It will also defeat a large part of the purpose of having the merit system.
I don't know about that--merits given to ANN threads are at least not being given to shitposters, and that stymies their attempts to rank up, which in turn decreases their shitposting paycheck and also discourages account farming. That, IMO, is the main thing that merits were meant to combat.
But most of the shit posting is done in ANN threads to bump up the thread so it displays on the first page.
Part of the purpose of the merit system is to highlight good posts (which is why they are displayed on the statistics page).
Good non-commercial threads are now harder to find because the ANN threads have taken their rightful spot.
The deep onion ANN thread smerits that they received as a result of the merits received went to shitposters.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=1038794
While I am disappointed that ANN threads are dominating the merit rankings - I'm pleasantly surprised that only the deeponion smerits went to shitposters.
The other ANN threads either haven't used their smerits or they were reasonably well distributed.
If the shitposting was quarantined to just that area, I wouldn't have a problem with that, but it isn't. The main section here (Bitcoin Discussion) has become nothing but a spam section because of signature campaign shitposters. What I'm saying is at least those people aren't ranking up. It would be so much worse if the merit system wasn't around.
Maybe you are onto something there. A dual merit system.
x amount of merits and posts to have a signature in the bounty and ann threads - those merits and posts have to be obtained in those sections of the forum.
x amount of merits and posts to have a signature in the other forum threads - those merits and posts have to be obtained in those sections of the forum.
People only wanting to participate in bounties and airdrops wouldn't ever need to post in the main forum.
