Bitcoin Forum

This is not a rant about why merit sucks; imo it's a good and interesting system, but the amount of bias that comes into play is insane. For example, when I joined the forum, the merit system was already implemented. It is already evident to me that it is very hard to get merit, much less get to 100 or 1000. But, had I stayed on the forum only 4-5 days before merit was implemented, and had I posted around a bit, when the merit system rolled in I would have automatically gotten 100 merit points - something that now takes weeks, if not months of quality posting.

For Members and above, it's really no biggie, since they get free merit. But for newbies like myself, getting to the next rank is exponentially higher because you really have to grind. Grinding isn't bad... but imo it's really unfair. Just a mini-rant.

Higher ranked members got more merit points than newly registered accounts because they are somewhat established and were needed to kick off the system. Otherwise, it would only be sources distributing the points in the early days. Yeah a lot of the accounts that are higher ranked have reached that rank by spamming and only posting nonsense in activity periods just to rank up however, these accounts probably won't adjust to the new system well and will likely not gain much merit from now on.

I think it's unfair to allow people to rank up by spamming and posting in activity periods. This system might not be perfect, but it's already showing that it's effective against account farming and encouraging users to post more constructively.  

Wait a few months until more sources are added and then evaluate and make consider making improvements on the system. As long as your making good on topic posts which contribute to the discussion or bring up important points for discussion then you'll get merit points. If you feel that your posts deserve more merit than they are getting you can post in one of the dozens of review threads.

Indeed it is, but if you read what he wrote with understanding, you'd realize he was saying the system is good, but a lot of members ranked up by spamming and posting, which is true.

It really isn't fair that someone with 120 activity starts with a 100 Merits, and one with 112 activity starts with 10 Merits.

A lot of us probably wouldn't be Legendaries or Heroes if the Merit system was here from the beginning.
Theymos probably didn't want to degrade all of us back to 0, but it would probably be the most fair option if all of us started from 0 Merits.
We still have the upper-hand because we have enough activity to rank up, and some older posts someone will eventually read and perhaps spend some sMerits.
I'm getting annoyed by everyone talking to newbies like they're the scum of the earth.
First listen, then talk.
EDIT: Okay, the edit you made kind of changes the context, now that's a nice reply.
Not like much I've read here so far.

There's no fair way of handling the rank system. If we were all put down to 0 Merits then the more established members who have been here from the early days would probably find this unjust. It would of probably been a little more fair if everyone was distributed merit like they have been, but their sMerit was 0 then only those selected as sources could distribute the points. This would of likely meant that a lot more posts would go unmerited because out of the hundred thousands of accounts that are active here around 30 were selected to become sources granted this has now risen to 57.

Old members spent their time on the forum for a long time. So they definitely deserve those merit points. OP don't get salty for jumping on the boat late. Just get over it and post responsibly. ;)
What theymos did is already fair for all. Old members got their merits for staying here for long. And new members none since they have no contributions here. So contribute from now on and earn merits.

Nobody is getting salty, lmao. It's about the ratio, and the effort it takes to get where you are. To get 1000 free merit points by being an old user takes way less effort than actually grinding to get the 1000 merit points. It is a vast improvement to the previous system; it's just that in my view the distribution of merit points has been unfair/biased. Remember, it's just an opinion - I'm sure Legendary members than received a bunch of free merit will vehemently oppose my point, and all the Newbies will agree with me.

I'm not saying there is a better way of handling the rank system, but that we should be more understanding because it is a bit unfair for those caught in lower rankings. Because we have an upper hand we didn't earn, we have ranked up only because of our activity, and not because of our merit. So their reactions are understandable.
I see the basic reaction here is a rant of hatred to anything that is below Member status.
I love the merit system, probably the best thing that happened to these forums so far, but the reactions of some members to basic questions got me pissed off a bit. I might have gone too far, nvm, you got my point  :D

Yes but it takes 2+ years to get to legendary rank, without the need to write quality posts or anything, just a couple of posts in two weeks period and you'll be sure to get activity points and therefore rank up.. but with merit points, even tho you're a newbie, if you have quality posts and contribute to the forum, you'll be getting merit points and you can get to sr. member or even higher in quite less time than 2 years, with far less number of posts and time, you can get to the rank that takes more than a year... So, kind of, this is better for new people as well.

EDIT: sorry about this, I completely forgot about the activity still playing a part in ranking up. When merit was implemented, I've understood that those two are separated in ranking up. @iluvbitcoins  my bad.

This is not true.

You wouldn't have gotten 100 merit based on a few days. If you had joined ~60 days earlier, then you might've gotten 10 merit.

I acknowledge that it is in some sense unfair when people missed out on a lot of free merit even though they were very close to rank-up. I considered several methods of progressive merit distribution that would've addressed this, but I felt that it'd always end up giving far more merit to people who didn't deserve it than people who did, so I kept the distribution to just the minimum required to avoid demotions.

I guess it has been done in the most efficient way possible, but that still doesn't make it perfect :') as I said, it is a good system. But it does leave the noobs like me a little bit butthurt. Welp, let's hope people like my posts!

You're a Newbie but already have 9 Merit... This system seems working for you  ;)

I think I'm an outlier. If I have 100 merit in 30 days, I'll eat all my words and post a vid of me masturbating to a merit infographic

Let's see if this is too subtle for forum users to take the hint...

Being completely honest, it wasn't even an attempt to get more merit; was just my stupid sense of humour xD

But yeah I guess it works.

You are a newbie but you have a vast exp regarding how this forum works  ;)  it will benefit you climbing the rank for sure compared to new people joining this forum.
Don't get me wrong but the merit system was launched to benefit the old loyal members of the forum rather than benefiting a newly join legit member or an alt seeking to exploit opportunities.

Yeah, I didn't consider the "rewarding old members for loyalty" aspect. I guess that makes sense. I'd do the same, if I was running this forum.

Initially I also thought the same that merit system is heavily lopsided in favour of older users but when I read the history how this forum evolved my thinking changed. Please go through the below link.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitcoinTalk

We all are here because we know this the official forum of bitcoin talk.

If today Bitcoin is soaring the height because of the people who are early adopters and kept their faith in bitcoin.
They keep there faith even after Mt. Gox  tragedy.

I think most of people are ranting because it is directly affecting there profits in bounty campaign but if you think on reverse ways when this forum is created there is no bounty Campaign to participate (for these older peoples).

They were actually the Bitcoin technology enthusiast/believer , But if you see the current people majority are here because they think Crypto is easy money or it is a "Get Rich Easy" scheme.

If you read the "Airdrop/Bounties" thread , They just write good project without even understanding anything.  Somebody is asking for whitepaper in post when link of whitepaper is already available in first post.

Very nice
Many of us have been hack and now they re newbie again with LOW merit  ::)

Your English is perfect, you are a valuable member of the community. Have 10 merits, you won't struggle to get to Legendary your limitation will be activity not merits

Wow. You have my sincerest thanks and gratitude.

Tman discovered the first post from alia_armelle and her „joke“ about what she will do When she gets to 100 merits.
Well played.

This place isn't all about being a serious straight... if the odd newbie comes in with something to entertain us, Then props to them. I guarantee 100 will not be hard for this user.

Giving merits could be used as sexual extortion if no one is moderating it.

no its not.. they made a joke post that I rewarded..  big difference fella

She's the one who offered to do it. You can't blame anyone for accepting her offer (except merit sources, who aren't allowed to participate in such dealings).

Maybe I misunderstood what was the hint. ;)
If the offer stands, I could pay for 100 merits, though I would want a private show.

It was a joke, that I'll now apparently have to honour. I'm afraid I can't take payment in the form of merits - but if you want a private show, BTC will do ;)

It's nice to see a Newbie with more Merit than Activity! Welcome to Bitcointalk, glad you joined^*!

The Merit system is meant to stop spammers from ranking up. You're doing just fine, and clearly you're not part of the many users that create random useless posts.

You may want to read Merit is the best thing that happened to new users (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2828014.0) too. Thanks to the Merit system, you're now not just one out of thousands of Newbies who register each day, you're now one of the few Newbies who's posts can easily be recognized to be worth reading.

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^*alia turned out to be a known scammer (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3032057.0)

Well, if you put it that way, it makes perfect sense. Interestingly enough, my love for the merit system is directly proportional to the number of merit points I have  ;D

Yeah getting back to zero would be pain in the ass, that's why theymos has already given higher rank merit points, that's their previlage since they have already spend time and effort to reach their rank today.

As for newbies like us..... Make effort to earn merit from others.

Well, not exactly. This will lead eventually to people making topics with jokes or cats and dogs pictures for "likes".
I'm not sure if that wouldn't be also a sort of spam.

i think he's not newbie,i already read his post, and he already lost 1500 btc in the past.  ;D
i think he a legend

This is really unfair to other members.

I find it hard to get Merit, and it is harder for people who are not English to get Merit.

10 Merit is out of reach for me, 100 Merit seems to be an astronomical number!

Ranked members were awarded merit to avoid them being de-ranked by the new system  Any other solution would have involved a lot more work.

Any restrictions is bad. They always have a Negative and positive effect. Indeed, the merit system creates more problems for beginners. I am sure that if in the future the administration of the forum is interested in new members they will disable this system. Do not forget that you are on the forum for the sake of communication. Ranks and merit is secondary.

Hello, Alia, you sly meretrix.  When I first saw this thread, I thought to challenge you on a friendly wager for which of us would reach 100 merit first—or to make it interesting, on double stakes, for which of us would reach 200 first.  Given the splash you made with a two-day-old account, I expected that surely, I would see you here with us other “outliers” (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=topusersat) someday.  Yet now, I must call on you to do your duty in making the forum great again.  For unto you is the destiny of becoming an historic forum first:  The first-ever and only user to perform public sexual favours after losing what was effectually a bet against her own posting prowess.

Alas, you’ve been slacking off.  Though you made an earnest start, your rate of earning merit has dropped off sharply; and the days now fly by as we approach the 30-day deadline of 2018-03-01 00:52:43 UTC.  Bad girl.

Now, as of the moment I post this, I have exactly 48 sMerit—all legitimately earned by me through meritorious posting, and as yet unspent (unlike the 145 merits I have already distributed to others).  By astonishing coincidence, you have 52 merit.  My current sMerit and your merit sum to exactly 100; thus, I could force you to honour your word with a single click.  The thought itself is less pleasing to me than my ability to tease you about it:  For as a vocal defender of the merit system’s integrity, I shall do no such thing.  I send outlandish amounts of merit in one shot (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2905590.msg29911450#msg29911450) only to Core developers.

Wherefore I have spent several hours of my time combing your post history, searching for posts I deem meritorious.  From that list, I’ll be slowly dripping merit on you.  It will total only a limited amount.  You will get more from me if you make new meritorious posts.  I’ll be watching.

I will not link to the posts I chose.  Those who are curious may watch my merit history page (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=976210); but I don’t wish to set up any specific posts as “click here to send the hot girl merit” targets for less thoughtful readers.  Rather, I will generally describe the types of Alia posts which merit my attention:

• Cogent posts of moderate length about Bitcoin, money, monetary policy, and the social-political implications of these things.  I don’t agree with all your arguments, but they are well-made.  These are the primary type of “new user” posts through which the merit system should divide the wheat from the tares.  You made several—a few weeks ago.  I encourage you to make more.
• Scam warnings for newbies.  You made some of those as a newbie, which is impressive.  Better still, in one case, you disposed of scammer pretenses with a sarcastic quip.  Dry, withering contempt cracked as a one-line whip:  That made me smile.
• More generally, posts which bared an exquisite wit.  Alia, o Alia, whatever will entice you to expose that more, more oft?  Words worthy of ogling:  We need more of those.
• A post which mocked Quickseller, the Bitcoin Forum’s resident Iago (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2881533.msg30361127#msg30361127).  We definitely need more of those.
• A post which advertised your erotic services on the basis that you’re “a crypto enthusiast and expert—something rare for camgirls”.  Though I doubt your expertise draws more customers than your other assets, I myself like your style.
• A post questioning how to teach children about Bitcoin—I presume, forward-looking.  So, you are not a mere hedonist:  You’re a real person, whatever unknowns may lie behind your forum persona; and you broach topics (plus raise concerns) people should contemplate.  (You made a newbie mistake by creating a duplicate thread, not realizing you could move your original thread to the correct forum; but that’s no big deal, when you were a Newbie.)
• Miscellaneous other bits which made me think, We need more posts like this.  We need more people like this.

Alia, the forum needs for you to lose your bet against yourself—and not simply for the promised payout.  Foremost, it needs those posts.  Moreover, it needs for this story to reach its climax.  Let Legendaries a few years hence reminisce over the legend of the girl who bet she couldn’t earn 100 merit in a month, and thus wound up publicly demonstrating a merit infographic fetish.  For you, such a unique forum achievement would also come with bragging rights (just as I boast being only member of this forum who has ever received +50 for a flame, as a cry from the one being burnt (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2854290.msg29320411#msg29320411)).  Put out, but don’t let yourself down here!

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Finally, I must make clear that I contemplate the foregoing with a certain level of detachment:  For I am not one of your potential clients.  That’s nothing personal; I don’t doubt that you must grace your clients with delectations worth every satoshi.  Whereas I myself have never paid for that which I’ve always had for free, whenever I wanted it.

As with the process of earning forum merit, the trick to that is no secret:  All things come to those who are wanted.

Thus to your service offerings, I will make a counter-offer.  Should you wish to experience hardcore literary cybersex, anatomically expressed at conversational speed in properly punctuated full sentences, then my special rate for you will be 0.005 BTC/hour.  Given a counterparty who can keep up with me, my cyber sessions usually last an hour or two from foreplay through denoument.  Also, should you desire an erotic pen pal, then my price for you is 0.01 BTC per letter—and I do mean letter, in the old-fashioned sense.  Some of my best erotic letters have taken many hours to compose; I consider them a form of art, and I take art seriously.  If collected and published, my secret epistolary relationships (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2876160.msg30168041#msg30168041) would make for genuine literature; but secrets wrapped in ciphers they shall remain, for I don’t kiss and tell.

My longstanding policy is to chat only via XMPP with OTR, though I may be willing to consider trying Tox; for correspondence, I require PGP mail—preferably with your elliptic curves, though I wouldn’t mind doing modular exponentiation with your public exponent.  I expect that “a crypto enthusiast and expert” should be algorithmically aroused by the proposition of so much cryptography.  Don’t just “trust the numbers”:  Lust for the numbers!  For my part, besides the thrill, I find that my reliance on old-school cypherpunk staples relieves me of certain concerns; vide the Bitmessage vulnerability warning you currently see displayed at the top of this page.

This offer is open only to Alia, as identified by PGP and/or OTR fingerprints countersigned by 1Sexyb1p8byGxunfTfHvL9SXsWqHyEPVk (https://web.archive.org/web/20180216055610/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2846750.msg29203034#msg29203034).  (If but only I touch your fingerprints, I’ll have your keys to new realms of passion.)  For others, the rates would be (much) higher (https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=137); serious inquiries only, please.

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For the record, I see reflected in your posts that there is more than meets the eye.  But that’s not pertinent here.  I am simply doing my own part to make the forum great sexier.

I think this might be the best post ever made on this forum. You might also be the most charming and well-spoken person I've ever encountered online. I am seriously considering your offer, thank you very much for your kind words. I'll do my best to live up to the potential you see in me.

Thanks, but no—such posts as this (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2934774.msg30249227#msg30249227) are what drew me to this forum.  (I could not give that one merit, because I’d already sent its author a total of 50 merits within the past 30 days.)


’Twould be a business doing pleasure with you.

Having splashed you with some merit for posts which actually deserved it, I will now start the drip.  I’m told that I can be a tease.

In large part, my confidence in your ability to lose your bet against yourself is predicated on the thrill-skill required to work oneself into such win-win predicaments.  Now comes the hard part (so to speak) of delivering on your loss.  Cheers.

As smooth as silk brother.. bitcoin knowledge and a silver tongue.

This writing of this post. Unfortunately, you are not a cat. Somehow I started reading your response prior to discovering the thread and got sidetracked due to *you-know-who*. I didn't notice any of the core things in your post as I flew through it. As for the bet, I've finally found it. In case that someone is confused, the bet is here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2846629.msg29202970#msg29202970)

287 over here, minus the two that I just gave you for that post.

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The rest I shall not comment individually due to certain reasons. *blushes*

Lets hope that masturbating for merits becomes more popular than being constructive. I would bet that you are going to need to start looking for a suitable merit info-graphic soon! 

I dont have problem with merit, if nothing else it made me do more research and improve my knowledge. I was also hit with merit sistem in the last moment and stay with 0! But in the long term it is good thing, for myself and for the forum. But I have problem with bunch of "red" members with hundreds and thousand of merit, who got their merit regardless if they bought their acc or scamed people etc. and now can sell merit and abuse the system, and talk about honesty! I will do my research because of me and not for merit, but some things are just not fair.

Ribald feline puns come to mind; but for the sake of forum decorum, I shall restrain myself to this:

Lauda, you’re one of the first people who caught my eye when I started lurking here and scratching through the forum archives.  I was astonished to see a cat in odd goggles (https://web.archive.org/web/20170816205912/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=101872) pouncing on spammers and scammers as if a lioness on the hunt.  I characteristically admire the strong, the unwavering, those who make demands and meet them—they who sign in boldface, “...will not be compromised. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=11425)”  In a man, that is the mark of a general; in a woman, ’tis the uncommon quality common to countess and queen.  And I know well the rule that a cat’s practical efficiency may be judged by polling the opinions of vermin.

Your strength on the prowl as a “GrumpyKitty” is matched only by a sinuous style which marks you as a pretty kitty, no less.  I’ve hereto “meowed” at your fearsome growl (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2881533.msg30093261#msg30093261).  It’s not only my pleasure, but also a rare honour to have here made you purr; moreover, the discovery that cats can blush is both personally and scientifically fascinating to me.

Cheers.

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If some of your time could be cleared up from wastage by “*you-know-who*”, may I suggest that you spend both time and sMerit in Dev & Tech.  There, the merit system has evolved into a de facto peer review system (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2874245.msg29542342#msg29542342) for technical accuracy and usefulness.  Given the amount of misinformation and disinformation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2905590.msg29896057#msg29896057) spewed across the Net about technology in general and Bitcoin most of all, this is important.  Users can almost automatically trust the technical accuracy of any post awarded merit by achow101 (moderator), DannyHamilton, or LoyceV.  There are a few other excellent posters and merit-givers; I here list only those who seem to be the very most active, so as to avoid slighting the expertise of others.  (Obviously, any post awarded merit by gmaxwell (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=11425) is sterling information; alas, his overt forum presence is a rarity.)

I'm also a newbie in bitcointalk forum, however, I'm not lucky as you :( I took a long holiday from the end of Jan and I was so surprised about ranking system with merit points when I came back (although it has been launched for almost a month). I felt that I missed the game and it would be difficult for me now to get a merit point from others. I saw you already got some (cheer with what you have had). I would try myself more to contribute more valuable thought to get it :D

It's actually not that hard. Just keep posting!

I'll help you to reach that on 28 Feb in case if you won't able to cross that mark before that(Although, I'm pretty sure you will be there before time).

9 merit in less than 24 hours it will be done a week early!

I agree with Loyce.

Pulled out 18 days old post just to say that you are good and you are doing better than me.
The way you are getting merits, I think you will achieve Hero rank before I achieve Legendary. The way I'm progressing, at least 5 years more needed to achieve Legendary rank.

Just follow the QUALITY and Merits will follow you.

3 weeks, 3 days, 4 hours, 4 minutes, 25 seconds.


Congratulations, Alia.  An outlier you are, indeed.

(Good girl.)

Hey, I wanted to post this!
Well, then let me point out it's this exact post that got her the 100th Merit from PoolMinor:
I'm starting to wonder what "a vid" is, according to Google images, it's grapes!

Any offers for when you reach 250?

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Did you just get your nickname changed? Theymos must really like you!

Maybe Theymos getting free special video session for that?


Yeah, love to hear new promise from her.

I've had a situation where my account username was known by some people in my real life - which sucks because I had a bunch of nudes on this account. Bad timing for me to hit 100 merit. But, I'll keep my promise, and when I feel it is safe I'll be posting that vid for a short time. The username change was necessary to prevent something like that from happening again. Love you theymos <3

This is not entirely true.

Per my merit sending policy page (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2822212.0), I am generally willing to award a small amount of merit to any user that I believe is making an honest effort to learn:


A post doesn't need to have high technical accuracy to earn merit from me.  It simply needs to be helpful, and reasonably correct, or needs to be a reasonable attempt to learn.  I will reply to the thread with additional details if I feel that the merited post isn't 100% accurate or leaves open questions.

If it was in my hands i would give merits to both the newbies and the already remained members but according to their rank. Higher rank lesser merit

I didnt know about this discrimination yet? and if it is so then though i am a member since before the system was implied i havent got any merits

I really Like the Idea of implementing merit as a new feature to lessen scammers of alt accounts that abuse signature campaigns, but what you say is a fair way, so maybe admin should've given the merit starting from zero so that it would be fair and square, but still He is the administrator of this forum so we just have to respect what decision He may do.

merit sources have different taste, somebody like constructive, somebody also likes being honest. so all in all we just have to go with the flow, it's for the sake of the forum.

I believe merit system was created to cleanse the forum and yes ranking up became harder to attain but posts made after the merit system are more sensible and helpful. A "change" for improvement is hard to accept at the  start of implementation but people will get used to the "change" as days pass by.

I do not agree to this completely. Some members are malign quality posts in hope of merits but rest are still spamming only. Also, as soon as a member gets the desired merits for next rank, he starts with past approach to increase activity. If you go thorough the recent discussions in bitcoin discussion or alt coin section, you will find a number of people posting one liners just to increase the post count.

That is it - you are correct, it has nothing to do with shitposting, nothing to do with the forum being over run with total nonsense made up language, nothing to do with bots posting drivel and 100% nothing to do with people who post total shit like you?

could be wrong though!

this forum is same pyramid system as bitcoin is, get used to them, the pyramid of gizeh was build in its shape for a reason to make everyone understand reality that cant be denied but that constantly is beeing denied.

Is it really so? Then it is so injustice with the newcommers

https://m.popkey.co/1385a7/rOg0X.gif

Is it really so?

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Yeah. It's in favor of older users. The ones that have been around longer and should have more experience. After all, you wouldn't call someone who joined 30 days ago a Sr. Member, would you?

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Also, nice spam posting:

I agree with actmyname on this.  There's a bit of Darwinian natural selection going on with older members who've survived long enough to become Legendary.  They did so by not getting banned and probably by getting enough encouragement throughout the years to continue posting on bitcointalk.  It makes total sense to me that older members are the ones who write some of the best posts--not all of them, mind you, but I've given plenty of merits to Heros and Legendaries because I value their posts, whereas a lot of the noobs I see are only here to spam for campaigns.

That's why it seems lopsided to those relative newbies who can't write proper sentences and then wonder why their merit count isn't increasing.  A lot of them seem very deluded about their writing skills and their degree of contribution to this forum.  You're not going to earn merits by posting one-line garbage (or garbage, period), and they just don't see how all of those posts in Bitcoin Discussion, giving the same answers to questions again and again, is garbage.  Nobody is going to give merits for that crap.

Its not unfair and its not the reason if you are not English  you cant get merit.  Maybe your not observing and do research on this furom or even analyze this thread that you post with. Its a good example of how you can get merit in a very good way. Take time reading before post like this.

Wtf is this shit you have posted? Lots and lots of non native speakers have merits, I have helped numerous examples level up. You sunshine need to learn to read, IRL I would tell someone like you that you have two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak. As we are online the rule is read 100x more than you post.