Can i firstly just say, this post is not an attempt by me to fish for merit. Infact, it could be counter-intuitive to award merit for this post, so use your own judgement here, and do as you see fit.
If you are a newbie here, you might find this helpful to clearly understand about how and why you would be awarded Merit for your participation on this forum. This is only my opinion by the way, i am not saying that i am the King of Merit by any stretch of the imagination. I just think a
LOT of people here are lost when it comes it comes to this topic. Also i haven't been here for long, so if i post something that isn't factually correct then please let me know and i will edit the post accordingly.
There are a 2 main things i will cover here, one is why the merit system is VITALLY important to the site, secondly its how to go about gaining merit from your fellow members.
Merit on BitcointalkSince the inception of the Merit System, we have seen hundreds, perhaps thousands of posts about "how its unfair to newbies" or "you can't find something to talk about" or other generic excuses that people use when they are struggling to gain merit points. There's usually a fairly straightforward answer: your posts simply aren't meritable. You have no idea how many of these posts i have looked through, same old excuses, same old story. The common denominator over
ALL of these posts is effort, though i will do another post on that at a later date.
What we need to understand here is, the Merit system has been put in place to protect the site. It's not about excluding you, or making you feel unwelcome, or discrimination. It's here because it
NEEDS to be here to protect the integrity of the website.
I've recently made a few posts in the META section, to give an opinion from a newbie perspective, and if any of you have had a look in there you'd understand whats going on. We as a community are being swamped by people who are here for strictly financial gain only, they have no interest in contributing to the site whatsoever, no interest in learning anything about bitcoin or crypto, and are here solely for an income source. Now if people tell their friend they are making a good few bucks from here, and they tell their friend, and they tell theirs- you get the picture! You end up bogged down with masses of people who could potentially ruin this place for everybody.
If you want proof of this you just have to look at the Altcoin-announcement section where the bounties are. COUNTLESS pages of people participating there- yet the very same people can't be bothered to at least TRY and make a decent post or something worthwhile.
Eventually, because of this behaviour, it will end up diluting the quality of the website, diluting the quality of the bounties/airdrops etc, and above all- diluting the user experience on here as visitors grow tired of seeing the same old "please sir" "great project" posts every single day!
The Merit system is here to attempt to ELIMINATE the parasites among us (as a lot of bounties require higher ranks), and REWARD the people who contribute. That's all it is, its really not that difficult to see is it? You can argue all you like, but this is the simple reality.
So if you are here for the right reasons- great! There's plenty of help to get you going.
Gaining Merit from fellow membersIf you've been here a while and you are scratching your head thinking its an impossible task to gain merit, first thing i would advise you to do is take a really good look at what you've posted since you've been here. Hand on heart- is the quality there? Is there anything useful there?
Then ask the question: Would
YOU merit your own posts based on what you've just read? I expect the penny will drop when you realise what i am saying is true. Not good enough really is it?
Now not to go into too much detail here, but above all, what you should be doing is having a look at members who have a lot of merit and READ their posts! Understand why people give them praise for their posts. As soon as you see what others are getting merit for you will understand! There is one guy in particular called 1miau, have a look at his posts- outstanding! He has over 50 merit and is a NEWBIE! Learn from people like him.
Why make 20 crap posts when you could make a few GREAT posts? Put the effort in and reap the reward. You won't always get merited for it, i have made a few posts that i thought would be absolutely nailed on for merit and never got a sniff.
But don't let it get you down, just write some more.
Be consistent with your quality and it will get recognized eventually.
I am in a position now where i can give merit out, and when i see something worthy i'll give it- no hesitation. So just bear that in mind.
Ultimately, what we are trying to do here as a community is to increase the overall content quality and user experience. We can all play our part, but you have to put the effort in.
Anyway, thanks for reading, I'm thinking of writing a post with regard to how i compose my posts if anyone is interested, if so let me know and i will make it when i get some free time.
Thanks again.