Topic: [Request] Out of Smerit, top it up..... (Read 330 times)

I agree with this to some extent it's not the amount of merit out there that's necessarily the issue. It's the way in which some are distributed that seem so counter intuitive to the design of the system. This is why I actually came back to bump this thread.

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This is more for anyone meriting these threads or posts. If you yourself have Smerit, are feeling particularly generous and are about to award some to an exhausted source think on this for a minute. You can go here yourself and begin awarding posts. It is infinitely better than cutting them in half to provide to a source who will be replenished shortly. If the system requires a larger allocation, then theymos will add more. It's been done before.
[self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5093271.280

I do not think so. As long as the merits are distributed fairly to post that actually do deserve it, then I do not think having a lot of it at ones disposal would reduce its value.

Merit sources carry the "burden" of trying to ensure that merits are circulated around the forum, so I think if they clamour for an increase in their monthly Smerits, it's because they've been bypassing good posts that they wanted to reward, the more Smerits out there, doesn't mean it'll in any way be giving to the undeserving. Do not also forget that other than merit sources, a whole lot of users also have their own personal Smerits, which they can do as they please with.

The more sMerit out there, the less meaningful they become, I don't understand the point behind continuously asking for more Smerit allocation when there is really no quality improvement to match that merit increment, especially for sources who are not active in local boards that suffer lack of merit , seeing many members rank up real fast is a good indication that there is enough merit out there , we have no lack of merit IMO, we have lack of quality posts and discussion.

I understand that sometimes (probably seldom) you find a bit more quality posts than what you can merit, but how often is that? and that could be solved easily, maybe Theymos can allow merit sources to spend 10-15% of their next month/round allocation , something like credit card where merit sources can borrow a fixed percentage of their next sMerit to overcome such an issue.

That would have been a good use for the notepad feature request I was thinking about a while back. There were some good suggestions there for workarounds. 
It's refreshing to hear someone refer to Smerit being their motivation to post better; the by-product not the reward itself. You do make me laugh as I usually have to read your posts at least twice to be sure I comprehend what you are laying down.

I request the development of an extension that automatically PMs (or some other intrapersonal method) you a formatted "merit request" for a given post when you press a button. This avoids spam—my first thought was to automatically post to the thread—in a convenient way for people who often run low on sMerit but browse/lurk the forum, and then the various PMs can easily be consolidated into a full post when the user is ready to combine the results.

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This post would have been useful to me a week ago, since I noticed 5+ posts that I wanted to merit but couldn't. Funnily enough, despite having a ChipMixer signature, the lack of sMerit incentivized me to create (quality!) posts more than the payments did.

 No don't do it.

I'm not out of Smerit, but wanted to put this out there.
It's not uncommon for some out there to exhaust their earned Smerit, even sources run out from time to time. We need to understand this is just the system at work, not necessarily a flaw or reason to request theymos intervene and add to our bank. On top of that I don't feel people should then merit these people solely for them to earn half as Smerit, in lieu of theymos making them a source or them receiving their next merits organically. Most of these users will earn merit on their own rather quickly anyways, but are either: impatient, afraid to forget the post, or uninformed of other options as linked below.

I just feel the optics on this are so askew, it's hard to look at sometimes. Merits still seem like a hurdle to a lot of members out there, by design the system shows members  various ways to excel succeed and bring value to the forum. This can then promote this sort of behavior of just wanting to award merit to others but having non themselves. Early on these sorts of requests where met with claims of merit begging, and go earn your own.

Now this is different from a merit source application. That is a position that is needed and there is no issue with awarding merit, they are generally well put together and researched threads.

So I'll toss this out there, next time you see someone in a situation with no merit to award direct them here - [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source .This way the posts can still be merited and the system can work as designed without needing/requesting Admin intervention. If they have not already done so you can also direct them to apply to be a merit source following the process laid out in Merit and new rank requirements