Bitcoin Forum

Background
From miner29 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2517761)'s post history, I thought altcoin (mining) board is having less merit than it should be. The user had 1000 posts on that board but he had 59 merits received before LoyceV had merit rain on his profile.
So, I looked into Ddmrddmr's Bitcointalk Merit Dashboard (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ddmrddmr/viz/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/) to check out whether altcoin mining board getting enough merit or not.
I had this impression (before check) for the top 5 boards-
1. Development & Technical Discussion
2. Mining
3. Bitcoin Technical Support
4. Meta
5. Beginners and Help or Reputation

But this is what I ended up from the dashboard-
1. Economics- 11.32% of total merit (Didn’t have WO thread in mind)
2. Meta- 11.25% of total merit
3. Marketplace- 10.09% of total merit
4. Russian- 8.90% of total merit
5. Trading discussion- 6.06% of total merit

My opinion, observation
Well, this is not something like these boards don't deserve such huge merits. I used to think that bitcoin technical discussion, mining related discussion should have received more merit than other boards as most of the people who are here is primarily joining the forum from the curiosity of learning about bitcoin (please keep people aside who are spamming here and there for bounty). So, many of them should be active in this board with real questions, discussion and should receive more merit. But though it's nothing of unusual, complain, I was kinda wtf with the top 5 boards. I really had no idea these boards are having more merits than my top 5 boards.

What is your top 5? Please be sure to be honest. Vote for the top 5 in your mind, not from the result.

PS- I have written this post from mobile. So, I may have done some wrong info. Please point out this if you find any.
And
I apologize. To some user, this poll may sound stupid.

Data time range- 1/24/2018 to 9/17/2021

1. Many of us just don't visit all the boards. I don't visit P&S or the boards in most foreign languages. I guess I'm not alone in this and such votes may distort the result. Also there's a good chance that certain areas have less merit sources than others.
2. I don't think that the amount of merit should be based on a board. Some are more active, some are less active, sometimes there are better posts here, sometimes there are better posts there.

So, unfortunately, I won't vote since I believe that it can't do anything good / useful...

I had this on my mind to put boards activity too in the OP but as I said I did it from mobile, I couldn’t present it in better shape. A comparison between post vs merit and a ratio would make better sense.
I have no specific purpose to prove that Economics board don’t deserve a lot of merits, nor any other ranked boards. I have shared my opinion. I was in the impression that Bitcoin Discussion sub board should receive more merits than others and that turns into wrong.

I believe that the majority will agree with your opinion, because how to objectively decide which board deserves more or fewer merits? It is quite normal that in some boards the activity and quality of posts is higher, which in turn attracts a larger number of users who then distribute more merits - which is certainly not the case with Altcoins or some local boards with a small number of active members.

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Technical boards are too demanding for most beginners, and for most of those who have been members of the forum for years - there is a very narrow circle of people who visit them, so it is logical that there is no large distribution of merits, except from the circle of people who visit them regularly. Mining is another level above technical discussion, a board visited only by those who really have a sincere interest in crypto mining, and probably uninteresting for 90% of forum users.

On the top of my head, I’m probably going for Development & Technical Discussion as my #1. Just due to the simple fact that I’m not the most technically literate person, so I kinda look up to the avid posters there. Literally couldn’t decide for the #2-5 because most of the other threads are pretty leveled to me.

^Going to be totally honest though, I rarely go to that section.

My point is also the same that merits are not limited to any of the board but the main implementation was to enhance the post quality on the overall forum as whole not that if Technical discussion are being made then more merits should be poured on that leaving aside the non-technical and healthy discussion.You have come across these surprising results yourself that the boards which were on your mind to be top 5 were actually not and some other not so visited were.But the actual point is if you find any conversation intersting you would spend more merits on them rather than some technical things.

Technical discussion - There are lot of technical or say most of the technical details are being shared and use of those terms so now whosoever understand those terms or say have knowledge about bitcoin will post on that board like some terms like Locking and unlocking script,UTXO set,eliptic curve and some other and all those lines of codes could not be understood by all but by only those who have knowledge about them whether he is newbie or senior member.So the amount of merit transfer is less.

Bitcoin Discussion- I also have the impression that this was main board of the forum and usually post on it but with time the spam posting filled the threads with ineffective discussion and the board became less frequently visited by members and you could check it yourself that how the post quality has deviated over these years.

Beginner and Help - This is now one of the most frequently visited board on the forum and you could see lot of guides being made by members to aware the other members and how to use certain application and help them.They get merited for the same as they come under effective posting and quality is being maintained so you see more merits.

Economics - This is another interesting board where you could see some healthy economy related discussions over inflation, government policies, national funds and all other matters.People usually get interested in these conversations as you don't need any technical knowledge for them and share your thoughts and if liked by any other members you could get merits as reward.Like @paxmao is giving out many to the members in that board including with other members as they are more likely to have such economic related discussions.

Same is the case with other boards but the main thing is it's never board resticted but whenever you find a suitable post that matches your thoughts or say even not but they have some good content to share with others and promoting healthy conversation among the members then you will get merits for them.

There are lot of board on which you can't visit frequently or say never visit and for someone it could be the main place to write up the post so each and every member has different criteria but in the end the main point is the deserving posts should get merits to whatever board they belong.

My comment on this also may sounds weird to many of you guys but I always thought about this, we are in bitcointalk and most of us learned more about bitcoin from the bitcointalk (bitcointalk discussion) but due to the presence of too much spams we are ignoring the most important section these days. :-[

Since the merits system was implemented four years ago, there has been a significant drop in merits. I believe the merits source on that board is inactive since looking at the board, I could see quality posts deserving merits.


https://talkimg.com/images/2024/06/28/h8vWf.png

I’d take a more granular look at data shown in tabs such as these:

Altcoin Mining Merits per month:
https://public.tableau.com/shared/72ZH4FKWM?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

Altcoin Mining Top sMerit Senders (hover over the lines to see data readings):
https://public.tableau.com/shared/SXWTWJNKT?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

Altcoin Mining Merits, TXs, Senders, Receivers per month:
https://public.tableau.com/shared/3F9KSWNYB?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

Merit per post (essentially 2019 onwards - I didn't track data until then):
https://public.tableau.com/shared/JZFSGXB29?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link
(good enough, providing board is not heavily moderated)

2018 is more of an exception, and possibly the clearer reading is provided on the second link above (I’ll leave you to explore it). If we just look at the information from 2019 onwards, the charts and distributions become way flatter.

Regardless, data does not show unmerited content worthy of it, as that needs to be provided by summarizing or listing cases there to display the volumes we’re talking about.

There's a flaw in your reasoning: boards don't deserve Merit, posts do. If it's up to the subject, I'd say the tech boards deserve to get most Merit. But those aren't the most visited boards, and if less people read it, less people can Merit it.
The top-Merited boards list is basically a combination of 2 factors: many posts and many users with sMerit to give. The WO-thread has both, so no surprise it's #1.

This graph looks like the Merit came from the initial Merit airdrop: many altcoin users must have had sMerit to give, but without active Merit source the board runs out of sMerit eventually.

Irrespective of the board, all boards deserve active distribution of merits to active but quality posts, even including off-topics, provided if there are quality posts and constructive discussions that make posts and threads in such boards to be constructive.

I think there is nothing bad for a active reputed member posting frequently on altcoin boards like mining (altcoins) to request for merit source so merit can be distributed and redistributed in such boards to quality posts, I mean altcoin boards generally, I noticed merits distribution in altcoin boards are not much like bitcoin boards. I do not know what could have caused this, I wish to be active in altcoin boards before but most useful information for me are mainly on bitcoin boards to be sincere.

I hope we do not have an influx of new threads in the selected boards from members after this poll, in an attempt to grab a little from the merit spree.
As other users have said above, merit should ba available wherever there can be quality posts, a user should not have to adjust their interest to rank up, one who is interested in aktcun discussion should not have to make threads in B&H or Meta to get merits.

LittleMouse asked a question to which I statistically responded, and from my statistical standpoints, it appears that there has been a significant drop in merits on the Altcoin mining sub board, so I was only curious as to why the drop occurred, not that I'm asking merits sources to start dropping merits on shit posts.

Giving this some thought and knowing that my votes don't match my activity makes me want to dedicate more merit to different sections.  It's tough sometimes because some of the folks here, especially in the Bitcoin Technical Support section have some pretty high level advice that isn't understood by the majority.  That would also be the type of place you tend to only visit when you have a problem or are looking something up.  I'll have to do a better job about taking some time to get in there and give out some 'rits.

I didn't understand the question as intended by the OP. Are you asking the boards that deserve much merit due to the quality of posts going on in the board or you are asking the boards that deserve merit because of poor distribution of merits in such board. It's a two different thing.

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However, I think the right thing should be to assign merit sources to every board if possible and mandate them to spend at least 70% of their merits in such boards. With this there can be even distribution of merits across all the boards.

Well,am pretty sure that we have a couple of merit source that have taken it upon themselves to distribute merit to QUALITY post.
With all due respect,Sometimes,i just feel maybe our legendary and merit source should get sober and merit any post when due.
Remember,this was created as a means of appreciation and accolades for updating the forum each and everytime anyone did.
Most newbies are software programmers and sometimes post nice articles But end up getting one or no merit at all😿

Let's improvise for the consolidation of the forum🙏
Trojane🙂

@Little Mouse
Without looking at any of the stats, my vote goes to both "Mining" and "Mining (Altcoins)" boards and sub-boards.
^{- Just to be clear, I voted those due to suffering from poor merit distributions, as opposed to the overall quality of the boards that deserve more merits!}

Amen to that!

I only voted for two sub-boards because I can't make up my mind how to rank the rest:

• Development & Technical Discussion
• Bitcoin Technical Support

These two boards are the places where you go when you have problems with Bitcoin and when you need advice. Everything else is of less importance if you ask me. The amount of technical knowledge displayed there is just crazy.

I would love to have been able to vote for Bitcoin Discussion as well, but due to the state of that section and the amount of spam it generates, it's sometimes hard to take it seriously. The Russian local should probably not be in the poll at all. If you aren't Russian, you aren't visiting that local board, so you don't know what is going on there. It's the same with all other local boards. If you don't speak the particular language, you don't belong there and you don't know the situation.

I barely read a post or open the thread of the boards you quite mentioned, apart from beginners and help. Am only consistent with every other board due to I do understand the posts and comments been made there. Which I guess,
the majority of us do the same.
Concerning the low merits been given out is base on how informative and educative the post can be and how people interact with it

The reason is the number of posts on those boards, for example, Mining board was very strict and it was not easy to participate in it, and many people do not publish in the technical boards and therefore you will find many merits, but the lack of participation makes the total points on those boards less.

Merits are often related to the activity of merit sources and the quality of the participations. For example, the Russian board contains two merit sources with high activity, and therefore, if those sources distribute their points, you will find that the points that the rest of the members can distribute are higher, and so on.

I probably don't visit 90% of this forum if you include every local board in that statistic, and I even have most of the English-section boards on ignore as well--including all of the altcoin ones. 

I don't have a top-8 in my head as far as which sections do or should earn the most merits, because that's not how I organize things in my mind.  Some sections are better than others.  Altcoin Discussion and the rest of the child boards are, in general, pure crap.  Basically, they're where bounty hunters go to shitpost.  Now and then there are some really good posts made by dedicated members, but if you look at the rest of the posts in the thread, you'll see stupid one-liners that have no value whatsoever--and yes, I used to visit the altcoin sections, so I'm familiar with them. 

Unfortunately, Bitcoin Discussion is another popular dump site for the trash from bounty hunters/campaign shitposters, and you'd think it'd be the section where a lot of merits are earned--but it's not.  Meta is populated by a lot of older members who actually care about the forum and/or participate in the drama between the personalities they're familiar with.  Not surprisingly, a lot of merit sources also post there, too, so that's probably why a lot of merit gets distributed in that section.  Too bad that many members with nothing to say have figured that out and create threads just to earn merits.  That's been happening since the beginning of the merit system, by the way.

At least on the tech boards, shitposts (https://loyce.club/archive/posts/5799/57996112.html) don't receive Merit and are quickly removed after reporting them. Some try, but it doesn't earn them anything.

I'd say the reason behind the merit circulation in the Altcoin section being less than the main Bitcoin sections is most merit sources seem to be concentrated on the Bitcoin sections, and there is some sort of stigma towards the Altcoin section, I know there's several users who have that section on ignore, and I'm not really blaming them for doing it. However, I've been saying it for years; the Altcoin section despite having more spam than the Bitcoin sections, still has some very good discussion. It would be brilliant if some merit sources could concentrate on these sections a little bit more.

Although, aside from that I don't think there's anything particularly surprising about the circulation of merit. Generally, the more technical oriented sections tend to encourage more in depth conversations, and therefore the merit flows there a lot more. Altcoin sections are probably considered a lot less technical than the main Bitcoin sections. I must admit that the Development section is one of the best places on the internet, when it comes to discussion about the technical aspects of Bitcoin.

Altcoin technical discussions tend to get more clueless lazy newbies, often punted over from the bitcoin section.
I'm not suggesting all newbies are clueless and lazy but I am referring to a subset of newbies who are.
Posting an altcoin question in the bitcoin section is an example.

Entering a technical discussion usually involves some technical interest. I am reminded of a sign a coleague
had posted at his desk: "if you want a better answer ask a better question". Altcoin gets all the "I know nothing
technically, don't want to learn, and just want to start mining, help me" questions.

My point is I don't think this has to do with merits. It's just the natural order of things that altcoins are second
class. A few may not deserve it based on markets, and for technical mining discussions SHA256D altcoin
mining has more in common with Bitcoin than with "alt-algos". But that's the way it is.

I spend most of my time on the altcoin mining board, for obvious reasons, so I don't see all the financial scams.
They get deleted for being off topic on the mining board. It doesn't get all the shitcoin spam either. But there's no
shortage of malware spam. There are a lot of new phish in the pond and it's attracting a lot of phishing.

I don't think merit helps much with that either. Most malware is posted by newbie accounts. If that's not a big
enough red flag for the "best mining software in the world" the presence of lack of merit won't make a difference.

Senority and reputation play a bigger role in technical discussions. It's less about the post and more about the user
who posted it.

Just my 2 Sats.

I disagree, and think this is a misconception of sorts. I think it's reasonable to say that the longer you've been here, and the more experience you have with Bitcoin, the more knowledgeable you are likely going to be about Bitcoin. Also, due to your longevity here, you'll likely be somewhat respected or hold some sort of higher rank here. So, it's far more likely that a seasoned user here is going to be talking about technical things, than a newbie is. At least, with any sort of accuracy. However, there have been examples of a new user or a newer user than expected does come, and talk quite in detail about the technical aspects of Bitcoin, and they usually get showered in merits.

There's also quite a few users that frequent the technical sections that have more merit than activity/posts.

I don't disagree, but I'm suggesting the merits don't add a lot of value not already present by other factors I mentioned.
One instance where it would help is a newbie software developper trying to get a foot in the door. Newbie software is usually
avoided, but merits from respected senior members can help relieve some of the apprehension. The attitude of a newbie
offering technical advice should reveal something about their credentials. Are they suggesting a magic "pill" with outrageous
claims or are they providing the technical reasoning for their advice.

It's just my subjective point of view, you may disagree, but I haven't typically looked at merit when assessing the quality of
a post or user. I've just seen it as a way to give a thumbs up to a particularly interesting or insightful post without replying
with a low value post like "Well said!!!". Perhaps I'm just playing devil's advocate in a way to explain a possible reason for the
central issue of this thread.

That's a good point in technical boards because if you are going off topic and posting irrelevant knowledge which have no link with the ongoing discussions then the post is reported directly but on other board this thing is less frequent and many members spam fill the thread with such posts and giving up the same replies just to increase their post count.But in technical discussion if electrum wallet seed phrase or any other technical discussion is going then you cannot say business doing this or that and other philosophical things which don't add up to that discussion.

I voted in this order:
Politics & Society
Beginners and Help
Bitcoin Discussion
Meta
Trading Discussion

My reason for picking Politics & Society ahead of others is because whatever we do in life revolves around politics and society. Whether we want to admit it or not, it's politics that has kept Bitcoin away from mass adoption till date. It's because some countries still find it difficult supporting Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies that makes the skepticism towards it elaborate. For instance, if all the governments of the world should toe the line of El Salvador on Bitcoin, we know what Bitcoin will become over night. It will be a mad rush for cryptocurrencies. I think those posting there and keeping the thread alive should be encouraged with merits.