I recently ranked up to Senior Member.
Here's my BitcoinTalk.org history:
I registered on Feb 28, 2018.
I was almost non active until June 2018.
I got my first merit on Jun, 28th 2018
On Jan, 11th I got my 100th merit and got ranked as a Full Member.
On Mar, 5th I got my 200th merit.
On Mar, 28th I got my 250th merit, and ranked up to Senior Member.
On May, 19th I got my 400th merit.
On June, 17th I got my 500th merit, but lacking activity, didn't rank to Hero (It won't happen until Oct 9,2019)
On June, 28h I got my 600th merit
On Aug, 1st I got my 800th merit
On Aug, 27th I got my 1000th merit, but lacking activity, didn’t rank to Legendary or Hero either!
On Sep, 27th I got my 1200th merit.
On Oct, 9th I clocked 490 activity and ranked up to Hero Member
On Oct, 14th I got my 1400th merit.
On Nov, 14th themyos granted me the status of merit source.
On Jan, 4th 2020 I got my 2000th merit.
On Apr, 23rd I got my 3000th merit.
On Sep, 1st I got my 4000th merit.
On Feb, 16th 2021 I got my 5000th merit.
On Feb, 24th I became a Legendary member.
I got there getting merits from a lot of BitcoinTalk members:
This is another graph representation of my incoming merits over time:
This is my incoming trust network:
You can see my complete Trust network here, using LoyceV trust list Viewer.
I encourage you to edit your own Trust List.
I am a solid DT1 member, according to LoyceV DT1 rankings.
(You can find sources to create your own graph in the links below)
If you want to know a little more about me, you can read my interview here:
[Interviews] with Bitcointalk members
This is to present my journey on the forum so far.
I see a lot of whining from newbies and Jr. Members about merits, how to earn them, and how unfair merit system is.
It is not.
I worked hard, I studied, i tried to focus on learning and sharing what I learnt.
I think I can share with you some suggestion on how improve your chances of writing good posts, and then getting merits. Please note the order of the two actions: it is not coincidence.
- It’s all about the knowledge. Try to think about merits as a knowledge exchange: you give merit when you learn something new, you get merit when you teach something new, or you make other people think about something old in a new way. Once you progress in the knowledge you can start answering other users' question and solving their problems, or start contributing to the forum providing new resources or tools, if you have the skills. Just try to figure out the best way to do so that suits your capabilities and resources.
Corollary: Avoid posting one liner post, or worse any one word posts: things like "Nice!" "Well written" "You are so right!" are considered null even in the scammiest signature campaign thread, let alone being considered useful regarding merits.
- Write always having Forum Rules in mind. There are many threads about them. Writing according to the official/unofficial guideline of the forum is welcome, as puts the reader in the best position to appreciate your work, that could be simply not taken in consideration if blatantly contrary to basic forum rules or netiquette. Or even could be marked as abuse.
I might suggest two threads to help you familiarize with such topics:
- Write correctly, avoid typos and edit your post at the best of your possibilities (don’t forget punctuation marks). Typos, grammar errors, strange sentence syntax might dampen the effectiveness of your message. I learnt the hard way when I got almost no merits on the first revisions of my guide. A good hint is to proofread your text with a Word Processor before posting. Preview your message before posting to spot errors in links, or opportunities to improve the general layout of the message.
Corollary: Quote politely: bad quoting can worsen the reading experience of other users. Quoting the whole message to answer only a specific part below, or answer a few question all below the quoted text are bad practices. This is something not related to this forum specifically, so you might already know about what I am saying here. If you don't please get used to best quoting practice reading one of the many good guides out there, like this one.
- Post only in threads where you think there are people actually listening to what you are saying: a thread of 20000+ pages is too long to be read from start to last messages. (reference to actual threads like Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion is purely coincidental). The probability of reading the same message or concept again and again is very high. Hence people wanting to learn something (giving merits) have already moved away since a few dozen messages.
- This point is probably a corollary of the previous rule, but it is too important and an error too common not to be treated as a separate one: do not post on Altcoin section. The signal/noise ration on that boards section is very low. All the posts are about scam project and/or signatures campaign. Nobody is actually interested in the content of the posts, so merit sources are not even reading this forum: as it is almost impossible to find meritable posts and as time is a scarce resource, they are probably reading more boards where chances of reading good posts are higher.
- Read about the merit system, learn how it works, understand how Merits and activity influence your post habits.
Read those guides:
- Keep your signal/noise ratio high. Post only when you have sensible thing to say. Don’t post one word reply (“I do agree!”, “You are right bro!” or “NO!”), but expand the knowledge giving details to the previous answer, or motivate your thoughts and reasoning. When people see your nickname on the left, must be willing to read your new post because already knows she’s going to learn something.
- Don’t hoard your sMerit. Spend them, according to aforementioned criteria, but spend them. Find good material on the forum and reward someone. This will start a few positive feedback loops: first this will encourage more good posts on the forum, that is our main objective, secondly will create some kind of “bond” with the merited person, that will recognise you next time you write and will be more keen to merit you back( this is not merit begging or merit swapping, it is more a subtle, psychological, not conscious effect) and lastly, above all will signal you as a user that recognise good posts. A user recognising good posts is perceived as a user writing good posts: you send Merits, the more they will come back to you!
- Try to stick around. Not only your signal/noise ratio must be kept high, but also you should post frequently. The forum has a short-lived memory, and they forgot the reputation of a member if you make yourself forgotten.
- If you truly believe you have written some good post, you can dare to actually ask for merit. That shouldn't be done on a random topic, otherwise it could be considered Merit Begging, but on explicitly designed threads like the two following (others might exist on local boards):
- [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source
- UPDATED [05/03/2019]: List of Active Merit Giveaways threads.
- Giving 16 Newbie/Jr. Members a Chance to Rank Up
- After all those tips on what I suggest you to do, I can tell you the only thing you must be sure of never doing: Merit Begging.
Firstly merit begging is against forum rule (check them all here).
Secondly, posting messages asking for merits, or even worse, sending PM to other users on the forum asking for merits, is a deeply frown activity, and can piss off other users fairly quickly. A pissed off user is less likely to read your message (you can easily end up in her ignore list), and a user not reading your message is a user that is not giving merits to you.
- The post I care the most about is a review of PlanB stock to flow model. Stock To Flow Model: Modeling Bitcoin's Value with Scarcity
I try to explain the model itself, trying to guide the reader trough the misconception about it - My first heavily merited post is a simple translation of Stadicus guide in Italian to help Italian members running a full Bitcoin Note + Lightning Node.
[GUIDA] Nodo Bitcoin + Lightning Network su Raspberry PI
I learnt a lot writing that guide, I got merits.
Now I am a full member of the Bitcoin Forum Community, I run a Full Bitcoin Node (and HODLING strong!) - On this post I review a series of indicators and I try to figure out Bitcoin price directions. No TA bullshit, only "fundamental analysis"
Bitcoin Bearish or Bullish? Here my thoughts: MAY UPDATE - A less serious post on how many private key are possible in the Bitcoin Protocol, our mind is not programmed to understand very large numbers
There are 2^256 private keys out there: how big is that number?
If you want to track your merits and reproduce the graphs I inserted here, you can use the following resources:
Merit table:
https://bpip.org/profile.aspx?p=fillippone
Merit Chart:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/our-very-own-smerit-network-picture-enhanced-with-access-to-all-smerit-txs-3395255
That posted was born as a celebration for my ranking up as full member, but slowly evolved on a guide on how to write good stuff. So I wanted to move it on the most appropriate section where it can be more useful to new people wanting to increase their merits count.
Fillippone.