Bitcoin Forum

I have noticed some things in this forum which I don't really know why it is so. I believe that creating quality posts and posting comments that has potentials of giving solutions and impacting knowledge to an op is of great importance here.

 I do see people being merited from other people's post even when the post has no merit. Some persons are so smart that, they we just attack the post Immediately without no good reasons rather than trying to correct the op and later get merited. Sometimes I know some posts are as useless as the op and it is not bad if a person get merit from it for good comment.

Why are comments being merited rather than the original post even when the post is of quality?
It happens here always and I think knowing the reasons would not bad.

Merit is about post quality, not about post position.

The OP may be asking something silly, sometimes even spamming something that was already repeated over and over again.
Then someone replies below with a comment he researched about before posting, telling something new and useful about that silly comment in the OP.

This is the most common reason

I registered last year March. Check some of the topics I created at the time on only page 9 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;threads;u=2776678;sa=showPosts;start=160)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5231118.msg53982691#msg53982691
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5231368.msg53990969#msg53990969
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5232054.msg54008321#msg54008321
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5232577.msg54021683#msg54021683
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5235930.msg54107672#msg54107672

Go through all my topics, 90% or more of my topics were merited.

So, try to make quality posts is the answer, irrespective of it being a topic or normal post replies. Also do not just create topic and leave it, try to engage in the replying discussions, accept mistakes and improve the more.

"Quality" is a subjective matter, and what one considers as quality may not be seen as such by others, or rather frequently it may be the n-th time the topic is being treated (the longer one in the forum, the more repeated OP topics he will see). In addition, many topics are created clearly to obtain merit, and not so much to elaborate on a given topic. When the intention is blatantly clear, it may produce the opposite effect.


Any post could be meritable, regardless of its position within a thread. Nevertheless, often OPs get merited more than other posts within the thread, especially if they bring something fresh to the table and expose it in a decent enough manner. The first posts answering or adding comments within the thread are also reasonable candidates, providing their content be of interest. The further we go down the thread, the more repetitive the answers tend to get, which normally correlated to being more distant to receiving merits.  This is not a fixed pattern though.

This is a forum where learning is constant except you choose not to admit to every single advice that is given.

Yes, posts that are of great interest is likely to get merited.

This is left to individual reasons of responds. If the context of the post is poor or misleading, attacking it would be a good idea to reduce the number of shit posts.

Everyone has right to merit any posts of their choice if the post has good quality, since our reasoning faculty is quite different from each other. You can't force merit on a post...note this!

I understand your stance, for what's what people give merit to posts independently to whoever they wanted but if you feel that a specific post deserves to be merited you also have the privilege to report unmerited good post to the merit source (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5093271.600).

About people attacking the OP instead of correcting her, understand this is internet where people don't show much respect and the last time I checked we are all from different backgrounds, understanding and morality but if you understand the internet code of conduct you will easily overlook people assault and use it as a motivation.

Giving merit to a post is highly subjective, only user who wants to merit it can decide that so we can't expect every good post to get merit and also don't expect every merited post to be a good one, the one who merited that post may liked it or learnt something from it just like the way of responding.

This is good post, i m just being introduced into the forum and i really want to know how this merit of a thing works here and there. please put more light on it.

There are several links on merit and ranks, but in summary;
• Users merit you for posts they find quality,
• For every merit you receive, you get half in smerits, so 1 merit would produce 0.5 smerits but you can't spend this till you get another merit taking your smerits to 1,
• You can send your smerits to posts you find quality, it does not affect your merit count,
• Merits an activity determines your rank,
• Do no focus to much on either, rather concentrate on the discussions and available information on the forum.

I tend to agree with it because it doesn't mean you created a topic and it deserves to get merit, still, it will vary how quality it is.  As repeatedly mentioned above, merit was subjected to the quality post that gives information, it doesn't matter if this is a reply or an OP thread.

It's being said by @DdmrDdmr above and it's explained very well, I hope this enlightened you now and try to give a better shot next to your posts and to potentially get merit.  If you keep making such a good and helpful discussion, you will never know that someday you will have merited one of your posts.  

There is a one exception for post position that I can think of.
A quality post in the middle of a mega thread wouldn't get a single merit as for obvious reasons that nobody will scroll through each pages just to find a single.
It is like a diamond covered in manure and nobody would want to dig through that just to find it.

@OP
People are not obliged to merit the OP regardless of the quality. As what DdmrDdmr said, 'quality" is a subjective matter. What is quality for you might not be quality for everybody else.

I don't get why some people are so frustrated about not getting merits. The thing is, you get merits if your post is informative and well-researched bringing up a new idea into discussion. If one keeps making threads about gold vs BTC, Musk and stuff like that, they will probably not get merited for it.

But again, I don't get the point of being frustrated over not getting merits. I've been in that position myself of not earning any merit and I only learned what "good posts" means wby myself, the hard way. To be 100% honest, the only time I got frustrated about it was back when I was desperate for sig campaign positions.

Merits are given to the post independently. It is not dependent on any post, and the one who gave the merit has that free will whatever reason he may have. Maybe the post is funny/educational/interesting/ or any other reasons or even without reason (this is rare though).  Anyone can merit a post given that he has merits to give.

Those helpful topics are those that gets merit more IMO.

Quality varies from person to person. If a post is considered a quality post to you doesn't mean it's a quality post to me or other users. That's the reason users sending merits in a different post. Merit isn't limited to the main post either its quality or non-quality. Just keep in mind all user's minds wouldn't be the same and you can't expect it as well. Don't feel sorry if you don't get merits, just try to do more better. Not meriting in your post doesn't mean your post is worst. Rather than it would possible none of merit sender notice your post or they have lack of smerits. Who doesn't send merit on your post but sending another post means he doesn't think it is a quality post. So try to contribute to the forum and don't think much about merit distribution.

People who post this kind of reasoning are those newbie that craves for merit in able to rank up and to earn money on campaign without effort on improving there post. They think that ever thread created deserved a merit that's why tons of newbie creating redundant topic and hoping to receive merit. I don't know who's the mentor of this strategy but I saw this pattern many times on newbie especially on beginners and help thread. This merit system really effective on limiting account selling and spammers on the forum.  :D

I haven't noticed such thing. Actually, I think it's quite opposite. Often OP get most merits in whole topic. Everything depends on quality of post and as said above, position of post isn't main factor. If post is really good and helpful, it will get more or less merits (unless it's posted in section where merit supply is low).
If there something wrong in OP post, it's normal that it won't get merit. And when someone correct wrong information, he deserves to get merit.

What you should understand first and foremost is that it's not a 'battle' between the op and users who make replies on who is going to get merited or not, we discuss here, merits dont come in the way of discussions, it's somewhat a signal that the discussions are of good and high quality, but my point is that the whole issue you're raising is actually no problem at all.

Having said that, imo, good posts (the original post) usually get merited and users can't attack an op if the post is good, what other users try to do is to correct the mistakes, if there is any in the op. And then discussions on the forum moves in different direction, the op could start a post about a subject, but subsequent replies could prolly shed more light on the topic and such users could get more merits, but like I said before, this is actually not a problem and should not be taken as one.

Op, would you like to get points for starting a discussion that other people continue, just because?
If people see a response in your thread that they like and merit it, should they also merit you?

The simple answer to this is because the replies are full of quality but the op they're responding to isn't. Most started topics are generic as many tends to ask repeating question. The OP that are quality gets the attention of merited the very moment it's posted.

If you're someone that's interested in always starting topic then do that perfectly and not randomly asking generic question then get angry that you're respondent are getting rewarded while you that started the conversation isn't.

Merit isn't restricted to replies or OP, infact if you can make your OP very constructive and quality, you stand a higher chances of getting rewarded with merits then the quality replies as your post has higher publicity.

Replies has more competition as there's every tendency someone viewing the post will have a higher level of knowledge/understanding to that topic of discussion than you although that shouldn't stop you from contributing to the discussion if it interest you and you have something to say.

OP, good sober topic. The only pity is that beginners cannot understand this in any way, who think a little differently. It doesn't matter where you get the merits, and you don't have to create new, identical threads. Good thoughts will always be noticed, and questions of the same type are already becoming suspicious, so it is better to be creative in communication than to rack your brains about creating a new topic to raise yourself in rank.
And besides, getting merits in the process of communication suggests that the topic is read, and people are interested in posts not only on the topic but also in the discussion itself.

members have made compelling points/reasons about why comments tend to get merited rather than the original post clear things up. but if you are also thinking about why threads created by newbies or jr members tend to not get merited the answers might differ from person to person.

A post in a mega thread isn't an exception. Visit topics like the WO for example and you would still see posts thousands of pages deep still merited. It's the mega spam thread that's the problem but why would you even post there when you already know it's infested with spams to begin with?

I guess I never specified what type of mega thread it is. My apologies on that, but what I was pointing is those irrelevant threads that does not need anymore replies nor need continuation of discussion and should be locked by now. Nobody would go through that much pagesjust to merit a single post in the middle of spams.
WO is continuously an active thread and it never gets irrelevant.

I often get merit when making comments on posts but the OP of that topic doesn't get merit...

the reason is simple, that is not always the OP of a topic that makes good quality writing so it doesn't always get merit. btw, I don't think that this is something worth discussing more deeply

If the question you reply helped others, then you will have merit, or the post you posted is helpful to others, you will also gain merit, but don’t be too anxious about merit, don’t post for merit or merit、Reply, the important thing is to help everyone,

The taste of the meat is delicious and tasty, not lies in the raw meat, what makes the food delicious and feels after cooking, lies in the spices in the food that are absorbed by the meat.

Comments with a few words or written comments contain a broad meaning and make people who read think 10 times that what is conveyed is right on target and 100% makes sense.
Rather than a long post that takes up two pages, but if you read and digest it you get gibberish, even if it's the original poster.

For that reason most of the members here give (Merit) for comments like I described above, rather than the original post but if you read it's just garbage, it's not wrong, members who see comments are 100% accurate and are bombarded (Merit).

OP don't hope that whenever you create a topic automatically many people will give you a merit since this kind of things will always depends on what is the content of your post, if people will find it helpful and relevant thread then user may put some merit to give gratitude on your post. But if you didn't get any merit maybe its a good basis for you to create more valuable contents. Also don't get surprise that who comment on your thread get merited since they provably give a on point opinion regarding to the topic you discuss here.

There are 2 reasons for this: if the original poster asked for help or wants a solution to any issue, then the best comment gets merit.

Second. Often people write long and useless posts in which there is nothing new. Even in such a situation, the original poster does not get merits, while some members get merit in the comments by writing only a few lines.

Thanks for all the comments I really appreciate.

You will get merit on both type of your post, both in the form of thread and comment, but the main requirement that both must have is quality. I created several thread and also made useful comment based on other users' judged and for that I was merit. It's true that merit is not given to the position of your post, but how the quality of your post is judged by other users.

Some users may be interested in distributing merit on quality thread, but that doesn't mean that you don't stand a chance of getting quality post merit. I forgot the name of the user who has got more than 1000 merit but very rarely create thread and most of the merit he get is given by other users on his quality post.