Topic: [TOP-200] The most generous users giving merits - page 12. (Read 39059 times)

The Merit Source allocated personal quota maximum can never be surpassed by acumulating unspent sourced sMerits. To give a simple example, If a Merit source has an allocated quota of say 300 monthly sMerits, and does not send any within the month, he’ll still have 300 sMerit in the bag a month later (and not 600). They don’t exactly decay, just not stock up above the allocated threshold.

On a finer grain detail, sMerits are refilled not on a fixed calendar day, but rather exactly 30 days (down to the second) after any given sMerit TX is made.

I know the source merits were recently increased for some users and some users complained of not receiving any increments from the thread I read (can't find the link anymore) now my question is what happens if you are unable to finish up your bag of merits for the month as a merit source does it decay or does it stay and keep adding up because I'm sure not all merit sources finish their quota at the end of the month, some don't even spend 20% of it at the end of the month. Is it true that merit decay occurs, or is it just a panic?

A community initiative that some applied for while others were selected for it based on theymos' own criteria and selection methods. I had out merits in a similar way as The Pharmacist does it. I just go about my business of reading and writing posts and I merit the good ones I find in the threads and sub-boards I regularly visit. That's the simplest way to do it. So far I have always succeeded in emptying my bags at the end of the month.

Eh, when I'm browsing bitcointalk my schedule isn't usually that busy--but I'm not the type of merit source who sifts through threads looking for posts to merit (though I will if I come across any).  It would drive me nuts if I clicked on random threads simply to check for meritable posts, for the reason you said, which is that the good ones are in a many-layered sandwich of shitposts.  I've had enough of that to last a lifetime.

Having a job kind of implies that you're getting paid to do something, and being a merit source is a volunteer position.  Actually some merit sources like myself didn't even volunteer.  At some point in 2019, Theymos just sent out a PM to I don't know how many members telling them that they were now merit sources and to go forth and do good for the forum. 

The merit sources that are the most "generous" are the ones who believe in the system and want it to work (and I put myself in that category).  It's supposed to impede the progress of shitposters, account farmers, and the like.  But it's also the mechanism by which members who contribute positively to the forum achieve higher ranks, and if there wasn't a lot of merit being spread around, nobody would be ranking up (and thus it would make the merit system strictly punitive).  I sure don't want it to be that way, so I try to be generous. 

I remember the days before merits and how bad the shitposting problem was, so I appreciate how it's cut the account farmers and a lot of the zero-value members off at the knees.

I know merit sources are being given merits to circulate around the forum, but that doesn't mean they should not be called "generous merit givers" if they actually are, if we take the meaning of generous in this context to be: "willing to give", thus this merit sources that make/top the list of generous merit givers can be said to be MS that set their standards to be more accomodating to other forum users and hence they give more merits than others (that does not in anyway imply they lower their standard), they can also be said to be MS that make out time out of their busy schedule to give out merits on the forum, or they can also be said to be users who are willing to rummage around quite a lot of shitposts on the forum to give out merits to good posts, etc, etc, that definitely makes them generous, imo, it doesn't matter how they get the merits, they could get it that same way and sit back, relax, and distribute it how they like, but for the ones who top this list, they are definitely putting in efforts that makes them generous, or put in another way, more generous than others.

Having said that, I'd actually not call merit source duties as their/a job, I think it's much better to say it's their own contributions to the forum.

You are totally right on this, personally, am not against thanking a person for doing a job they were assigned to do, most especially, if the job was/is done well, but it becomes kind of awkward when in terms of generosity, this guys are counted among the generous ones when actually, what they've been generous with was given to them to give out to others, sure they couldn't have held it back, so I wonder why they are being counted as being generous when they are actually doing their job.

I feel those who really deserve this recognition should be those who give out their personally earned merit to others, and not those who are given merit in bulk to distribute to members of the forum.

Alternative accounts wouldn't help them because they would have to have created them before I started my thread. Because of one of the rules, you couldn't have seen the thread, created a new account, and applied in it. Only if you had the accounts before the topic was even started.

No, surely not all of them. I am not sure what checks OgNasty performs to check the users who apply in his threads, but I am sure he knows what he is doing. Otherwise the thread would be a great way to cheat your way to some quick and easy merits.

I am not sure if this part of your post is directed to me personally or if it's a general comment. I have nothing against people who participate in bounties if that's not all they are doing. I dislike social media spam campaigns. But I have nothing against honest content creators, translators, art designers, etc. If done properly, that can be great stuff. But try to take part in normal conversations on the forum from time to time as well.

That merit thread was started several years before I became a merit source. Back then, I wasn't. I have no intentions of re-bumping it because I am now meriting good posts as I come across them on the forum.   

You are a merits source, and it would be nice to soften the rules a little to accommodate and carry along as many good members as possible, and besides, Newbies and Jr members only require 1 merit (these are the two easier ranks, getting 1 merit is very easy, and they do not need any merit giveaway thread), I would suggest you focus more on Members ranks, but at the end of the day it is your decision.  

Agreed.


And it was for this reason that merits sources were chosen to be the generous giver, but this is no longer the case. Even though source merits were enhanced a few months ago by theymos, there has been a significant fall in merit distributions and ranking up in the last few months (still working on the data). Do you have any idea why the forum has such a low number of merits?

But your rules at least made newbies try hard, and not create many alternative accounts. In other threads, I see that newbies from the first post go and sign messages, create topics with guides according to forum rules, encrypt messages. In your opinion, are they also newbies?

I believe that the topic is somewhat misnamed.
Generous givers are those who are not a source of merit. Since the distribution of merits is their responsibility, and if you carefully read the reviews, the merit sources sometimes wonder who to distribute their due merits for the distribution.
And of course, you can give merits out even to newbies participating in the bounty, so that you can be called a generous donor in the future.

Yeah, it's the rules thing. Too many requirements, but also the fact that many didn't have anything good to share to begin with. But the rules are the reason it was allowed to remain. I think Ognasty's offers came later, and they weren't around at the time I started my thread.

I was surprised to learn that the thread was started in 2018 and has only had 12 successful participants to date, and that compared to the other merits to Newbies/Jr.members threads, yours has the least amount of activity. I believe your rules killed the thread; why would any Newbies/Jr.members go through such rules for only 1 merit/post & 3 posts max. When they could create encryption and sign a message in the Ognasty thread in fewer than 24 hours, they would receive a total of 6 merits. Either the rules are not friendly enough, or the offer is too poor.

Here is a link and proof that the thread did happen
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/giving-x-newbiejr-members-a-chance-to-rank-up-5085605

It was meant to be only for Newbies and Jr. Members. I expected much more activity in it, but it died out after a while. If you go through the applications, you will notice how many times I had to reject certain members because they aren't capable of reading and understanding what is requested of them.

Aiming for the first position.
We have seen the algorithm is quite weird in his output, so never say never.

Don't worry Ratimov. I will re-gain my place next month! A little bit of IRL stuff prevented me from fully eroding my stash. Next month (this month, Uptober) will be hyge.

Link or it did not happen..

 

I have been running such a self-moderated thread for a long time in Beginners & Help. I think it was the only one that wasn't moved to off-topic a few years ago when the admins moved the majority of them. The reason for that as theymos once said is due to the rules and requirements I had. All those concerns you have about the newbies not reading the requirements and understanding what is required of them are true.

I stopped bumping my thread a long time ago because I realized it was pointless for two reasons:

1. Genuine newbies don't have problems getting merits. They don't need my thread for that.
2. Cheaters will find easier ways to get merits. Reading my OP with all the rules is too difficult for them.   

You are already merit showering the users who have good post quality and came into your eyes and i am one of them and still you have the generous offer of PM which members can avail to have a post history check and if you find it suitable you are generous enough to merit them upto the limit of 50 in a month.Like recently you merit shower @Mpamegbu, @icopress,@showoff and some others also which is quite good.

Opening a merit giveaway thread will have certain limitations like you said bumping them as members don't take full advantage of such threads and keep on repeating and making threads like how to earn merits and all that.But still you could open a thread for helping users to achieve certain ranks like of @Ratimov but for me your current merit criteria sounds better.

I think Beginners & Help won't be a bad place for such like what Nutidah did with The Bitcointalk Urban Achievers Merit Scholarship Program. Though that thread seems to have been abandoned now.

It seems to me that this is not such a good idea as it might seem at first glance, I would rather see your name in the thread that everyone is used to, ([self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source). The only thing ... is that Loyce could modernize the thread, say by adding the names of those who are ready to accept PM from users looking for m'sources who can view the history of messages, (in this case, you simply will not need to repeat yourself over and over again).

I thought about doing that recently, and perhaps I should.  I haven't seen a merit giveaway thread in a long, long time, and the last one was by actmyname if I'm not mistaken.  The only issue I have is that the members who post in them don't read the requirements, don't understand that I wouldn't just be giving merit away for shitposts, and that if I created such a thread it would just die off like the other ones have.  I suppose I could keep bumping it, but I think I've made the offer enough times that anyone who thinks their posts would hold up to my standards would have PMed me by now.

But I'll consider it.

Edit:

Right, and I think those merit giveaway threads were all in Meta, where you can't create self moderated threads.  I can't think of another section where a thread like that would be appropriate, but if any of the mods have suggestions I'd be happy to listen, because I agree that a merit giveaway should be in a self-modded thread.