Bitcoin Forum

Hello everyone,

giving merits to an old post or thread is legal or illegal?

That means this merit system arrives recently but some people are giving merits to there alt accounts which they created a thread before this merits system exists.

I want a legit answer.

as soon as I get the answer I will lock this thread

thank you.

That's fine for old posts but not for alt accounts. If you have evidence of this then make a thread about it with the evidence in Reputation.

I think there's nothing wrong with crediting old posts with merits especially if it has been helpful and informative. I've seen high ranking members here who goes through various threads and giving out merits to posts that were made some time even before the merit system was established. I personally received a merit from a post I wrote last year, so I guess there is really nothing illegal about it. However, giving merits to your alt account is definitely unacceptable as this shows dishonesty and improper use of merit. As hilariousandco pointed out, maybe you need to show a proof of merit exchanges happening from one alt account to another so that we can determine if what they did is really inappropriate.

I think it is a waste of merit, and it goes against the spirit of the system. The idea of merit is to encourage fresh new posts and posters that are assets to the board. Rewarding tired old posts, and bumping out of date threads, isn't going to build a vibrant new community.

Though i don't have merit to give because i am a newbie here i could say that it would be the decision of the merit source on where to give his merit. If it is legal or not to give merits on an old post, i think it is not illegal because we don't have rule that says old post can't be given merit. The only general rule says that merit should be given to High Quality post. But what are the attributes of a high quality post and who determine HQ? That we don't know.
But definitely it is legal to give merit to old post. That is my understanding and i am 100 percent sure of that.

The next question could be "Is it immoral to give merits to old post? :)

I disagree. If a post is great or informative it should still be considered for merit if you stumble across it and find it helpful or informative. At least we know those posts weren't just created for the explicit purpose of trying to get merit as many people are now doing. I have a couple of threads that were created before the Merit system that people seem to find helpful such as the Activity FAQ and Signature Campaign Guidelines thread and I don't think they should be exuded just on the basis of when they were created, but you and anyone else are certainly free to leave merit as you see fit.

I do think that it is legal to give merits to old post because the administrator of this forum does not indicate that we can't give merits to it. Plain and simple logic would apply to this one, no law no violation.

The merit system isn't only about rewarding the authors of good posts but also about making quality content easier to find. I've found a lot of interesting stuff just by looking at the merit stats pages that would have otherwise remained hiding from view in amongst the endless spam.

You are missing a point. Merit system launched with original objectives are encouraging forum's members contribute more high-quality posts. Therefore, you can give high-quality, useful threads merits. In addition, if you don't want to send merit to old posts, what is official definition of old posts? One day, two days, one week, two weeks or two months after published, one thread will become old posts, lol.

Thank you so much

I will make new thread but before that, i will provide one proof here

killyou72 and killyou73 both accounts managed by one person

proof http://archive.is/ayEyV

killyou73 sent merit to killyou72

proof https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=924110

I hope I provided a valid proof.

i  think it is legal . because you find it helpful .
if the post is deserving to be given Merit you can give it even though it is old post

I didn't noticed that such moves, giving merits to old posts, are not allowed by new rules. There are a lot of topics about merit and I was active in the most of them, but I've never see something about the point. I am agree with those people who said that giving merits to old posts can't be count as wasting of them, if the post is really good it deserve a merit or some normally.

I think there is no problem giving merit with an old post as long as  it was constructive and can be helpful to the forum it does not matter.As long it was deserve to credit merit on it always be positive and thinking this is not a waste of time.

I am the OP of one of the most quoted posts of all time.  It's been slowly gaining merit.  :)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=577765.msg6311902#msg6311902