Bitcoin Forum

I was a complete noob who was very envious of highly ranked forum members. I didn't know they took time and worked diligently to earn their various positions. I received my first merit, I kneww I had to work more to earn myself their position.

I started ranking up bit by bit. Reading a lot of topics created, started interacting with experienced members. I wasn't shy to ask questions even if feels I was being stupid, I never felt it. I want to sincerely thank the experienced members for always answering our questions.

I do say one thing, this forum is not for lazy people, the purpose of the forum is to learn and contribute to learning, but the forum respect people that have contributed to learning which is appropriate because they worked hard to be where they are.

I noticed one thing about this forum, ranked members like newbies to first ask questions, even some questions can be given merits. If there is any question newbie want to ask, experienced ranked members are ready to answer even respectfully.

So far you have known more about this forum, if you have more quality and authentic posts with no falsifying or misinterpretation of right/appropriate information, you will surely rank up.

But to newbies, I will always advice them not to be arguing with ranked members, because ranked members here knows a lot they do not know.

I strive to innovate and encourage others to find new ways to take advantage of Bitcoin’s immutability and visibility to innovate themselves. Merit was never part of the equation.

I don't exaggerate merit. Offcourse, it's fun to get merit, I'm not saying that I don't need it. But I don't think about, when I post I don't think, wheter I will get merits for this post or no.
But yeah, when I got my first merits, it was quite big deal, despite that my rank was big already. I was happy that someone found something useful in my posts.
My main goals here isn't money or merits. I'm here to read, discuss, learn something new and also share my knowledge.
And for newbies it's nothing shameful to ask questions, even if they may look stupid. Most of us were in their boats in our early days here :).

For me personally the biggest benefit of this forum is being a part of the community. For example our Croatian community is very small and we don't have a lot of merit to go around anyways, but we are very active nonetheless and love to share the information, new insights and ideas around.

Even when there is no special incentive when community is healthy and has an open approach to each new member it is easy to participate and have fun while learning or just having a random conversations.

I just share what info I could offer and advice what I think is the best, that's all. If I received merit in return then thanks but if not then that's okay. I am not thinking about it too much because I know that it will stress the hell out of me. You know, it's so depressing to compare your progress on others' ;D. Always remember that the knowledge we acquired here is considered the main prize while merit is only a consolation prize.
Look, you already had 12 merits. That's a lot of progress dude so keep grinding :o.

About the learning aspect, you are totally right and not wrong at all, like I remember when I joined this online community, I did not know anything about bitcoin, I did not even know anything about cryptocurrencies, but now is so different, I have gained by learning from the threads on this forum, the threads are many and I am always still learning, and this makes this forum best for me.

I think those, who seek and value merit on this forum are here just to rank up and earn quickly. They simply envy those high ranks that get a lot right now. But bad news for them, earnings on this forum greatly reduced since 2018, when lots of bounty campaigns turned scam. They have missed the time already.

If people are on the forum just to earn, than this is not the right place. I feel myself comfortable in any rank and with any amount of merit. Besides, I was reading this forum for half a year without registration and did not feel really bad.

Same for me. At first, I always expect merits for making a high effort post but as time goes by, It didnt matter anymore and just continuing creating quality post or helpful one without thinking if any of those post will gain merit or not. Maybe OP is still conscious about merits but we all are when we are low rank right? But it will change if he got the rhythm of staying here.

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OP, like others suggestion here, just enjoy your stay here, merits are just bonuses it will come eventually as you learn many things here and imparted some of those. Good luck with your journey.

There is a saying: ask a question and risk to be once seen as being stupid or never ask it and remain stupid the entire life.

It's better to ask questions and find answers to any curiosity you may have, as this way you are improving your knowledge. Some people will laugh at your questions, thinking you are stupid, but others will take you seriously and they will explain. Time will make the difference between those which acted smart, without letting others to find out that they don't know anything and those which became masters of their domain, learning as much as possible about it, also by asking questions.

Guess that's why we are all here for. Older members may go away from the forum at one point and maybe you'll be their replacement. It's called "community" for a reason! :) You learn on the go. I still have so much to learn but I'm getting there - and it's interestingly linked to my rank & merits. The more I learn, the closer I get to the next rankup basically. Keep it up and someday you'll become the one to answer questions yourself.

I don't think that asking questions makes us feel stupid. It just shows our willingness to learn and know better so I must say that that is good, and there is no shame in that. None at all. Besides, this forum is a platform for learning and asking questions is a part of that

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Well said. Thinking about getting merits too much but eventually not getting it just causes frustration. So the best thing to do is just focus on yourself, on how you can improve. Other forum members will eventually see that and soon enough, your hard work will pay off. Just always bear in mind that learning comes first then merits will eventually follow.

I have never considered that people who ask questions or don't understand something are stupid. We all have to start from somewhere, and for those who are getting acquainted with crypto that 'somewhere' is 0.

Communicating with people who want to learn or are willing to pass on their knowledge is exciting. It is easy to spot the difference between someone who is posting in order to learn something and someone who is posting for other benefits.   

I value the human knowledge and give merits as an appreciation to the knowledge that is presented. The more we learn and contribute to the forum, the more knowledge we gain. The merits will follow if we increase our knowledge and share it with others. Nothing comes easily, we need to work hard to earn merits.

This is a basic analogy.

If you feed your mind with something that will add to your existing knowledge about bitcoin in general then it is more likely that you are adding value that will benefit yourself and the community as well. However, the only thing that might hinder you from progressing is when you sees that when you are no longer receiving merits, it might lead to frustration, stagnation and excessive pressure of ranking up. It should not be the way we see merit in general.

Move on your own pace of learning, find a mentor or just make a habit of reading bitcoin books and resources every day. You might never notice that every post you make is something useful for someone else's point of view.

In terms of gaining knowledge or merit. I will choose knowledge.

Every time we are reading, and experience something this acquired new knowledge and skills and this may help our brain to become more critical thinkers.

Merit does not define the amount of your knowledge, we have a different personality, characteristics, and skills that we are good so don't compare your self why they are good at this or that.

Let's say a member really loves to stay on a gambling board because they are skilled on that particular subject and they earn a lot of merit on that board because many people appreciated it's content out there and by that every time they read on those threads another new knowledge and skills may acquire.

Merit is just a token of appreciating don't take it seriously but still, it is good if every time you contribute you gained merit to help you rank up on our forum.

This is what all newbies should do. But maximum newbies always thought about money without giving any effort behind. And lost the interest to visit this forum when they can not see what they think.

In my opinion, we should value to add human knowledge first then use it to earn merits as well as money too. Because without knowledge we never get it. I respect your ambitious that you want to be a valuable user in this forum. Keep your effort up, You can.

I love this saying, thanks a lot, man   ;).

Going back to OP. I'd rather say, don't think about getting merit as your metric on making a progress. It would not be effective in the long term basis. Instead, value learning over some recognition as it would keep you going, simply because you want learn. Yeah, getting merit feels great however it would be a bothersome once you never get even a single one. You might even depreciate contributing substantial post/reply to some discussion because you value geting recognize which you didn't get last time.

And you already saw it, it is kind of fun to see discussions which feeds knowledge to one another, right? Not that merit isn't important at all but it would be much easier to contribute to a certain discussion without thinking if someone would look at you, and you expect would give you a reward. What I mean there's no sort of pressure  :).

At first, everyones intention was to earn merit BUT NOT AN OBVIOUS WAY, that's why begging of merit is against the system. There are many professional, educational, knowledgeable posts that deserve merit.
Most importantly, adding values to someone is something beneficial to you by sharing your knowledge through quality posting. Receiving merit gives me an inner peace that someone find my posts helpful. So the both works together.

I dont value value to Human knowledge and i can earn merits
Not all members are beginners, some are alt-accounts to people with knowledge, and others have lost their accounts or interest.
It is not a shame that you do not get merits, is that you continue to drink until you get paid.
Create two topics after reading and searching for them and you will get more points than spending time in responses to many members.

Actually, merit will come naturally according to the quality of the posts we make. Always try to contribute well, do not spam posts, and also make posts that are useful, not out-of-topics, answer questions, informative, of course, later merit will come.
In this case, as what I experienced, I was very lazy to be a good member here, only posting to fulfill my signature campaign requirement without paying attention to the quality of the posts. 2 years and got nothing. then, learning by doing, reading more, and also trying harder in this forum, listening to the advice by the other members lead me to change my mind. Give the best to this forum, and then this forum will give you the best to you.