Bitcoin Forum

Hey Guys,

The new merit system is not working properly and I think this can be quite dangerous for the quality of this forum.

Why? Simply because they are quite a lot very brilliant posts in this forum (especially in the local forums) which are not merited at all (not even 1 point). If you then see that they are a lot of free merit / scam threads this really dumps your motivation in creating serious content in this forum - cause its simply unfair.

Now consider there is a newbie who affords lot of time in creating some nice content in order to rank up, not merited at all. What do you think the motivation of this guy is going? Do you think he is gonna try this again?

So why don't we think about an demerit system?

Why don't we demerit for spam, off topic, insults or scam attempts and increase thereby the quality of this forum?

If their would be somehow a punishment for bad quality post this would really motivate people to increase their forum behavior.

I am exited how you think about that.

If I got some demerits for posts that I thought were reasonable, then I'd probably walk away from the forum. People would award demerits out of jealousy and spite, and not because of post quality.

We need a few more months yet to determine if the merit system is working.

You have to give little more time to the merit system. You cannot expect to be 100% efficient from day 0. There are more merit sources now and many new applications.
Regarding the de-merit and what you suggest is more like the trust system we have now. De-merit options have to be given to the merit sources. They already distribute the merit and it will be good if they can punish the merit abuses.

I personally think that merits should be viewed as a convenient byproduct of constructive activity on BCT instead of the main focus. That said, the implementation of a de-merit system would actually be pretty neat. It would reduce the verbal junk throughout BCT even further.

Merit system is working and better than demerit system(if to be implemented). Why?

1. Because having merit would boost your morale. Because every merit you've received was all from hard work, your hard work. With this, people are recognizing that you have contrbuted something in the forum. I'm sure you'll feel the same way too when you receive one.

2. Because having demerit makes things more difficult. Having negativity on your account would decrease the trust of people who're surrounding you. Do you really want people to picture you with the number of mistakes you have? Plus IMO, if have demerits i would rather not show up in this forum again.

If the merit system is not working for you, then demerit system is worse for me.
It is more prone to abuse in a world where it is more easy to criticize than to appreciate.
I'm good with the merit system. I also believe it would take some more time to be as functional as what it is supposed to be.

Instead of suggesting negative feedback (demerit), you could post the links to the high quality posts, that are still unmerited. That would be helpful for sources and those, who still have sMerits for spending.

Thanks to the author for mentioning the local branches, I write mostly in them! They will never be given proper attention! And it's very difficult to motivate yourself realizing that your efforts are almost never appreciated! But at the same time I hope that the Merit system is able to change this situation! To make it happen people  should have smerit at least !

Why the urgent need rank up? Do you need rank to participate here?
Quality? Were you around 5+ years ago to have something to compare to?
Where are these post you cited, please link to them so they will be considered for Merit.
Be excited to be in this community by contributing, not needing to rank up.

Merits add a little bit of competition to this forum and I think that's cool. I agree with Vod, we should keep the system running for a while and check to see if spam is decreasing and post quality is increasing.

People prefer rewards instead of punishments...

Yes, and in addition I would say that a creative, informative post is still exactly that--it benefits the community.  Whether someone gets a merit point for it or not is secondary.  I think lower-ranked members need to start facing up to the reality that it's going to take a lot longer to rank up now, and that not all of their posts (or any, for that matter) are going to be rewarded with merit.  These people who are fretting about a lack of reward for all their hard work--these are the ones I envision who would go back to shitposting once they hit legendary and no longer needed to earn merits.

Vod is definitely right.  We all need to give the system a chance to play itself out, and people need to realize that this forum isn't like it was a month ago with respect to ranking up.  The forum has had a huge problem with spam and garbage posts, and as frustrating as it is to newbies, this system is a(n overdue) response to that.

I agree with Thirio. We don't need more negativity in this forum. With people not appreciating the merit system and not choosing to see the good in it, having a demerit system would just worsen the situation even more. The merit system is made to recognize efforts that are deserving. Through the merit system, we get to encourage other members to do better while the demerit system would just let other members bring down the others. We all need to help each other out in making this forum back to its best state.

You shouldn't be creating content soley just to rank up. You should be making content to contribute something constructive. If you create a thread and it receives no merits so what? If you keep making quality content then you will get the merit eventually but if you're just seeking merit then you're doing it for the wrong reasons and if this causes you to lose motivation then good riddance.


I would be against everyone being able to demerit as it would be abused by nefarious individuals just demeriting people for saying something they don't like. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for staff to be able to do so instead of just removing threads or temp banning certain individuals for instance when people create a thread like what are you doing for valentines day in Politics & Society. I certainly think if they received minus merit for these sorts of threads they'd get the message pretty fast.

Looks like people are forgetting that there is an appeal system. If you feel that your posts have an unfair lack of merit points, all you have to do it make a post here and someone will probably merit them if they are meritorious.

I still think this is pretty desperate behaviour. If this becomes standard practice then Meta is just going to become chock full of people just creating threads asking for merit which isn't really much different than just asking for it in the thread or post itself. Imagine if people did this for feedback: Hey, I did these handful of trades and nobody left me positive trust... Can someone leave me trust? Merit should be a natural process. If you create a thread or post and it goes unnoticed then oh well. Better luck next time, but complaining every time this happens just seems wrong.

I agree with you to some extent. As per the current situation,  a member has to be active and smart as well to increase chances of getting merits. For instance, there was a thread where a senior member was offering merits for members submitting infographic. If a new member is able to do that, he has more chances as there is less competition there.

I think you need to have 10 unmerited posts to make such a thread. Seems fair to me

You have something to punish spamming kind of post which is 'report to moderator' button.
And if we have demerit system, this forum will surely become a battlefield. Because subjectivity into hate things is greater and easier to punish rather than subjectivity into positive things to be rewarded. It is not a kind of healthy forum if we have that such things.
And merit is only here for about 3 weeks now, how can someone says it is not working without giving a valid data? When you re not getting merit doesnt mean merit is not working, in fact there are so many merits already given in the process, and if its given wrongly, like selling or abusing, then it is only about time that these people got tagged.

I see demerits in a negative way, im used to accept the goodness of giving merits to quality posts. Because, i think demerits could lead to hurt feelings of each other, while in giving merits it compliments the work of others while not hurting anybody even you dont give merit to them.

Currently, the current system is very good but does not work properly. Because many beginners make good posts, but little appreciation. Because many of its members are less concerned with the fate of newby newbie. hopefully the masters spend a little time looking at the good postings of the new and giving a little appreciation, spurring the spirit of making better posts. Together we can advance the world of cryptocurrency.

Merit system is on it's early age to assume that this is not working or does not result to a good outcome for this forum, but the way I see it I think many are still holding their sendable merits and are still hesitant to use it that's why we only see few merits in this forum. People are not getting used to it and might be afraid of giving it, but maybe sooner when everyone is familiarized in the system and can handle merits properly I think it will turn out as a good policy.

I think reddit is a fine example why we should try not to use a demerit system. It would either have to be limited, possibly to merit sources only or a limited amount of demerits for all users based on some other factor.

It's quite obvious if you take a look at reddit that a lot of the responses get down votes just because some people don't agree with their point, it doesn't matter if it's constructive or not or brings up valid points it will get downvoted.

Exactly.

I would even agree to a harder banning policy, for example with a new forum rule that explicitly targets the most obvious spam methods (e.g "if more than 50% of an account's contributions are reported because of low quality they get a warning and then be banned"). Above all the high ranked accounts - including me, of course ;) - should stay "under observation" from other members. People should not be afraid to report a "Legendary" or "Hero" if he/she continuously spams the forum, for example participating in the famous "nonsense megathreads". And if they do and continue so even after a warning, they should get red trust or directly be banned, above all if they try to rank their alt accounts up rewarding them with merits.

I also would like to kindly ask the bounty campaign managers, above all those in the altcoin sections working for ICO projects, to control their "workers" more closely and ban spammers from their campaigns. This is even in their interest - if your company appears in a signature below spam posts, nobody (apart from other spammers) would read it, and even worse - it would give them a bad, "fishy" image. Some managers are doing it well already, others less. Bad campaign managers should be sanctioned, too.

I am against a demerit system because of the obvious reasons @Welsh, @athanz88, and @hilariousetc mentioned. There is a reason that there is no "dislike" button at Facebook, for example.

The same argument can be used as it was used with facebook posts. If you don't like it, then don't like it. Therefore, if the post doesn't deserve merit, then don't give it merit... BUT then we have those ANN threads and the rest of posts who get high amount of merit when they shouldn't and I don't really have any solution for that other than removing the option to give merit in service section.

I totally disagree with this demerit system that you are promoting. Come to think of it. Are you sure that the ones who will be demerit are the spam, off topics or any posts that are shitty? No because you can demerit anyone if you feel you want to do it or you will demerit someone you are hating so much or someone who disagree with your posts.

Having this demerit system is like having a dislike button on facebook or detweet(hahaha) on twitter.

One more, you said that the merit system is not working properly. This is the reality that most people doesn't like to wait in short impatient. Merit system is implemented just 2-3 weeks ago and yet you are saying that its not working properly?? FUCK OFF why don't you give some time for it. People will just adopt this new system as time pass by.

Anyway, I disagree with demerit system :D

I agree with this post. They feel motivated to post meaningful replies in a thread. However, there are a lot of users that have 2 or more accounts. They merit their low rank accounts using the high rank accounts they have. Also, some users have high-ranked friends in real life and ask for them to merit their low rank accounts.

But this merit system excites me to improve my posts and I'm going to support this instead of the demerit system.

Absolutely! People tends to give demerits whether he has a good quality post or not as long as he doesnt like the member.

 ::)Ÿ
@xianbits hope you have clamp the ladder to the top and therefore nothing is worrying you about the merit system like the newbie . I think no body in this world, who try to work hard, and a point in time, need to be promoted and but the company rules and regulations are tying him up not to go up, it creates some sign of tension where the person becomes boring. So the merit system which has now become Mountain View is given the newbies headache. Some member will think because many people are joining the bitcoin forum and and the number is increasing he or she don't like it, so the merit system which is blocking the chance of newbie ranking up is giving you guys joy.
My brothers, please if you have the chance to grow in life give that chance for other people to grow also.

You are right. To ke I think this merit system has narrowed our path for being high ranked. But if it's needed to control the post quality then Merit system may be applied to high ranked id. Because it already seen that many high ranked id has a low post quality.

It could be harder than the Merit system bro. If ever this Demerit System proposal of yours be implemented, who are going to be the police? Who are going to give demerits on someone? That would only create a lot chaos and feuds among us. For me, merit is a pat in the back while demerit would be a spank in the back. So better this way, anyway the merit system is not even a month old for us say that it is not working.

Simple minded always think about the negative solutions. Why do we need demerit? actually this thing can make our forum more complicated. You know that merits is very complex system, then adding demerit system, are you serious about that? Your merits depends on you so if you don't have time to make some quality posts then don't hope for merits. It's a simple logic that can be manage by some normal persons, it always depends on you. No adding more system, it makes more issues on our forum than supporting the community of cryptocurrency.

I don't know where are you coming. Why are you hitting on me? I've been in the low ranks before and I know the feeling struggling to be one step higher. I am not enjoying the merit system but the topic says a demerit could be better which for me is the other way around. But if I am to chose wether a merit or a demerit system, I'll go for the merit system 'cause I think the demerit system is even worse. Furthermore, if I am to chose from merit system or the old system, I will chose the old system.
Again, merit system is not giving me happiness knowing it could make delays to the ranking up. But what else can we do?

So what if the merit system does not work? Will there be another system?
Currently many people exchanging merit, I think this system still needs improvement.