Bitcoin Forum

I received this pm from a senior member

Thiis is bad from a number of aspects. If he doesn't know what to do, then he isn't reading the threads, or supporting the forum. A lazy poster like that shouldn't be getting merits anyway. I was in a good mood, so I just put him on ignore, but I usually report the begging spam.

Care to publish him/her identity in public because negative rating may come upon him/her  ;)

Surprised that you received such a PM from a Sr. Member months after the introduction of the merit system, as one should have been known enough about the system by now.  The PM is clearly merit begging.

I won't publish his name, as there seems to be a lot of grief and stress in the forum at the moment. I hope he will see this thread, and modify his behaviour in the future. Merit is something you earn, and not a commodity.

One thing that I will suggest to merit sources. Please look at recent post history if a guy appears to be trying. I see that some members are active and productive members of the community, but they don't receive any merit. This is because they don't make any of those outstanding posts in the high reward topic threads. Sometimes I give a merit or two to a member as a reward for making ten or twelve 'useful' posts. Just choose one of the posts, and award that with the merit. The forum needs good supportive, non-spammy posts as well as the coruscating ones.

I liked your decision for not publicizing the name. I think scam,spam and Merit begging are all different issues and using same stick of trust does not look good. System should decide the punishment for Merit begging. AFAIK spam causes the temporary ban and scam cause -ve trust.

That's basically the case for 98% of the forum members.

If the user in question, didn't bother to read about merits (prior to contacting you), then I highly doubt that he/she is going to change that behavior (especially since you put him/her on ignore). I suggest to point that user to the right direction and hope for the best.

I've had maybe one or two PMs from Merit beggars in the past. Just report them, and forget about them.

That's the thing: merit isn't only meant for outstanding posts. Being "outstanding" means it receives more merit, but posts only need to be "good" to be merited.
Remember that Merit was meant to discourage spam, and if someone isn't spamming, they're already far above the forum's average.

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On a side note: You're very active rewarding merit, but you haven't left any trust feedback at all. Is there a reason for that?

The formula to find out a merit source is trivial, just give him/her enough time and will be giving out more merits than he/her could possibly have. There is no way to keep it a secret.

I don't look at trust. I don't lend or borrow money, or trade in the forum, apart from domain names. The domain names I buy or sell are run through my registrar's market place, and that includes an escrow service. I feel that trust shoud relate to trading or financial activities, but it has become a measure of reputation, and I think that may have reduced it's usefulness for traders. However, a metric for reputation is a useful thing, so I'm not sure of the best solution. For example, there is no indication that a merit beggar is likely to default on a loan. In fact one could argue that if he is keen to rank up, then he is less likely to want to gain a bad reputation. The alternative argument is that merit begging or purchasing is cheating the forum, so if he is prepared to cheat the forum, he may be prepared to cheat other members.

The secrecy of merit sources is assured by merit beggars being too stupid to think of that. Even after you just explained it, they still won't think of it, because most of them can barely understand English.

I think is not hard to know who are the active sources merit. I Have a partial list of them (around 30).
The sad part is that a many of them are inactive so is really hard to complete the list since some regular member spent more sMerit than them! ;D

But your situation is quite normal.
As you may know I'm a Scam hunter on free time and quite often I receive PM about scams,  is a normal situation if you are known on the community.

I think he won't read this thread... if he/she don't know how to post to earn some merits, it means he/she haven't been to Meta yet...
What was the member's post quality like? Spammer or just lazy type?


This is like the Catch-22:
If you make good enough posts, but noone notices them, you won't get merit.
If you ask for merit (because you have good posts), you won't get merit, because you're begging.
Not an easy situation :)

The reason they aren't noticed is that pollution is blocking the light for them. I feel that I have a responsibility as a merit source, but it is pretty hard and time consuming to find meritable psts. If I go to the beginners board, then most of the threads are about bounty, airdrops, sig bonuses and twitter, so I just leave the board. In my opinion, all of those posts should be moved to some other board(s), and this would give new members a chance to discuss Bitcoin, crypto, and the running of core nodes.

I'm not even a merit source, and have had people ask me to send them merits. I also think that merit applications should be done via personal messages rather than publicly. However, I think theymos specifically stated to post a thread within Meta to apply.

Strangely enough I've had 2 people in the last week message  me thanking me for sending merits. I had no idea people were this polite on this forum :D

BUT SIR! YOU DIDN'T GIVE MERIT TO DARKSTAR_ AND CREW. HOW ARE YOU NOT AN ALT OF DARKSTAR_? CHIPMIXER ONLY ACCEPTS ALT ACCOUNTS.....

DON, DO SOMETHING!

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Yo, Jet Cash, you know the solution for this more than anyone else. It's called ignore button. Use it.  ::)

I've done that, but I thought it was worth reminding beggars that begging is counter productive. If you want to earn merit, being on the ignore list of merit sources isn't going to help you to rank up.

Today has been quite a good day as well. I found some posts on the tech boards that I felt I could give some merit.

A senior member knowing nothing about the merit system sounds like a bought account to me. Nevertheless, that's going to happen again, I'm afraid. Reporting them or ignoring them maybe depend on how they approach you, but, from my perspective, reporting them may be useful, just in case they are bought or hacked accounts.

I just want to say: THAT PM LOOKS SO BAD THAN MY POSTS!!
But thanks for sharing  ;D

OK - I had a quick look at the guys posting history, and I don't believe it is a bought account. He seems more interested in buying and selling, with a bit of trading, and has no negative trust apart from one retaliatory. Apart from his impulse to beg for merit, I can't see anything that is detrimental to the forum. I haven't looked in depth, but I'm inclined to leave this alone for the moment. It does show that begging for merit could have a serious impact on your trading activities here, and I hope that members will take note, and will not try to abuse the merit system.

I agree with you because there's a big chance that you are right sir. It is very hard to believe (IMO) that a high-ranked member which also means being old here in the forum doesn't aware that merit begging is strictly prohibited knowing also the fact that the issue regarding this was already been discussed here in Meta so many times before so there is no excuses for him.

That account should be reported and let the mods hear his alibi (I bet it won't be valid ;D). But if ever this is not a bought account then he still did a mistake and liable of what he did.

People make mistakes it's within our nature. Far too many people around here are to quick to judge, and react by tagging them. I respect Jet Cash for actually looking at the user account, and determining that it might not be worth ruining his reputation over.

Even high ranked members can make mistakes, and not be aware. If he doesn't learn from his mistakes then he'll likely be found out eventually, and can then be tagged. But, a one off in this scenario isn't that bad in my opinion.

Informing them via personal message that asking for merit is frowned upon would be the better option.

Such a reminder is lost on them.  The only thing that would get their attention is a big, bright red trust--not that I'm endorsing this approach for whoever sent you that PM, because I'm not.  I think such an action would be too harsh in this case.  But we all know that the approach of people is to sling shit up against every wall in sight to see what sticks, hence why you see people still applying for sig campaigns that are obviously closed.

As suggested, put this guy's PMs on ignore.  If you want to deal an even harsher blow, put his posts on ignore.  That'll ensure he never receives merit from you.  He's probably PMed other merit sources and tried the same tactic, and those people should do the same thing.

I receive PMs like this once or twice a week.  I just leave them negative trust and move on.

Probably the best attitude you can take: to take a look, to do a quick research before taking any desition!
Anyway, It is not happening every single day, so for the moment doesn't seem something to take too seriously.
I don't know if there is any policy here in the forum regarding these kinds of PM activities, if not, maybe this is time to include some new rules.

- If you can disclose the profile, they should be tagged for begging merits.
 - Why are you hiding the profile anyway? It's good that the merit sources are disclosed so when a merit beggar like him shows up, it will be easier for DT members to tag them.

Just refer to Welsh response above. I agree with the reply to the private message. If there were no irregularity on the account, then just send a warning. It could be a little desperation or mistake as said by Welsh.

I don't even thing it's because you're a known merit source Jet.

I get those PMs now and then asking how to get merit and such.
I usually don't report them because I'm too busy laughing at how all of their posts seem to be in the altcoin threads and other spam hotspots on the forum.

I agree with Welsh and think that they could just be pointed in the right direction, they're still salvagable from that point.

There are some interesting views on begging for merit in this thread. I think I'm going to send him the link to it, that could be better than any direct action that I could take

What do we have here? yes ladies and gentlemen, we have Vod tagging forum members just because they asked him to have a look at their post histories and merit them if he finds their posts meritable. Vod is a lost cause and should be stopped.
He doesn't realize that we have a limited numbers of merit sources and people don't have a place or a section to check and ask for some merits if they haven't received any merits even if they are posting good content and Vod who is also a merit source simply uses DT2 negative trust just to get rid of the people, what an irresponsible individual and such an abuser.

They wouldn't know it even if the list was pinned at the top of Meta. The average bitcointalker doesn't read anything nowadays - rules, pinned posts, or threads they're posting in. Beggars seem to send PMs to people they see meriting others with no particular concern whether they're merit sources or not.

I would argue that having the merit source list public would encourage accountability because:

accountable for what?
may i remind you many of us (them?) never asked to be a source, and have no interest in participating in the drama/shitposters lives nor circle jerks here

I don't mind doing my bit. As I've posted before, banking and crypto is going through a massive change at the moment, and things will never be the same again. I hope that Bitcoin Talk can play a major part in helping us to understand the changes as they happen, and that means a lot more than Bitcoin.

Are you an alt account of a merit source? what suchmoon said was that if people know who are all the merit sources then people would ask them why are you inactive and not distributing your source merits? that is the accountability she was talking about.

Funny when I was a merit source and I even made it public, I never got any PMs from people asking for merits, I only made it public for people to point my mistakes to me so that I could improve my meriting methods, instead people attacked my character without having anything to say about my merit transactions.

Fun fact: Jet Cash made it public himself that he is a source and now is bitching about it. lol.

If you're a merit source then perhaps you should ask theymos to replace you with someone who doesn't mind spending a few minutes here and there spreading merits. There are a few pending applications in Meta that could be good additions. I think the system would work best with a diverse and active merit source pool. Right now the total merit spending is less than half of ideal, so there is room for improvement.

What a shame really, I got tagged by you when I was in the process of reapplying, really such a waste of talent and time, I should be out there meriting people instead I got tagged and forced to focus on DT members and their tagging habits, it's not too late you know? please un-tag me and let me to bump my application, maybe theymos changes his mind and accept me just to stop me from poking my nose in his little cute trust system.

Though if I become a source again, I'd have no other choice other than starting to poke my nose into other sources businesses like before, guys whatever you do I am not going to stop. you'll have to deal with me one way or another. ;)

That's are the shitposter who's only thinking for their own good. They don't care if they contribute in the forum what matter for them is, they need to rank up so that their paying rates would rank up too. And one more thing being a Sr. Member you should know already the rules. I guess some of  he's/her post doesn't make sense to help this forum.

Well my van passed the government test with no advisories, and I've spent most of the afternoon having tea with a hot granny. So I'll see what I can do to improve the distribution of merits.

Well I quit that to stay in a good mood. There isn't one thread on the first page of beginners board that looked to be worth opening. I went to the serious discussion board, and there is a thread about comparing Bitcoin with cowrie shells, and a quick look didn't reveal anything more mature. The Ivory Tower hasn't moved for a couple of days. I'll have a look at the tech boards a bit later.

As a DT merit source, I'm so intimidated. Not.

Very sly move from the side of this guy ;D he is lucky that you were in a good mood to not report on him or give him negative trust. But as we say here "those who doesn't take a risk doesn't drink shampane", so he took  :D
I think it was simple try to get merit from you, cause of there are a lot of advices and the information of how to earn merit on the forum that it is unnecessary to ask you private for the same kind of advices.