Bitcoin Forum

This thing is in my mind for very long time now I decided to share with other forum members.

I can see lot of threads and guides for the newbie and other forum members says about "How to get merits",but is that necessary to chase merits? I never wanted to run behind merits because for me its like I am changing my attitude and posting behaviour to get something in return.Just be yourself and learn more about cryptos,why we wanted it and of course how to make money using cryptos.Help fellow forum members in the way you can,if you got recognized then merits will follow you up.

Ignore this topic if you didn't learn anything from this topic,I just wanted to say how I feels about getting merit. :)

They might not necessarily want to chase merits some newbies just know that some members have merits which gives them extra features on the forum like signatures, avatars & the ability to post pictures so they might be wandering about how to get them. You already know that you get merits by being helpful on the forum but some newbies don't know.

I think those guides are not meant to teach newbies to chase for merits but to teach them how to become better poster. If you happen to learn more about crypto, blockchain, or other topics discussed in this forum through those guides, your posting behavior will naturally change.

On this forum, Merit provides great opportunities, so everyone wants it.

The advice from day one has always revolve around not casing after the merits but that doesn't mean you should remain the way you were if your posting style or habit wasn't productive to the forum.  Don't forget, spammers are alway satisfied with the way they post so them changing won't just benefit them in regards to getting merited but it'll also benefit the forum in general as less spam and more productive discussion will be recorded on the forum.

There's nothing wrong in changing your style of posting when you notice they weren't productive in the first place, bear in mind the merit system was introduced to improve the level of quality contributions on the forum so if users are adjusting to this, you don't discourage them instead encourage them to make it a part of their posting style but not by faking it. It's more beneficial when you start producing quality contributions and this isn't just for the merit as it has other benefits like gaining more knowledge by interacting with other quality contributions and been recognized for your posting abilities (which come with it's own rewards).

No,I don't want to discourage anyone by creating this topic but I feels people chasing it rather than earning.

You can see people posting articles and tweets from someone to get merits which is the thing I feel as chasing.Merit also changed my posting behaviour but when people forcing them to get merits with useless predictions which even mostly from others,they will just add the source so they won't get banned.

Merit may change but people were pretending to be as more productive just for merits.
Merit doesn't offer anything other than reaching ranks.

I liked your idea a bit but all on all I think running behind merits does provides you an adrenaline to try and make quality posts for the forum by pushing beyond the limits of your regular posting habits. Also I think it serves as a reward for those who make a good post therefore it does provides contentment to a person who has researched a lot to contribute something useful to the forum. Running behind merit has no harm until done in a fruitful manner. But running behind merit by buying them is definitely never an option.

I personally don't chase merit but it's always welcome when someone feels that they have gained some knowledge from my post or learned something from my post and appreciate it by sharing a token of merit then it's a pride but not everyone reads the topic about merits just to earn merits but to learn the basic things.

I think that mainly people who came here with wrong reasons are mainly trying to chase for merits. They desperately trying to get it because they need to rank up to earn money here. I often see people making very generic guides without putting any effort and they expect that someone will flow them with merits.
I can't say that I don't care about merits at all, but I really don't think much about it.
And in general, I got impression that some people over exaggerate forum stuff, like merits, trust system and etc. It's like they don't have life outside forum. But maybe I'm wrong...

I never run after merits, what's important to me is I abide on what my campaign manager ask me to do and follow all the rules that he laid down and all the rules that this forum implemented and I just trust that my bounty manager and all the moderators that they can see my motivation and that I'm following what they ask me to do, merits are subject to abuse, it's also important but what matter most is I'm ok with my manager and the admins of these forum.

Well, i agree with this. If you only focus for merits, you will get risk about how to create a good topic and maybe your topic will sh*tposting.
Just focus to help each other in forum members and solve any problem in forum member, you'll get it.

That's right, the merit farming post does not work. Because the merit will be given by random forum members. Then you have to be active in this forum and help other members in this forum. The merit will come to you automatically.

People tend to try to be better if there is an incentive. I guess that's just natural or common behavior. I don't have a problem with people improving their content and their posting style expecting to get merit as long as they also have the intention to contribute and not openly beg to be merited for their post.


 

This is true. Don't chase merits but instead chase improving your post quality and engage on topics that you know really well and contribute new knowledge and the merits will come naturally.  Oftentimes, chasing merits lead to posts that are not really contributing and/or plagiarizing articles/other forum's comments which will result into bans. There are a lot of merit sources nowadays patrolling around the whole forum, giving out merits to those who deserve them, and not those who seek them, so just improve on your post quality and not go for merits exclusively.

There is nothing wrong with creating contents related to the signature you are promoting but if you are intentionally doing then its shilling.No campaign managers have their own rules,you need to follow forum rules and also try to be helpful for others,then you may get your first merit soon. :D

I agree with you and also do not have much focus on racing for the merits but, if we think from the other side of the sphere then it is probably because of the privileges that comes with merits people prefer chasing it.

When we know our post is worth acknowledging some one out in the forum will surely give some merits, unexpectedly you'll just receive it without begging for it.Though some maybe put high standard but their merit their choice, as long as we contribute our ideas and we learn a lot here in forum that's a good sign that soon we might be able to get merits, keep going till you'll be able to inspire someone who can give you merit because simply you deserve it..

Opportunities?
Don't expect to make a lot of money from signature Bounties.
ICOs time is over.
2-3 years before it was much different.

Like I said earlier the only privilege of having more merits is next rank but if people trying to chase it with unnecessary contents then it will also leads to uncontrollable spam which may end up with no more signatures in bitcointalk.

quality of posts is really important to get merit. actually I have tried for it, and tried to provide the best information, but it seems like I have to learn more from this. I often read the news to get information, but some people get information faster than me. but, I will continue to study, and be optimistic.

Yep. Just reaching ranks means bigger pay in all the bounties, for basically the same job.
The problem is that many come to this forum only to earn money. This spoils the fun in the forum, fills it with nonsense and so on. Many of them may not even care about crypto.

People don't plan for long term and I think that OP should have emphasized this much more: if you go from day one for "how to get merit?", you most probably get either banned for plagiarism in less than a year, either get negative feedback for doing something fishy, either find almost impossible to rank higher than maybe Member. All this meaning no pay or low pay, so the opposite of the initial intention.

OP is right. Learning, reading before answering, keeping the discussions at useful and informative levels will be in the benefit of everybody involved and in a year or two you may be thanking yourself for going on this path.

Everyone on this forum decided to get to know bitcoin better in order to earn money, I don’t think that anyone is attracted by the idea of ​​transferring funds from user to user without a bank, is simple idea at first glance. If the amount of bitcoin was not limited and could be obtained easily, the forum would have remained the place for a couple of dozen geeks.
Merit is needed, for example, to participate in some signature campaigns and in general it is nice to know that you have some kind of rating which is given for a reason.
It is unfortunate that the merit is a wraparound score that does not reflect reality. There are many ways to get it undeservedly. I understand why you are not hunting him.

A lot of people are chasing merit for financial gain and that is just wrong. The merit was introduced to reward good quality posts and to improve the overall posting quality. It was introduced because the forum was spammed with crappy posters that were chasing an increase in their "rank" to receive more money from Signature and Bounty campaigns.

Now the users on this forum, decides if people are going to rank up or not and the posters must work so much harder to improve their post quality to increase their rank on the forum.

The forum benefit a lot from this merit system and it improves the experience for everyone using this forum.  ;)

I just want to keep the things really simple or people may think that this is another thread for merit hunting. :D

Yes long term benefit and also the real benefit can be found from the knowledge we are getting,I really didn't have much knowledge about financial things but now I am managed to understand how to make money work for us and I am making my monthly salary in a week itself by doing trading.

Everyone have to utilize the knowledge found here in the right way not just for the bounty post quota.

It would be better if we have more threads on "how to write high quality posts" than thread on "how to earn merits".
In fact it is the same thing because if you write high quality and useful posts you will earn merits. Thread title tells you how OP thinks, if he uses the later then you know he is here just for money.

Technically merits are not to be beg for nor to root in every post a member will make. Merits will come your way if you can share knowledge, ideas and interesting things in the forum. People should just be the very best of themselves in posting or commenting on threads. Make a comment full of sense will give you merits once someone liked the post. Merit giveaway is subjective and it always depends to the merit source/donor. Just be yourself and always share what you learn in the forum. Make everything full of sense.

Your opinion is not wrong, it is true that if we try to contribute to this forum and provide the best you can, then others will appreciate your efforts in helping fellow members.
As a result they will give you merit for answers that can help them.
I also don't really hunt for merit, I just have to be myself and do my best for this forum.

Cheers!!

i'd say that merit system could be used as some kind of corruption system  :o
yeah, don't shout to me that I lost my mind.
this is is build on fact, the more you have merits - the more you have some kind of benefits ( ranks and etc)
merits could be distributed between users, that means some can create shady business with purpose to help you gain more merits, but not with your hard thinking and quality posts, but proposing easier way - by paying real money, gain some merits.
I do not know if such system exist, but I can see the possibility.  ::)

But merits is the catch and it was intended to be, and motivate users to make more constructive contributions.
Aside merit begging or plagiarism, putting in efforts at making posts which are helpful and relevant for the purpose of getting merits is not a bad ideology and I would encourage it.

I did not get you. Do you really think one who is posting unnecessary content is run after merit? If there is some unnecessary content then noone will waste their smerits on them.

This forum allows all of us to report to the admin if we find something unnecessary. unnecessary content  = spamming. And we all know that there is not seat for spammers in this platform. Spammers may created 10- 15 comment max then someone or the other will report.

Ranking is a hole different thing necessary content can only get merit. So, one who is after ranking or merit is forced to post necessary things else that fellow member is out of the community irrespective of the merits owned or the past comments made.

At some point, that has probably happened, and on a low key tone it probably still does. Back in September 2018, when the 1 merit was introduced in order to become a Jr. Member, there was a sudden surge of merit being awarded (see the spike for merit receivers and senders during September 2018 here: https://public.tableau.com/shared/WSCFM79MN?:display_count=yes&:origin=viz_share_link). Probably a lot of Alt meriting too, but bought and sold merit likely took place behind the scenes.

Pulling something off on a larger scale is a bit more difficult, since merit awarding is often scrutinized by forum members, but again not impossible, although finding a wealthy meriter involved is less likely that on a profile that has a couple to go by.

It took me quite a while to understand you, but what is said is correct, one can try as much as possible to earn merits and even make it an obsession, but until such user puts in quality into their posts, then it's as good as they aren't doing anything.

Whether one is after merits or not isn't the business of the forum, as long as such user is posting qualitative content, then such user would deservedly earn merits, we cannot decipher whats in the mind of a user, but we definitely do not need one line spammers or plagiarists. Want merits? Do the right thing!

Other than the rank up due to merits, you are considered a quality poster if you have a lot of merit or you are earning merit quite regularly. I don't know it is right thinking but this is the other reason why people are chasing merit. In case you have very good posts and you are not earning that much amount of merit, does it mean that you posts are not worth reading or you are been ignored. This is a long debate but merits are important here.

I think after writing a good post we should not expect it to get merit. A lot of expectations sometimes can make you lazy and disappointed. Keep contributing good and hope for the good.

You caught me right there :-* All my words to mean this one sentence.

And to the spammers running for merits: Keep running until you are banned or you learn to behave. If you want to be on this platform better behave that is the only way you can save your time and energy.

Who doesnt want to get merits? Even if you do say that it do changes up your behavior then its your choice.We know that

"merit" is the primary requirement for you to rank up and also most people do know that the higher the rank do earn more in terms of bounties
and signature campaigns or any other related task.This is why they do normally having those aims on how to earn merits.
Even if you dont chase up you would really mind on how to get it faster.

It's true that merits is important when ranking up which this thread reminds me of myself before where i'm trying to earn merit as hard as I can like creating a guide thread. I've been through rough times and also got offended by other forum members which it hurts (a little bit sensitive) but trying not to show it to them so, I stop what I was doing before and later on I didn't expect that I can do it in a helpful way. Merit is nothing plus many people won't take it seriously and that's what I am thinking why theymos made it one the requirements to rank up is to use merit as a motivation to help in any way you can.

Merit and Activity needed to rankup,but your primary reason for being in this forum is to earn money from bounties and other task then it is primary thing for you. :D

Earn merits which doesn't mean we have to chase it.

Not everyone runs here for merit

You nailed it dude! However, the sad reality weighs greater. Instead of treating this forum as a source of knowledge, they shifted and turn it into source of money thus merits for them are so important. That's why you may notice that, oh that's very obvious actually, some of members here get banned due to spamming, burstposting and sh*tposting and the main root of these are signature campaigns. They get blinded by the rewards which tend them to push their limits even if it's all wrong.

The greed lies within yourself not from the temptations outside. I am a cryptotalk participant and yet I'm not getting banned unlike most of the participants. Why? Simply because I have self discipline enough to follow the do's and don'ts at all times.

yes, people who get merit are creative people in posts or comments because that's why people give them merit because for them reading their posts / comments that look good then they give him merit, lazy people who just want merit without any effort is bullshit.

Sincerely, I kinda find it difficult to understand your arguments. Merits are good right? If something is good, people tend to rush for it. Its natural. So i agree with the first advice that even though I need the merits as a newbie, I must learn to earn it right. So if Im gonna chase merits (which is not likely), I have to learn and by doing so, I will know how to earn it properly. Thanks for your initiative anyway. Ive learnt a lot from it

But "being yourself" also means that you must also be open to improvements.

Ever since merit system came about, I think that was a wake up call for everyone to become better. After all, it was presented because there are some  members who are just posting mindlessly, not contributing enough to the forum and it's members, and are just after the income this forum provides. So, in addition to what you have said, just be yourself and strive to do your best and improve.everyday, then other things will follow.

If they got interested to learn more about cryptos then its completely good but they want merit so they pretend to be knowledgeable without knowing in depth of that content.Newbie should chase knowledge and the merit will follow up is my statement.

The moment you open this subforum and see the same contents or guides regurgitated
https://i.redd.it/wk77e7g9gug21.jpg

The essence of merits stem from the people who are so inclined into chasing for profits that their post quality suffer in the process.

The very reason on why this forum was created was to help newbies, share information to other people, create guides in cryptocurrencies in general, and communicate to people all around the world sharing the same idea and goal of spreading the message of cryptocurrencies.
Throughout the years when signature campaigns were created, people now deviated from this goal and focused more into earning profits, which is not a bad thing but if people focused on this aspect more, the forum will suffer in the long-run.

People should realize that the focal point of this forum is the sharing of ideas and the by-product of such knowledge is the merits! It will be a win-win situation wherein someone contributes the forum and through his contribution, he will be rewarded by merits!

For newbies of course they're after merits because you can't ranked up if don't have enough merits. Who doesn't want that? Lucky for those already at higher rank because they don't have to do so much in able to ranked up. Merit system is good tho. It mitigates the unnecessary account farming which makes the forum bad because of shitposters and account sellers. That's why merit system was implemented. They have to earn merit first before you reach higher rank. You have to post useful posts and it's up to the merit holder whether we give it or not.

I totally understand your point of view. In the chase for merits, users tend to post unnaturally. Well, merits offer extra features on platform which is a reaso i believe majority strive to get it

Sometimes I cannot say I do the right thing or not since never get any single merit yet from my post maybe there are lot of things that needed to brought up and that is also a challenge for newbies since I think to get a merit it's a great advantage if you are well known on this forum but if you are a simple wandering guy maybe merit is rare to be rewarded. But I'm not giving a bad shape on it since I'm happy that it was implemented since as you said by this system it eliminates trash and those account sellers.

Currently, nearly 2.000 different people (*) receive merits each month (the peak was 7.237 back in February 2018, and 4.916 during September 2018). Granted that it is less difficult for those that are already rolling the merit ball, and that the occasional poster will find it more difficult lest he persists and starts to be noticed through frequent contributions that sum up to something.

I’ve always said that the real challenge is not in obtaining the first few merits, but in moving along the middle to higher ranks. It’s doable of course, but it does require one to put in quite a fair share of time into it.

(*) See: https://public.tableau.com/shared/2Z772GBQW?:display_count=yes&:origin=viz_share_link

I have received my 1st hundred too fast than I could imagine (at the beginning I thought it will take time). But now it has been slower, probably because I was not much active the last few weeks.
I had started here this year, have learnt a lot and shared them for newbie, that's how I earned a lot of merits.

We have merits sources and merit holders,merit sources who will have smerits refilled every month but most of them saying that they can't find enough good posts to award merits and complete their monthly quota,so it made the shit posters to stuck at their current rank forever but not sure about the account sellers who farmed or hacked accounts years ago still selling it but new DT system made them to be dried up to least and soon there will be no more account for selling.

I'm so challenge to get those merit but I think I will struggle to have those but anyways I feel more alive when having these implemented on the forum since I myself aims to gather more so that I can rank up to legendary rank but for sure it will take for so many years since mostly people are not here to give merits since mostly they read the post here and leave.

Before the merit system was introduced, all people had to do to rank up was to make as many posts as possible and this soon became a problem because people were making so many shitty posts and the solution was to introduce the merit system which definitely reduced the number of awful posts in the forum but it also started a merit race, everybody wants to rank up, be seen among the top people in the forum and this is usually done by starry-eyed newbies but I have noticed that after a while, only a few of the linger for long after they realise that it's easier said than done.

The forum has matured past the stage where every half-assed post is merited, it is now in a stage where only the really good and helpful posts are merited so people can chase it all they want, that doesn't mean they would get it, just keep being yourself, spend as much of your free time as possible here, contribute positively to the forum and you would reach the peak in due time.

I'm merit source and in the beginning I really had problem to find good quality posts which I can reward with merits.
I realized that users who don't know English well and don't write posts often in English part of the forum have even less chance to get merits for good quality posts.
So,  I started topic in my local section of the forum where users can suggest good quality posts for merits.
After review some of this posts I reward with merits.
I also started similar topic here,  in beginners section but no so many people applied.
Any way,  my advice,  don't run for merits but if you have really good posts,  something what contribute to the forum or help others, than report this post in merits giveaway topics.

It's indeed a real challenge, and the time factor you mentioned plays a big role, for users who are really tied up with one thing or the other in real life, they could spend more time in a particular rank than another user(with almost the same knowledge)who is more often less busy and has more time to spend here.

But the best thing to do is to make the best of every time spent here, and that's exactly what I try to do, and if you keep believing the next rank will come and you're doing well to get it, it will take time, but you'll rank up.

I am a newbie to this forum and I am trying to find out what you are talking about. I think I understand it, and I think everything takes time.

I agree. Ever since the merit system began, the behavior of the poeple here have changed a lot since they are more after for merit and not to share knowledge, answer questions and ask. Merit is indeed important if you want your rank to increase but knowing the difficulty of getting it, it would be best if you would just sit back and do your thing the same way you did before when merit is not yet in the forum. If you are really eager on getting merits, find a place in the forum where they are generous on giving out merits and make sure you are making quality posts always.

Merit giveaway threads may not offer enough merits for ranking up its just to get the first-ever merits for newbies but other than this which may not have anything purposeful.But merit sources needs to be more active on all the boards to find worthy posts and we are seeing more local posters getting merits so the system is going in the right way rather than to post anyone out of their comfortzone.

I am an smerit source (since I actually spend my merits which I wish people would do since that is what they are for) I don't know what these other smerit sources are talking about? Maybe they don't read enough posts but there tons of good ones. I think I get 1 merit each day and that is not nearlly enough. You should get like 10. I am out in a few days. I don't give one measly little merit I give 2-5 at a time. I also sometimes give noobs just 1 point to level them up or if I see they need 1 more to rankup. So I will look at their posts and choose a good one and merit it. People are selfish man seriously. Noone should have merits after the first week or two of the month. People who still have merits and don't spend are selfish and I hope noone gives them merits. Another thing I notice with ridiculous is people giving legendaries merits. They don't need them they max rank already.

Are you sure that you are smerit source, do you know what that means at all? You send 17 merits in last 120 days, and receive only 1....

You also think that merits are only given for good posts, and this is far away from the truth. Anyone can give merits to any post, merits are not moderated (except in rare cases), and sometimes posts with single word get merited. Everyone decides what to do with their merits, there is no rule about that.

If you want to see real merit sources in action, check this list (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4523027.0), and you may notice my name on it, so despite I am Legendary and not merit source, I merit 218 users with 366 merits so far.

You have a completely wrong idea about merits.

https://i.imgur.com/yztC1K9.jpg

It seems he has no idea about his own sendable merit (sMerit) and the merit sources Smerits.

Anyway for his/her clarity merit sources are someone chosen by admin to merit the good posts and they are capable of reproduce merit source for every 30 days.

But if you are seeing sendable merit (sMerit) means it was given to you when merit system was introduce based on your activity and you also will earn 1 sendable merit (sMerit) for every 2 merits you recieved.

Oh.. right yeah. I guess I probably am not. I just say I got my merits refilled. I actually haven't been giving that many merits out. Very ironic *facepalm* I guess I will empty my merits out in the next few days. I have seen a few nice topics and things so there might be some good posts in there too. Ya, you definitely are good with giving merits. More than 1 a day. I think the problem is more people need to do this. Like me for example.
I honestly thought I gave out more merits than that. I think I might have been so used to having none to give that I forgot about it.

 I thought only merit sources got more merits. Thank you guys for clearing this up for me. I am guilty I should have given more merits  I think. Now I understand. I probably should already know these things though. Forgive my ignorance, please.  :-\

I took too long to understand the campaign signatures, the merit system and that I have several years only reviewing the forum, reading opinions and researching, after so much time, the merits are more important than I thought there I make my contributions in several publications some could be said to be unique.