Bitcoin Forum

Finally I’m close to becoming a Hero Member at Bitcointalk, and I felt it was about time I spoke about my journey and answer the question did merits do more harm or good.

To be frank I was only days away from being ranked to a Hero Member, and suddenly merits system was announced and on the first look i was angry at it because I thought i would never be able to rank up here. After a few hours I got over my anger and again read @Theymos post and keenly read the discussion that followed and suddenly it struck me it ain’t that bad as I had thought it would be.

In order to rank I began looking around this forum for guides written by other members, who were collecting merits with ease and most of them had one common point don’t write a post to earn merits, write it because it’s helpful and it should make sense to all those who read it. I’m also thankful for my managers past and current who have taken time out of their schedule and helps me with valuable tips. One tip I would like to share is choose one or two topic boards you’re passionate about, and then continue focusing on those topic boards, once people see your posts is knowledgeable merits shall follow.

At the start of this year I was hoping to become a Hero Member by this year’s end, and I have covered certain distance in my journey and now I feel I can achieve my goal of becoming a Hero Member very soon.

Last but not the least I feel the merit system has done more good than we all thought it could do, yes I know I’m yet not able to rank up and I’m saying this but people on this forum often forget the forum is bigger than the Individual. If anyone else is stuck just don’t give up, just focus on the basics, and keep posting constructive posts you too shall rank up cheers!!!.

Good luck on your goals. I'll just point out try not to focus on them so much in a timeframe. It can be tough but as soon as you set a date to it, when it's arguably out of your control you can find it stressful. That or you could doubt the quality of your posts or the value of your contributions. I would say having the goal of achieving a hero member rank is enough, it shows a desire to contribute and improve.

I think this is more of a reputation thread personally, as it's about your goals and opinions. Just my thoughts.

I see your current activity is more than enough to be a hero member or even a legendary member before 2020. Maybe it's hard, but still possible. With your current merit, I think it can be done only one month or less than one month to be hero member. There are lots of members can get 50 merit from three members in one post, if you can reach it, just need to make one post to be hero member.

Maybe Theymos giving you 50 merit, TMAN giving you 50 merit and Suchmoon give you 50 merit too, it's not a joke, you can reach it some day. Remember about 10th anniversary contest, from that, someone can get 200+ merit on their post. Good luck bro.. See you on 500+ club (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5115154) credit: Tranthidung (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1292764)

Exactly, Steamtyme. In fact, I have same problem as OP but I have been closer to the Hero member rank than OP, much closer. What you said is true that when one pay attention on how much merits left till the next rank, that user will naturally lose concentration on idea flows and quality of posts will definitely be affected adversely.

Today, I received my two merits for the post I made weeks ago. It means the most important thing is focus on idea flows, quality, and proof-read your posts before and after releasing them. Then, if your posts are good, merits will find them, sooner or later when someone see your posts and like or agree with what you write.

I try not to focus on the number of merits remaining for me to get to the next rank; Sr member (although it's a bit difficult). Rather I pay attention to learning and improving, and this influences my post and would likely attract merits. I also have to resist the urge to start threads on hackneyed topics but to rather read, join quality discussions and start threads when I have something relevant to discuss.

The community has been very helpful in my journey to this stage and it's a little prove of the fact that the merit system is reflected on every member irrespective of rank.

Still halfway to go there but it may not be harder once you know how to get merits but personally I would not suggest anyone to concentrate on ranking up just be helpful to the community and you will become one higher ranker sooner or later. Recently I turned out into full member but I know I was too slow on getting merits if I concentrated on merits alone maybe I will have more number of merits but I didn't do. Just be yourself and don't run for merits (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193493.0)

Topics like this one raked in a lot of merits in the past. Let's see if the strategy really works https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5204259.msg53179025#msg53179025

Anyway, you should be able to rank since you already know how to. Achieving it by the end of the year is definitely doable so all the best to your journey to Hero Member.

Not yet dude,

You still have a long ride, according to your earned merits in the last 120 days. I think you will not reach Hero Member before 2020, you should earn 60-70 merits each month before 2019 was ended. Since your activity merits earned in the last 120 days was really small, that's why i said its kinda hard for you to reach hero member before 2020.

You are a very old member here and I believe you have gathered a lot of knowledge within this periods. For a member like you, I guess it's easy if you put a little more effort. You can easily chase the required merits for Legendary rank even.
I agree what steamtyme said, don't put any goals of earning merits. Try to help out the forum member through contribution from your gathered knowledge. It will get you the rank easily. Anyway, good luck with your goal. I hope you will make it sooner.

I appreciate the fact that you spoke out your mind. It did hurt those who were just inches from being in the next rank when the merit system was started. However I became a self-made senior recently and it took me almost 2years to reach 250 earned merits. It might or might not be possible for you reach Hero by 2020.

So my advice is to focus on posting quality content, engage in discussions. Post where you feel posting is needed not just because you agree to post and dont force yourself to post.

It may take several years to reach the next rank so dont get disheartened.

@masulum that would be a dream come true if these members gave me so many merits lol, and even if I could get a single merit from @Theymos I would consider it as one my life’s biggest accomplishment. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to join that elite club, and thank you all for your positive words and inputs.

All of us would really have the kind of target on reaching out a certain rank and it wont really be an easy journey for everyone.There are even high ranking
that didnt even received 1 merit since the implementation of the merit system.Currently you have 382 then finding that 118 would be somewhat hard if you do
try to have that kind of timeframe which you do talk about this year.We are only 1 month to go for an another new year which i can say that it is short to attain those
number of smerits unless if someone would give out bulk 50 directly then you can reach it directly.Good luck!

i'm out of source and S merits now - you got my last, Drop me a PM on the 15th of December when I am topped up and ill drop you 50 more fella.

Someone says it impossible to you get 110 merit. Don't believe them. You can check my merit journey on this post https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5153084.msg52939455#msg52939455 I got my 116 merit in October only. It's mean you can do that on December before 31. What you need just give your best contribution to this forum and get your rewards.

Sounds good for you Juggy777 :D

Wow thank you so much indeed I’ll drop you a pm on 15th :).


Thanks a lot yes I always like to focus on positive aspects, and if there’s any worthy criticism I make sure a point to study it and improve on it.

It will be difficult to reach Hero Member rank before 2020. Unless TMAN, suchmoon or theymos will drop you 50 merits each :D. Anyway, I think it's only matter of time when you will reach your goal. And I believe that it eill happen soon because you're really good poster.
I don't want to repeat myself, but I been in similar situation like you. If merit system would be released week or two later, I would be Legendary now. But being Hero Member doesn't makes difference from Legendary. And I'm Sr. Member according my earned merits. And it would be amazing if I will reach Legendary rank in 2020.

Sure, good users will definitely reach their next ranks, to the top (Legendary) too. The matter is time and the merit-earning rate of each user, the higher rate one has the faster that one will hit next above rank.

For OP, if he manages to earn 2 merits for each 2-weeks period, he will rank up at the end of 2020 (with the 50 promised-merits as support from @TMAN)

1 month left is 2020. I think if you can reach 100 merit in 1 month this is will be great work.
Just never give up to reach your rank to Hero Member.

Gosh..I have been missing all the parties lately?

If getting to 500 merit needs these 50 merit booster doses then I want to apply too. As a qualification, I have been merited by Theymos once (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2957024.msg30354730#msg30354730)..So like a user pointed out, I have already had one of the biggest achievements of my life..LOL.. Surely i should have become a hero by now..


Right..Must be such a fantastic feeling to FALL right after you achieve something you have worked so hard for. :D

(you may want to edit this)

All of my clubs are for earned merits, not total merits. If Juggy777 joins my club, it should be the 250+ club rather than the 500+ club. See you there, @Juggy777.

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Edited:
I'm sorry. In initial post, I remembered about Piggy when mentioned OP.

Ok lets make it a round figure, here you go (+3 merits) that's 400 merits. Out of source merit (you got my last 3). Here's a challenge, putting into considering you achieve 470 before the 20-25th of December, you get a 50 30 merit boost from me or any remaining amount you will need to reach the 500 merit milestone, just have to reduce the amount (to prevent you going into a relaxation mode) since TMAN has already promised a 50 boost.

Merit wasn't meant to hinder any quality contributors chances of ranking up. Just keep putting in work, you meant even achieve this without needing my assistance.

This your thread has actually done good to your chances of reaching hero member before the end of the year, and even if you don't, you'll be very close to it surely.

 I think users trying to rank up sometimes needs the big boosts of merits(at least above 10), receiving one or two merits would take you a very long time to rank up, and for those who cannot make either threads based on one statistics or the other(eg merits), or those threads that receive merits the most, their journey becomes longer, but the most important thing is the effort to rank up, to help the community, to contribute in your own way, users with this qualities would rank up.

Sorry but do you mean Juggy?

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You are almost there @Juggy777 You are already assured of +44 before the year ends and that leaves you with only 54 merits left to earn.
@tbct_mt2 is also close.

I am also looking forward to bumping my own thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5169022.msg51955296#msg51955296) once I reach the next rank

I created this account after the merit system was born for the forum. I am quite aware that this merit system is an attempt to improve the quality of posts from those who want to move up to the next rank.
You are unlucky to reach the rank of Hero Member because the merit system is one step ahead of you, painful but thats the reality.

I have to fight harder than you because I started from 0 merit to reach the rank of hero or 500 merit as you wish.
But calm down, friend, we are on the way to achieving that grade. What we have to do is effort and effort, merit is not an obstacle to move up to the next rank but it is an the reward must/ not be given to those who deserve it based on their efforts and consistency to contribute to the forum.

@CryptopreneurBrainboss thank you I shall try my best to win this challenge, and yes you’re correct about merits as they have effectively compelled users to post more quality posts here.


@BITCOIN4X though your journey is tougher than mine don’t give up, because now that you understand how merit system works I’m sure you’ll be able to rank up too in coming months.

Great post,  many young forum users should read it.
It is very easy to complain about injustice in this forum and be negative.
You have taken a different, constructive approach and I congratulate you on that.
It's always better to focus on the things we can do than feel hopeless and simple give up.
I hope that your example will be inspiration for others.
I hope you will soon become not only Hero but Legendary.

@Daniel91 thank you for your kind words and you’re right many people got obsessed with the negativity surrounding merits, and till date they’re only complaining. Honestly I only keep giving one message to all who wish to rank up, i.e. just to keep posting constructive posts and merits will follow. Indeed my long term target is to finally become a legendary member out here, but currently I’m trying to do my best to achieve my wish of ranking up before 2020 starts.

We are with you BRO always, I believe dreams never die.

I'm also want to be high ranked member as everyone , so working hard to fulfill my dream.
Best wishes for you buddy

It almost same with my case before and probably many of those member supposedly ranked up prior to the merit system. Anyway much better to put all the disappointment into encouragement of posting more quality and helpful ideas here.

I can sense that you can achieve hero rank before this year ends. I'm betting you can surely do it. Like many people here, same advise for me.

Forget about merits, focus on quality posting which I can see that very easy for an expert like you.  Patience is a virtue and this will probably help you most of the time. You'll not noticed it and suddenly you'll see wow Im hero now Finally.

I've kinda shaken this up :)

That's all the smerits I can give to ya for the month, you'll without a doubt get to it by 2020.

<3

When I mentioned Theymos or Suchmoon to give lot merit to this post, you are coming unpredictable. We can learn something about this, we can't look possibility of merit sent from someone like a math. Because, something can happen. How people calculate merit for a member, it can be wrong. With additional merit from TMAN at least 44 (50 in total), juggy777 will get total 495 merit. It's very possible juggy777 become a Hero Member before the end of this year.

@squatz1 thank you so much for this big bounty of merits, and now i feel it’s all but confirmed I’ll be able to rank up before December 2019 ends. @masulum this is a common mistake most of the forum users make they only focus on specific merit sources, and do not bother to build meaningful relationships with other users.

As far as TMAN is concerned if you pester him for merits you’ll not receive, but if you’re posting well and deserve merits he’ll come and drop it to you as he did in my case.

If we do the math I have been promised 50 merit points by TMAN, and 30 merits by CryptopreneurBrainboss so I should definitely be able to rank before December ends.

However if I can rank with TMAN 50 merits then I’ll request the CryptopreneurBrainboss to give those 30 merits to someone else who deserves it, or if he finds no one then he’s welcome to give it to me as the next target is to become a legendary member.

You're almost definitely going to hit your target of hero member before the end of the year. And it shows the level of community support here on the forum, especially when you interact respectfully and also qualitatively.
I'm preparing for my next rank; St member, I do not have a personal target set as yet, but would love to hit it before getting to the 1000 post mark (by my calculations that would be before the end of this year). I'm confident I can reach it if I improve the quality of my threads and replies.

Yeah, it seems your hope will come true. Moreover, after I saw your name at "Bitcointalk Ranking-up pipeline - Those that are close to their next rank (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5206035.0)". I am really sure that there will be more members to keep attention to your quality posts + possible to appreciate them. Just continue creating more quality posts and help others with useful info, you are almost there!!

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Anyway, congratulation for your achievement. I also still keep my dream to reach Hero, but it likely still needs a long time.  :)  

This - pester me, you will end up on ignore and possibly tagged for begging....

Juggy is cool and deserves merits for being a decent member.

Exactly, not everyone who creates threads like this get rewarded, only selective few that truely has a past history of putting in their best into contributing positively for the forum (posting decently is one of them) get the boost they need.

@Juggy777, the date i indicated is probably when I will have smerits upto that amount I indicated, so just play your part well and it's yours. Congratulations on ranking up in advance.

totally - I would offer the same to you but when you already have 50% more merits than activity you can just carry on as you are dude!

Nothing wrong with that, but in my view is many member not limited to new members, it also to members who stuck with current rank. They are just thinking about something that they are not working on it before. They want merits, not trying to make a good post, but saying if it's very hard to get merit. Relationship with users it can be a one of many factor, but back to merit points, merit given by member  not just because of friends and relationship, but it's like a gift from a friend because we help people, educate people, or anything positive to make Bitcointalk become a best place to learn about bitcoin and crypto related. For example: Even I am your best friends if my post just like a spam and no value, of course you will not give me any merit. I wish newbie not misunderstanding about "member relationship and merit".

This is True, I have merited people who I dislike on this forum due to the posts being of value. The best advise for people wanting merit is to spend more time reading the forum, read the merited posts/threads and become a better user.

Thank you so much @TMAN you have no idea how happy I am to receive such a praise from you, I will keep doing my best out here.


@CryptopreneurBrainboss thank you so much and advance congratulations to you too, as you’re almost close to rank up as a legendary member, and hopefully in coming months I too will join the legendary members league.


@masulum it seems my words are being misunderstood here, when I meant build meaningful relationships here I meant discuss or engage with other users by creating valuable posts. To give you’ll an example I have developed a strong bond with @squatz1 due to his precise facts filled posts in the political board, and now he too likes what I have to say (at time he disagrees too which is fine). The point I’m trying to cover is stop chasing merit sources, engage with other users through helpful posts and healthy discussions merits will automatically follow.


@TMAN that’s a really nice advice but the problem is people are obsessed with merit sources, and until they focus on helping other people with their posts they won’t get merits, I hope for their sake they’ll follow your advice and stop pestering you and other merit sources.

Excellent advice, @TMAN.
There is one of good place to do this: Inspirational stories from self-made promoted users (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5100307.0)

That's was a great Journey to become Hero Member.

I hope all of the people who spends a lot of time here by sharing and expressing their own experiences in bitcoin will become a Hero Member soon.,

I'm just an ordinary guy who spends almost all of the time in studying and working. I already known bitcoin when I was in High school because my relatives are marketing assistants and most of them are engineers who constantly invest in stocks. I joined bitcointalk because I see a post in Reddit that this forum is the right site if you want to learn in bitcoin and that is the time I discover bitcointalk.,,

At the beginning of my venture here my priority was to learn and explore because I am really curious about bitcoin but my perspective changed due to the influence from my fellow locals that we can earn money here by posting. I've been intrigue because it is money, we need money to survive in life. ,,

That's the time I'm posting low quality statements to earn money. While doing that I realize that this is not the right thing to do. I didn't also earn money due to scam ico ,, it's like a karma for me. So I stopped... I lost interest in bitcoin and stepped out on this forum... but I didn't quit. I somehow manage myself to learn it again from scratch and comeback after a year due to finishing my degree. On that year, It made me realize that we should adapt bitcoin because it has many changes in our community and after watching news and articles about bitcoin, it motivates me to comeback again. It motivates me to do good decisions and start a venture again in bitcoin. money or ranks are not the main agenda here so do not rush ranks to earn money or any titles here because knowledge is what really matters.

If I spend those starting years in a good way, I think I'm a hero member also ,, not sure about that... I hope this will become a lesson to newbie. When I read the post of the op ,, it made me inspire to do things correct,,

Congratulations to you, you are close to becoming a hero member. My best wishes are with you

Guys I did it I’m officially a hero member on this legendary forum, and I can’t express how happy I’m to finally achieve this rank. Also it’s an open secret that I was able to achieve it thanks to the blessings given to me by the merit god’s i.e. TMAN & squatz1, and I’ll do by best to live up to thier expectations.

@CryptopreneurBrainboss your challenge also played it’s part, and I’m delighted to have fulfilled it before the deadline, just wanted to say thanks for that extra motivation.

Now my next goal is to rank up as a legendary member out here, and hopefully I’ll achieve it in the long run.

An inspiring story that deserves to be an example for anyone. Thanks to your efforts, motivation, and quality, you have been promoted to become a member of the hero. Your merit and your rank are the result of what you have contributed to the forum. Congratulations for that.

A little story of mine, when the merit system is implemented in the forum I have reached senior members. But because I could not contribute well at that time, I was very difficult to get merit from anyone.

After I received support and advice from several members, I decided to try and keep trying until finally today I was very close to the members of the heroes. What I do is try, read, make threads, translate threads and try to actively discuss with those who have contributed well in the forum. It is not easy to achieve something if we do not understand enough about various things.

Sometimes there are people who cant appreciate what I am doing, because they only see the results without knowing how much effort I have put in, like spending hours just making threads and commensurate posts. But it is a big challenge for anyone who wants to change, normal for me and maybe also for them. Right now I just keep trying to become a hero member, only need 87 merit to achieve that goal.

Thank you for the motivation of most local Indonesian and global members. I am on the way to a hero member right now.

If I can achieve it before or exactly on January 17, 2020, then it will be a big celebration for me while i am in this forum. I need your support, advice, and motivation to be able to give my best so that I can achieve it at that time.

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

The best supporter to get ranked up is yourself, if you can stay to help people, create a constructive post, or any positive feedback to another member, you can rank up before 17 January. Merit source, me or other members on Bitcointalk just giving you some merits to appreciate your contributions, nothing more. It's okay, if you want to make a target to be a Hero Member, but don't forget about staying on track. Keep your good posts/thread, and think about merits later. Good luck Skarais :)

Something encouraging when I realized that I would do it and can do it for anyone now as you mentioned.

• Help others
• Create constructive posts
• Create threads that are informative and useful
• And etc

 
Thanks bro for your support and sugestion. I am sure I will achieve it, because now I keep trying and moving. Nothing is impossible as long as desire and effort still open the door to achieve higher targets.