Topic: The future of Bitcointalk: Low Ranking Top Merit earners in the past 30 days - page 16. (Read 12893 times)

Correct. This list is a rolling total for the last 30 days, and every week the 7 oldest days are replaced by the 7 newest days.

@micgoossens That's because she hasn't earned any merits in the last 30 days.

However, you can find here in the previous lists

At the introduction of merit system, I was convinced (don't know why) that everybody above newbie will be a source by the default.
Higher the rank, bigger the source regenerated per month but not to much (like 30/m/legend).
To my disappointment sources became sort of centralised. I still think it would be a better option, however this method also works, imo if its not going change to what my initial but inadequate impression of this system was, then that's absolutely pointless to change it at all. Let's face it, a special cast of people/accounts was created, to govern and who's gonna govern the governing? Yes, yes one can go forward to be a source, that is a new problem on it's own, created in the place where there was none.

BTW, that's a good thread however it's lacking in the authors conclusions department 
Title suggests, that some sort of opinion about the forum's future will be present somewhere, I'm still looking...
Raw data is one thing, interpretation of it is another. How are you feeling about all this LoyceV ?

Afterthought
Clickbait-ich title     

It's nice to see myself on top of my bracket list, after mostly 3rd place so far, even though it wouldn't be possible  without  that contest thing  . Some members like @zasada@, MrFreeDragon and @wndsnb got respectable amount of merit the "regular" way.

     1. Newbie Bloodie44 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 60 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     2. Newbie LeafAndWood (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 46 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     3. Newbie MichaelX (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 23 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     4. Newbie saiga31 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 22 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     5. Newbie ADAMA_NOW (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 20 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     6. Newbie ShadyExchange (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 20 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     7. Newbie ritaconscience (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 19 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     8. Newbie leventturksoy (Trust: +1 / =0 / -0) earned 14 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     9. Newbie BoofBitcoin (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 13 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    10. Newbie bounty0z (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 12 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    11. Newbie MarsMiningCo (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 12 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    12. Newbie palukritik (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    13. Newbie sergzah (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    14. Newbie rasurjhon (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    15. Newbie icy3 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    16. Newbie Freemine-001010 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    17. Newbie Ejecta (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    18. Newbie Bonzo1968 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    19. Newbie Greek_Cryptoccy_Community (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    20. Newbie Ardaa (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    21. Newbie johank (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    22. Newbie BitVPS (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    23. Newbie Andriian (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 9 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)

     1. Jr. Member BCNext (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 50 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     2. Jr. Member deadsea33 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 45 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     3. Jr. Member samuel-sd (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 33 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     4. Jr. Member Eduarop (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 28 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     5. Jr. Member GamblingSiteFinder (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 24 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     6. Jr. Member Firehawk1524 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 16 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     7. Jr. Member margotcoins (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 14 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     8. Jr. Member pressnegl (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 12 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     9. Jr. Member Stroitelev (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    10. Jr. Member bstr156 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    11. Jr. Member 0x256 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    12. Jr. Member Senius (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    13. Jr. Member chanchenjhun (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 9 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    14. Jr. Member Heat.GG (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    15. Jr. Member tobyyola (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)

     1. Member Rikafip (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 127 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     2. Member zasad@ (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 120 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     3. Member Laskoo (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 64 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     4. Member MrFreeDragon (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 61 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     5. Member wndsnb (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 54 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     6. Member AlecMe (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 52 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     7. Member Yabes (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 49 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     8. Member samidbangkit (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 42 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
     9. Member Maus0728 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 42 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    10. Member Mamaecrypto (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 38 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    11. Member terizla (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 37 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    12. Member sedactoo+04 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 35 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    13. Member Zedpastin (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 33 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    14. Member Salamstar (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 33 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    15. Member Andersen_KMD (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 32 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    16. Member _ZeD_ (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 31 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    17. Member geophphreigh (Trust: +4 / =0 / -0) earned 30 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    18. Member Ya3rob (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 30 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    19. Member dragonvslinux (Trust: +0 / =0 / -2) earned 29 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    20. Member bisdak40 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 25 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    21. Member SS31337 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 25 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    22. Member SidArt (Trust: +1 / =0 / -0) earned 24 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    23. Member Olegya199 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 22 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    24. Member Ljunior (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 21 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    25. Member Zuzma Banned! (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 21 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    26. Member karsyla (Trust: +1 / =0 / -0) earned 20 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    27. Member Ulven (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 19 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    28. Member WunderSchwein (Trust: +0 / =0 / -1) earned 17 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    29. Member Macadonian (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 16 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    30. Member JasonFC (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 16 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    31. Member xolxol (Trust: #  +0 / =0 / -4) earned 16 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    32. Member WilcoWi (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 16 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    33. Member akhjob (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 16 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    34. Member bitaps (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 14 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    35. Member satria157 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 13 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    36. Member Findingnemo (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 13 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    37. Member Hockeybum (Trust: +3 / =0 / -0) earned 12 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    38. Member Azrieli (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 12 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    39. Member UmerIdrees (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 12 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    40. Member rat03gopoh (Trust: +1 / =0 / -0) earned 12 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    41. Member Compr (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 12 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    42. Member ScamViruS (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    43. Member Oxstone (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    44. Member Lookman0 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    45. Member styleshifter (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    46. Member vladimirhf (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 11 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    47. Member viviansidney (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    48. Member mstrozier (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    49. Member stmar (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    50. Member YuSoDum (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    51. Member Jercyhora2 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    52. Member haloxon (Trust: +1 / =0 / -0) earned 10 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    53. Member PopoJeff (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 9 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    54. Member Epochjump (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 9 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    55. Member C\F8bra (Trust: +3 / =0 / -0) earned 9 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    56. Member anataz_ (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 9 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    57. Member Brybro27 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 9 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    58. Member FIFA worldcup (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 9 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    59. Member ab1jx (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    60. Member Blockchayne (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    61. Member Bluecheese (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    62. Member belli4388 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    63. Member JessicaVL (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    64. Member keychainX (Trust: +3 / =1 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    65. Member dende93 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    66. Member katrinmi (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    67. Member SwayStar123 (Trust: +0 / =1 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    68. Member escalante28 (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)
    69. Member killat (Trust: +0 / =0 / -0) earned 8 Merit in 30 days (BPIP)

Searching through the theymos posts regarding merit, i found this which is relevant and answer many of the questions here.

I was going to ask for some examples of those Members, but I made a list myself. Merit is based on last Friday's data dump. Copper Members are ignored (scraping their real rank is more work).
All Members with 60-70 Merit (that means they earned 50-70 Merit, some of them might have had 10 Merit airdropped):
     1. Member elliottflz65 (Trust: neutral) (54 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
     2. Member LordStapy (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
     3. Member Craige288 (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
     4. Member gruve_p (Trust: neutral) (51 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
     5. Member Pffrt (Trust: neutral) (58 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
     6. Member dobbscoin (Trust: neutral) (52 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
     7. Member arcmetal (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
     8. Member Viktor SPB (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
     9. Member Robin,Hood (Trust: +0 / =0 / -1) (52 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    10. Member etc.etc. (Trust: neutral) (53 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    11. Member michnkeks (Trust: neutral) (63 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    12. Member giammangiato (Trust: neutral) (55 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    13. Member acarli (Trust: neutral) (65 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    14. Member cho99 (Trust: neutral) (51 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    15. Member Decker (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    16. Member StevenMosher (Trust: neutral) (69 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    17. Member pacman7331 (Trust: neutral) (66 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    18. Member heratys111 (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    19. Member CoinClarity (Trust: neutral) (55 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    20. Member android17 (Trust: neutral) (66 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    21. Member georgemamat Banned! (Trust: neutral) (65 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    22. Member rDieminger (Trust: neutral) (53 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    23. Member cod3gen (Trust: neutral) (67 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    24. Member Kuala Lumpur Banned! (Trust: neutral) (69 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    25. Member dragonvslinux (Trust: +0 / =0 / -2) (65 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    26. Member cryptoworld2017 Banned! (Trust: neutral) (56 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    27. Member Demirung Banned! (Trust: neutral) (60 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    28. Member vejdemann Banned! (Trust: neutral) (65 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    29. Member polluks (Trust: neutral) (67 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    30. Member thenextking (Trust: neutral) (62 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    31. Member Klara_karlovna (Trust: neutral) (58 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    32. Member Wheelige (Trust: neutral) (58 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    33. Member Raskolhnikov1 (Trust: neutral) (55 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    34. Member akhjob (Trust: neutral) (68 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    35. Member AlexZHankok (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    36. Member atrocityx (Trust: neutral) (64 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    37. Member cryptojaani (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    38. Member shitcoinoffering (Trust: neutral) (64 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    39. Member SkyLords (Trust: neutral) (70 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    40. Member noorman0 (Trust: neutral) (54 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    41. Member CryptoPravda (Trust: neutral) (69 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    42. Member Raymond_B (Trust: neutral) (69 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    43. Member spirali (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    44. Member _ZeD_ (Trust: neutral) (65 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    45. Member thierry4wd (Trust: neutral) (70 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    46. Member anonymous3x (Trust: neutral) (66 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    47. Member AlecMe (Trust: neutral) (65 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    48. Member Mamaecrypto (Trust: neutral) (70 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    49. Member Pirrlokk (Trust: +0 / =0 / -2) (65 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    50. Member bubbalex (Trust: +1 / =0 / -0) (66 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    51. Member TranslateIntoDutch (Trust: neutral) (69 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    52. Member Olegya199 (Trust: neutral) (64 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    53. Member Awesomus Maximus (Trust: neutral) (66 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    54. Member tusherk800 (Trust: neutral) (70 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    55. Member kreims (Trust: neutral) (65 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    56. Member DoriangrayTW (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    57. Member VyachikO (Trust: neutral) (62 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    58. Member Helana (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    59. Member womanderful (Trust: neutral) (62 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    60. Member Ljunior (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    61. Member TimeBits Banned! (Trust: neutral) (62 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    62. Member Oxstone (Trust: neutral) (68 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    63. Member Laskoo (Trust: neutral) (68 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    64. Member Becky666 (Trust: neutral) (61 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)
    65. Member StackGambler (Trust: +0 / =0 / -2) (66 Merit earned (history)) (BPIP)

Valid point, and you're a decent poster so I've re-merited some of your posts. Your Merit amount is almost keeping up with Activity, and you've only started receiving Merit long after it's introduction, so you'll probably catch up:
Suchmoon is the Most generous merit sender indeed.
Theymos prefers if Merit sources empty their source. If they can do that by small amounts if's okay, but if they do it in large chunks it's okay too:
As long as a Merit source manages to empty his source by sending only 1 at a time, there's no need to send more. Unless theymos increases the source amount. At the start of this year my source was doubled, and since then I've been giving larger amounts once my source amount goes up.

@FIFA worldcup will correct me if I misunderstood his post, but i think that  his suggestion was mostly aimed at those who are merit source , have bulk of unspent merit, and  have issues with finding good posts.

So idea is when you are merit source with  bunch of merits unspent  and you merit someone that doesn't need too many merits to rank up, chances are that in his recent post history there are some quality posts that could be merited. And then you look through his post history and merit quality posts, therefore making that user to  rank up.
That kind of approach demand some extra effort though, so I am not sure that everyone has time for that.

I noticed that @suchmoon usually gives merit in bulk, usually at  least 4 merits ( i must admit it feels good to get merits in bulk  ) but i guess each merit source has different approach, and different amount of monthly merits to give.

If we have to increase merit awards above 1 or 2, then in my opinion the forum has a problem. There should be enough reasonable posts to soak up all of the merits available. The problem may be a paucity of interesting threads and posts to encourage senior members to spend more time in the forum. The senior members tend to be the ones with sMerit to award, and if we start to allow them to drift away, then the forum will be the poorer for it. I think that stats on the changes in activity and merit receipts for senior and long standing members of the forum would be an important metric to gauge the health and future prospects for the forum.

There are a few constraints to this idea, the post must be hell good for it to earn that much merit that would rank up the user, and if you're to go through the users history to start meriting previously made post, then you must be giving something within the range of 5 merits per post.

For someone who's not a merit source, I doubt they'll have that much merit to spend, and for the merit sources it'll mean spending their entire months allocation(or almost)on one users which would hinder them from giving out merits and also ranking up other users all through out the month.

That would still lead to more complaints by others, the thing is honestly ranking up shouldn't be a hasty process, just like moving from one grade to another, the system may not be the quickest for now, but at least it's working, once you're a good poster you must rank up, no matter how long it takes.

The problem is that sMerits are so scarce for a normal user like me (someone who doesn't post so much technical or statistical data or engage in lots of politics around the forum which seem to attract lots of merit), on average i get 5-4 Merits per week, that's roughly just 2 sMerits to  give out, it implies a person like me cannot afford to give out 5 or 10 sMerits in a short run... so you find yourself just send one 1 merit per post however good it is.

Maybe something should be done to increase more Merits in circulation. Perhaps increase source allocations or increase more merit sources.

I see it entirely differently. Good users are always here and there and merit sources should help them because purpose is to rank up the good users and clear up the spammers.

I will give you an example. If you merit a Member rank user and his current merits are 60-70 and he'e been around for a year in same rank, give him bulk 30 and make him full member. In this way he will not have to wait for another 5 months  - 6 months to move up.
Similarly you merit a Full member who has 200 Merits already, give him bulk 50 and make him Sr. Member if he's been around sometime and regular and make good posts.

Ofcourse for this, you have to spend some time in going to the previous history, genuine merit history of the users and only merit sources can do this as they have larger portion amount of smerits.

I wish I could. I am chronically low on both source and personal sMerits - I'm sitting on 0 and 4 at the moment, respectively. I'm afraid I'd much rather give 5 different people 1 merit than I would give 5 merit to a single user, even if that post is deserving of 5 merit. I am not the only one in this situation. The number of merit sources with excess sMerit are the minority.

There are plenty of threads in Meta of new applications for merit sources as well as merit sources asking for a larger supply. The only person who can act on these is theymos - the fact that he hasn't suggests he's happy with how things stand at the moment.

I'm not sure that would make a big difference in the long run. The users who would spend their sMerit to avoid it decaying would likely spend their sMerit anyway, perhaps just a little later once they have a larger supply saved up, as you say. The users who aren't going to spend their sMerit to avoid it decaying (who I suspect would be the vast majority) would simply lose their merit and then not have any when they wanted to use some. The net effect may be to increase merit being sent in the short term, but decrease it in the long term.

You know, I don't really disagree with you about that.  It's turning out to be way harder for members to rank up, and maybe harder than it was supposed to be.  When the merit system was implemented there was no way to tell how many members would be able to get to the higher ranks from scratch, and after almost two years we've pretty much found out. 

There have been some good members with good posts who didn't start at Newbie rank since Jan. 2018 still stuck at ranks under Hero or Legendary.  TheUltraElite comes to mind.  Part of the reason may be their number of posts--more posts increase the chance of getting merits, but part of it is just the randomness of earning merits.  Lowering the bar might not be a horrible idea.

I've been trying to target the lower ranks with my sMerits this month, but it's still as hard as ever to find good posts being made by them.  I've been through a lot of threads in Economics, and I swear all the excellent posts are made by Hero/Legendary members, and if someone under that rank posts, it's usually a poorly-written one liner.

(sorry to LoyceV, I know you said there are better places to discuss this - this will be my last post on this thread on this topic)

I agree, but that's wholly down to the merit sources. I predominantly give out 1s and 2s because I don't have enough sMerit to give out more than that - I've got 19 right now, which is about what I had when I got back from my hiatus Maybe eventually (months down the road) I'll consider applying to be a merit source in Project Dev as there are posts there that I wish had more merit. (yes I will put em in the merit source thread soon)

Really I think that a gentle sMerit decay would be a good idea to spread merit out more evenly. People who aren't merit sources are pretty limited in their sMerit and so there's a mental block to giving it out, as it might be a while until you can 'stock' your reserves back up.

Less than 1000 accounts per day, but most of them never post and are probably waiting for Evil Fees to be lifted. But barely any of those make meaningful posts, many are just created to spam.

I do sometimes, depending on my source amount and the quality of the post I give more Merit per post once in a while. But there's another thing: if a post is really good, it receives merit from many different people too.
See: Top-merited recent replies and Top-merited recent topics for many examples.

By sending low amounts to many people, other opinions matter too.

Alternatively, users can start merited in higher amounts to high quality posts instead of 1/2/5's. I think the merit system is working fine, and its suppose to take years to get to the highest rank. In my opinion its not an issue of too high requirements, but instead users are trying to spread out their merit points by only meriting with 1/2's, but a high amount of users, but it would probably be better if we rewarded very high quality posts with higher amounts of merit.

I hate to say it, but its the argument over quality over quantity. Merit sources obviously have much more leeway when meriting because they can spread while still giving a decent amount of merit per post.

So it means the creation of new accounts would be very low now. If you have that data, it will be interesting to know how many new accounts are being made daily.



Then either the merit sources or the supply for the merit sources should increase.



You do the right thing but the good posters have the right or wish to rank up quickly too.
My example may not be relevant but consider you give 100 poor people a single bread for breakfast and they still remain hungry  or feed 10 people the full breakfast.

That's the point of the Merit system: it was far too easy to farm accounts, and that stopped now. Of course scarcity leads to higher prices, but the number of accounts available to be sold keeps dropping. See A wave of bans: 400 yesterday, 300 the day before. What changed? for example: I'm pretty sure we're still destroying more Merit in bans than we're distributing to users.

I usually give only 1 Merit at a time, but it's not true that I could "easily" give more Merit per post. I've sent 6648 Merit in 4612 transactions, and currently have more than 500 sMerit left. I could at most have given less than 10% more per post with my total supply.

Merit abusers only send sMerit to a few users. I've merited 1315 different users. That explains the difference.