members. I always use the word
SOME and not
ALL.
High-ranked members are very vocal regarding merit-begging and really condemn the said behavior and I commend the high-ranked members for this.
However, what I am frustrated about the behavior of assessing if the post is merit-worthy.
Let me give an example:
I have this post sharing
my newbie experience. The post does not involve any relation to Merit. The post does not have any word "merit" on it.
However, someone started a discussion regarding this:
I was going to give you a merit for your post, but I see that you are still flying a bounty signature, so that still seems to be your primary motivation.
I think the same attitude with discouraging merit-begging posts, we should also have the attitude to discourage off-topic reply like this.
Instead of commenting and focusing on the topic, the off-topic reply regarding if the post is merit-worthy leads the discussion regarding if someone must give the poster a merit or not. It frustrates me that the main purpose/topic of the thread that I started is getting neglected and instead the discussion of the thread is diverted to the off-topic of my post being a merit-worthy or not.
I hope this clearly explain my case.