Bitcoin Forum

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.msg4022997#msg4022997

It's a bit of a kick in the wedding tackle for me. I try to support Bitcon Talk, and I give out merit points to encourage members that I think are contributing. But when I see this, I think - why am I wasting my time here? If this is a premium post, then I'm going to find it difficult to keep up with the trend.

because HODL (https://coinsutra.com/hodl-popular-cryptocurrency-terms/)! that's why

This post is a classic in the Bitcoin community, I don´t really see this as a problem.

You could have picked a different example in order to corroborate your
frustration about the new merit system.

E.g. if you take a look at the Top-merited replies, all-time you will see
that the top-merited reply is a blatant example of a merit swap.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=toprepliesat

The post in question:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1482690.msg28907895#msg28907895


I still have mixed feelings about the merit system, but it is definitely bad
if one of the public rankings is headed by a post like this.

The term HODL even made it to our local newspaper: https://derstandard.at/2000070821897/Hodl-Der-Typo-eines-Betrunkenen-wurde-Bitcoin-Fachbegriff

You don't need to keep up with the any trend.

This is a premium post because it created a term of enthusiasm for Bitcoin and all cryptocurrency that will live on forever. This post created something iconic for this "bitcoin project". And it also speaks to a mental state that every person that's owned bitcoin has gone through - the torment of watching the price fall that first time, the anguish of thinking "fuck I should have sold it!", the ups and downs of this roller coaster ride to the moon!

I don't have a problem with the post staying on the forum. I'm just a bit stressed that a drunken post that doesn't seem to contribute much gets twice as many merits as all my posts combined. It just makes me feel thst I have little value for the community here.

Doesn’t contribute much? It led to news articles, t-shirts, online groups, and is a mantra for the community.

AFAIK that's the original HODL post. You know, the one that introduced (and popularized) the now widely used semi-joke phrase HODL. IDK about you but that seems like a pretty good reason for it to have those 96 merits. There's quite a few classic posts that aren't literary masterpieces yet shaped the crypto community we're now part of.

He clearly says he was drinking. I thought it was a fun Rambling post about his frustrations on BTC I'm giving him some merit too .

Sorry OP This guy was just on a drunken Fun Rant.

Edit: only had 1 merit left damn it :(

What you're misunderstanding is that this post DID contribute much to this forum and community. It's a classic. It's a moniker. It's a phrase. It's an anthem. It's an acronym. It's an ideal. It's a belief. It's holding on for dear life!

I must agree with OP, it is frustrating to see post like that get so many Merits, no matter how legendary it is or whatever... its just sad. Those merits could go to some person who works really hard for his posts to be good and spotted, because now we need Merits for ranking up. As far as i can see this Merit system has been misused on so many levels, for some its just a joke... If this continues, and people gives their Merits for some posts that are not worth it, than why we have Merit system at all. Lets just place "Like" button like on facebook, so we can all Merit... oh sry Like "Legendary" posts... Its just sad.

Because Merit system sucks! That's why ;D

I’m not going to give it any merit points bit that’s the 1st time I’ve ever seen the original HODL thread ;D
That guy must have been drunk AF.

I'm curious to find out if his G/F found a lesbian lover and left him.  ;D

Meh he should have enough bitcoin’s to get some hot hookers to spend long nights fucking & doing blow :D

The date on the post is December 18, 2013, 10:03:03 AM

I thought the idea of the merit system was to encourage good posting, and to reward posters who help reshape Bitcoin Talk. What's the point of giving merit to 4 year old posts. I see that Satoshi was last active on     December 13, 2010, 04:45:41 PM, but he has 736 merit points.

I fully understand the contribution that Satoshi made in the past, but we need tools to build for the future.

I may have chosen a bad example because I didn't know the guy who first used HODL, but I did a quick scan of the merit list, and most of themseem to be foreign language threads or announcement and sig promo related.

Maybe I'm being stupid, and really I should just go with the flow and pick up a few hundred dollars worth of Bitcoin by making general and lifestyle posts.

I can certainly understand your frustration with this new system, and I suppose some people might say the post is worthy
of the Merits. However, if only a handful of posts ever receive recognition, a whole lot of people will be left "un-ranked" for
a very long time. Personally, I may not have the greatest posts, but I try my best to help within this "community", and may
be left behind with this new system. The kicker for me is, I have no interest in signature campaigns, and I'm here to learn/
help and my signature area is dedicated to our "community", but I will see very little Merit for my good deeds. For now, I
will come to terms with it, and still be happy when I've made a small difference helping others. A Thank You is all I need.


P.S. I really miss your cat! Always brought a smile to my grumpy old face.

Thanks - I gave you two merits, and the cat jumped on the mouse and gave you another. :)

I changed the avatar to a bounty chest because I think I'm going to change my approach a bit. The merit system has brought home to me that this board is now an employment exchange, with a bit of Bitcoin chat on the side. I think I'm going to become a bounty hunter here, as that seems to be the fun occupation. I had a bit of luck as well. I managed to pick up the domain name CryptoBounty.com, so I can use that as a backup and a reference site.

The first thing I must do though is to get over the idea that merit points are some sort of indication of post quality.

Well, I understand why people gave those Merits to him.. but they are wasted.
You should use Merit Points to help people to level up.

According to current standards, that is a shitpost. It should have been deleted. And also because it is a spam megathread.

That post is a clear example that a forum is much more than just quality posts.

Thank you for posting that, and I gave you 2 points for stating the obvious. :)

Hahaha! Thank you! It truly is great, that my first legitimate Merit, has come from you. I wish you the best of luck on your quest.
I don't know much about Bounties, but if you ever need a hand with anything, please don't hesitate to ask.

You chose an excellent example. Without the merit system you probably never would have found out about the origin of hodl.


I would have thought that a few days ago but now I'm convinced this is missing the point of the merit system. Most times I've read a good post the author seems to have already earned merit at a rate faster than 1 a day. The system isn't going to affect them ranking up at all. It's going to prevent spammers ranking up but that is only a small part of what the system is intended to do.

This is the post that enlightened me:


The system is here to help us see through the endless spam and find the interesting stuff. Now I can scan through a thread and just stop to read the posts conveniently highlighted for my attention. I've started using the Recent merits page (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=recent) as a better alternative to the Show unread posts since last visit page. I've stumbled upon all sorts of interesting threads were previously drowned out by all the noise and I would have otherwise missed.

I know there's a lot of merit being wasted on bounty threads, abuse and the like but that's a short-term issue as the airdrop sMerit will soon run out and only people contributing to the forum will be earning more.

When I stopped thinking of it in terms of ranking up (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.msg29200044#msg29200044) and started to think of it as a tool to help me navigate the forum I suddenly started getting something out of it.

Exactly, there is no need to give merit to such older posts, i also support your point.


This can be considered as exceptional case, people must be thanking him for creating the bitcoins.


Also it is quite unfair to the users who were very close to become a legendary member but overnight everything changed and now they have to double their merits to rank up. I am not complaining, just highlighting the actual situation. I hope the new merit system will deliver the results and it will be helpful to keep this forum relevant and clean.

We don't own every merits and o don't know what to  say and feel  about this new ranking system we called merits sometimes it get me angry because I feel I can't  even go further in   my rank but somebody tell me its a way to make   more responsible for evry post that I  will make where here to exchange thoughts so make sure that readers will gain something if they read our post

What a ridiculous story!

Those uses was likely send him bunch of sMerits (not Merits) as a way of trial how the merit system works, by which I mean how to send, receive, exchange sMerits, etc. However, this one is extremely weird way of trial. They can send only 1 sMerit to make a small test, instead of 20, 50 sMerits.

Actually, they all wasted their sMerits for the post. I hate to say this one is non-sense, off-topic, low-quality, etc. but it don't deserve to receive those sMerits at all.

Another explanation is those users simply threw their sMerits away for avoiding continuously ask from someone else about giving their sMerits away to other users in the forum.

To recap, that's how the merit system works, at least till now, with lost of flaws inside and really need to have in-depth adjustment, despite the fact that this system have made our forum better one week after its release. Really promising system!

I could not agree more with OP. Sending 50 merits at one time is just outrageous. Yes the topic could be an icon already to the cryptocurrency community but giving 50 merits is damn way more. It could have been spread to other posts which have the quality and the content we need here. There are a lot people who needs those merits more than the one who started the topic. This is one thing I see a potential problem with the merit system, merits are not distributed efficiently to where it is intended to be. Everyone are trying hard to post quality posts at the onset of the merit system but it seems that proper allocation and distribution of these merits are not fair enough. There should be somewhat a limit of the merits you can give a person. For example you are limited to 1 merit per post, so in such cases someone plans to game the system he needs to create 50 good posts to collect all 50 merits. Or any similar limitation of the giving of merits for it to be much fair with the others who are doing all their best to answer or create posts in order to be merited but was not merited.