Topic: Suggestion: Merit Phase 2 - Drain the Swamp (@theymos) - page 3. (Read 3041 times)

The Merit system has been with us for six weeks now and is clearly having some success in reducing the spam. It is now very hard, if not impossible, for account farmers to provide a constant supply of high ranked accounts. This, of course, is good news for any of us who have become tired of finding any interesting content quickly buried under a pile of shitposts.

What this hasn't addressed is the large number of accounts already in the hands of shitposters. Let's be honest about what rank is all about - signatures and the ability to gain income from them. The ability of someone who is already in possession of, for example, a Hero account (or 10) to continue to get paid for every shitpost they tack on the end of a spam megathread has not diminished or been restrained by the Merit system.

Some campaign managers have taken the initiative to make minimum Merit requirements compulsory to join their campaigns but those managers were already the ones with high standards. They were not the problem, it has always been the managers that just blindly accept the first x hundred people to apply and pay them regardless of the spam they produce.

I have noticed that these spammers are very easy to spot now, they are the ones stuck on 100, 250, 500 or whatever merit number they were initially given. They haven't managed to gain one single Merit point in the last 6 weeks.

So to my suggestion:

Amend the forum to hide signatures of any account that hasn't earned at least 1 Merit in the last 2 months.

This will bar them from getting paid to post and not have any negative impact on anyone making even the tiniest contribution to the forum. Nobody loses their rank and even if someone is away from the forum for a while they can quickly get their signature back.

I've only known this forum when I accidentally went to an event while looking for investments about new technologies. The event host raised a question, how did they know about cryptocurrecies, one guy answered this forum. The host bluntly said; do not click anything below every posts you see on that forum or you will be a victim of scam ICOs, scammers came that forum.

If this merit system is all about signature bounties, would you trust an ICO based on someones post, or his rank?

We all know that this merit system is to prevent people from ranking ups based on their activity on this forum, but will it prevent the scam ICO?

Before every high ranking members single out the shit posters, they should have cleaned up the mess on altcoin announcement thread section where you will see low ranking members posting- Great project!, The best platform ever!, I like your idea/ project!, This will surely moon!, posters like this should be removed for they only bumping and piling up a good post.

 But if someone has no writing skills and isn't knowledgeable, he shouldn't post thousands of posts just to rank up. And that's what the merit system takes care of.

Possibly I've been wrong, but most merits are distributed among coteries and groups. The posts that tend to belittle others and point fingers are the ones that have been receiving merits as well. Posts like ICO ANN and Bounties ANN by Bounty managers are receiving merits( WHY ).

I've rarely tried to please people and have also tried to increase the quality of my posts in the past months, but I've rarely received merits from unknown sources, just people that know or those I have merited (dunno if it was a gesture or anything but I never asked them for it).  

A lot of people have been harping on the Sig campaigns thing. Here are a couple of things:

Q1. Why do companies have Sign Campaigns?

A. To
    (a.) To grab eyeballs so that people know about them and invest or use those services.
    (b.) To pay posters who make good posts on BCT.

I think it's the (a.). (Correct me if I'm wrong or have a wrong notion anywhere in this post.)

Q2. Do people make decisions to invest in ICO or use a service based on the Sign Holders?
A. I've seen people wear the Signature of a Mixer, I have looked into the service and it looks AWESOME. I wouldn't care if a racist half-wit is wearing that signature and spamming endlessly (actually someone racist is wearing it), I have and will use the service.

I've also seen many good posters wear the sign of a Mining company and I have looked into it again, will I invest, HELL NO!

Q3. What's the use of merits and such regulations then?
A. I hate to say it, but the winners are ICO Bounties that need to pay less (Sorry Satoshi, but Centralized Institutions are winning), because people won't rank up. I think the only useful system is the TRUST, that too when u are trading and not proselytizing your political opinions. As for rest, all Ranks and Merits should be abolished and each Bounty Manager shud be made to count posts and assess the quality and pay for them. ICOs are happy to have 100 Jr. Members Shit-Post and say Good Project while grabbing attention to their projects, because that also is a form of marketing. Why do the PAUL BROTHERS and their gangs have Millions of views when all they make is SHIT, because even cringe is appealing and makes for good marketing.

Q4. What's my proposed solution?
A. Read the BOLD part up.
EDIT : Initiatives such as SMAS list by Lauda is a good reference point and I applaud them, although I'm on the list (Rightly so!) and believe that it has little utility in terms of marketing. (Again grabbing eye-balls is more important !)


My 2cents : All of us can agree that Sign campaigns pay well, but do they pay to make good posts or to grab eyeballs. If it was to make good posts, add that in Article Bounties. I hope someone points out valid loopholes and assumptions that I made.

Thanks.


P.S. Can some marketing veteran point it out that my logic has fallacies, but remember that most investors in ICOs are extremely clueless and not a reformed crowd that they would care for quality of adverts or advertisers. We also have instances in the past to prove it. MIOTA raised a small seed on forum and was being called a SCAM all the time. The marketing was shit, but most of us can agree that the project is doing good today.

@McWorse
I think your problem could be that you spend too much time on the Alt Boards, and some of us think that the Alt Boards attract the spam posters who are the cancer affecting the forum. There are a lot of great boards here, and a whole new life outside the Alt-World.

Meritt system was introduced 6 weeks ago and many people just don't get any merits as for today.

Bitcointalk stuff thinks to implement "signatures control" based on this Merit system.

I see that forum stuff and high-rank members are happy with Merit system and they are posting about successful spam reducing around the forum. This is obvious that they are happy with Merits because they already achieved highest ranks and the merit system will restrain others from ranking up so it will stop unwanted competition.

From another site, there are many posts on the forum from members who are not happy with the new merit system. These members are mostly affected by the new system: few days before rank up (like me), don't have good skills in English language, not posting frequently, no writing skills, not knowledgeable enough. They are not spammers or shitposters. They are normal forum users, normal people and this is about 75% of members.

The first jr.member in many signatures do not participate!
Secondly, Awards for each rank are different!  So I say that "complicate then for each rank separately" !
Thirdly  If There are too many narratives in reports,it does not mean Super constructive answer, but only that a person likes to compose water!
And fourth if you write a highly constructive text,this does not 100% guarantee  that someone appreciates you and because of that many write "shitpost" because many people see no difference!!! More appreciating each other and will be less "shitpost" !

If you understood me you wouldn't have made your previous post as I had already answered your question.

I'd also recommend you read TMAN'S guide to getting merit.

Complicating rules for newbie,complicate then for each rank separately! I spent a lot of time here and understand what you want to prove,

but you do not understand me! People can have "red" days or not have a merite for thanks or they are too lazy...

you didn't take time to understand.

Sure... and how did you solve the problem? putting merit???

Other people will not be more grateful for this and this once again proves that the old user support only the old,even if the system does not work ! Legends  do not get merits, but here you want to make life difficult for newbie, it's his weird  logic.

I'm not contradicting myself. I've listened to what people have said and that I have agreed with some of their points. That's why I gave JaredKaragen a Merit, he brought something to my attention that I hadn't realised was a problem. A quick look at his posts tells me there is something amiss in the mining sections if he isn't getting Merit. That needs to be addressed.

Yep; tis' why I voiced it.

Another way to look at it:

We have the iTrader system.... yet, look at how many people buy and sell from 0 feedback people; and still leave no feedback.    It's an inherent nature of people to be lazy;  in fact, I remember back in the old vbulletin from ~07' when people got +REP...  it was much easier then to just tick a box;  not fill out a form as it is with merit.

I'm not contradicting myself. I've listened to what people have said and that I have agreed with some of their points. That's why I gave JaredKaragen a Merit, he brought something to my attention that I hadn't realised was a problem. A quick look at his posts tells me there is something amiss in the mining sections if he isn't getting Merit. That needs to be addressed.

You are a good example of which contradicts itself.. You created a topic to complicate life...and He speaks " the Merit hasn't been working well yet" What's wrong with you guys? And so many people supported you ..People with good status, like to complicate life! Because in most cases, they support each other and on Newbie I'm pretty sure they don't care!

You are a good example of where the Merit hasn't been working well yet. Mining and particularly altcoin mining don't seem to be followed by enough sources. When I first came to the forum, mining was my only reason to be here, so it is something that I hope is addressed.

You people need to stop blaming the system for your troubles and start looking at where your problem is, and it's you.  No one but you.  You spew out all of this jumbled nonsense, so much so that Bitcoin Discussion and Economics are nothing but spam sections, where there's no actual discussion of bitcoin going on.  Those sections are FULL of garbage like this:

FWIW just reading this thread;  I have only received merit just once since the new implementation;  and gone from Hero to Legendary (apparently)...  Just noticed a few minutes ago when I saw the huge addition to the user stats.

FWIW just reading this thread;  I have only received merit just once since the new implementation;  and gone from Hero to Legendary (apparently)...  Just noticed a few minutes ago when I saw the huge addition to the user stats.

I don't consider myself a shitposter (especially given the sig campaign i am a part of that people seem to despise);  I am pretty much straight to the point, and offer help and assistance when I can, if I can.   I have uploaded many miner scripts for free open public use.

If the original thoughts on requiring merit really happens;  I fear it would impact my abilities here in a negative way possibly....  I don't post all over this board... pretty much just post in a few subforums.

Look at my merit.   Hasn't moved much in the last how long?  Yet I am active, and contributing in many ways....