Bitcoin Forum

I'm posting this in Meta based on actmyname's thread from 2018, which is quite similar to this one (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3046992.0).  If there's a better section, I request the mods either move it or tell me where to move it to.

I've offered to review members' post histories a number of times in various threads, and based on my experience with doing it I wanted to formally write out some things that I find myself repeating in PMs:

I.  The offer is open to any member below Legendary rank and only those who don't already have enough merits to reach Legendary.

II.  You just need to send me a simple PM asking for a review, and I'll be happy to do it.  You don't need to be humble and apologize for doing so--believe me, if I thought anyone was wasting my time I'd tell them, and I wouldn't have even offered to do these reviews in the first place.

III.  When you PM me, please list the specific sections you post in, especially any of the altcoin sections, the gambling ones, Bitcoin Discussion, and Speculation.  I have a lot of sections on ignore, so when I'm doing reviews I have to un-ignore sections in order to merit any posts within them (hey Theymos, could you change that by any chance??).  Just write something like this (don't worry about capitalization and the like):

1. Speculation
2. Altcoin (mining)
3. Altcoin (speculation)
4. Trading discussion

You only need to do it once, as I'll save your original PM.  Note: I don't review posts in any of the local boards.

IV.  You can request a review once every 30 days at the most.  That's because there's a limit of 50 merits per member per month that can be given out, and oftentimes I do end up handing out a full 50.

V.   I make no guarantees that you'll be given any merit at all, much less 50 at a clip.  If I think your posts are sub-par, I'll usually give you a suggestion or two as far as ways to make your posts stand out.  But basically what I look for is thought and effort, not length.  I can assure you, I've been reading posts from bounty hunter spamming shitposters for years and can recognize a bloated load of nonsense within a few seconds.  Grammar and correct use of the English language help, but I'm looking for posts that took some effort and had some thought put into them, so don't worry if English isn't your primary language--you definitely don't have to be perfect, just clear enough such that your post can be understood.

VI.  If you PM me with a request and it's clear you haven't read my rules (especially III above), you're asking me for another review in less than 30 days, you should have known your posts are complete wads of shitty asswipe, or in any other way prove to me that you're a bonehead even before I take a look at what you've written, I not only reserve the right to refuse a review with no response whatsoever, I might just ignore you, block your PMs, or even report some of your shitposts.  

VII.  Please don't send me a reminder PM if I obviously haven't done a review for you within a few days, a week, or even two weeks or more.  I've been getting more requests than I can handle with the amount of sMerits I'm allocated, and Theymos refuses to increase said allocation.  If you send me a request and I'm unable to give you merits because I'm out, your PM will stay in my inbox until I get to it.

Please, one of my berzerk buttons is people who waste my time.  If you do that, keep in mind that I'm the type of man who bears a grudge.
_______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________

So those are my basic rules.  I'm going to leave this thread open in case anyone wants to make comments, suggestions, or anything else.  I don't need people to thank me; I'm a merit source, and I do this to keep the system working because I believe in it and know what the forum was like before Theymos created it.  I'd actually be grateful for any critical feedback.

Skeptical Chemist, finally, you no longer have to explain the same thing to everyone! I'm glad that you found the strength to create such a thread!

My man, I am touched--truly--every time you call me by my preferred moniker.  I had long given up hope of a name change, so much so that it actually surprised me when I saw your post.  I doff my hat to you, sir.

Theymos, Theymos....won't you please reconsider my cry for help (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5312089)?

Thanks for the offer, I'll send you a PM.


Actually, Coolcryptovator got his name changed to The Cryptovator, but I think it was due to


I guess theymos doesn't want to change usernames if it's not strictly necessary, otherwise it would have an avalanche of requests. But good luck to you.

The Pharmacist is a brand name in this forum and personally I wouldn't want the name to change. Then my wish doesn't count, but it means that my keyboard library would have to store another name apart from The Pharmacist for easy mention.


This could be that The Cryptovator didn't change much things in his name, the prefix "cool" was changed to "the" and the all uppercase was changed to sentence case. The identity is still retained.

---

For the post review, it's cool to understand that you haven't given up even though some persons might go against your rule. How about making applicants that might want to apply on this thread possible. Maybe not everyone would want to use pm and maybe it could make the applications or requests more organised and easily accessible.

I hear the reward for work is more work. I can only imagine the time you would take to do this but, your selflessness to others and devotion to the forum is like no other. Thanks for doing this and being this wide arm towards everyone.

I never knew there was a plea for change of name but, I must say, The Pharmacist have been so generic in the forum and have got its prestige that, would be lost to the few that won't be aware of the fact that there was ever a switch. I guess that would be an advantage too, an all new mask. Although, you've got your reasons for this name change and I respect that and should my tears be what you need right now, am tearing already...

We need "The Skeptical Chemist", lol...

There are two things give man joy. 1. Good name and 2. Good character. if carefully look at it these two phrases are synonymous. It is only the bearer of a name knows the important of his name not the third party. It is the character that others would confirm from the person. Since The Pharmacist is requesting to change his name to The Sceptical Chymist, he knows it best. As for the number 2 which 99% of the people or users of the forum attested for him. And as for me I give him the name The Liberal Chymist because he is one of the liberal scholars, he is a progressivist and not a conservativist. Therefore, I also join voice to plead Theymos (the boss) to change the name of The Pharmacist to his desire and suitable name. From what I saw in this thread  Public request to Theymos for a name change  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5312089), the name is spelled The Sceptical Chymist but here it is spelled 'Skeptical Chemist or The Skeptical Chemist". This spelling issue has removed (impeched) a newly elected Governor in my state. So we are careful about it.

Lol.  I'm not sure if you're actually talking about leaning left-wing or right-wing in terms of politics, but if so you've got that pretty much backwards (though I'm an advocate of live-and-let-live and just don't like hearing about how others are living, if you know what I mean).

I got about a zillion requests for post reviews since I started this thread, and I'm backed up at the moment but plan on starting reviews after drinking some coffee.  Please be patient if you've requested a review; I will get to you soon--and in general, give me at least a day or so and then remind me if I haven't given you merits or replied to your PM with a reason as to why I didn't give you any.

And Theymos, if you happen to be reading this: I've already run out of source merits and am dipping into my earned ones.  Maybe you could increase my allocation?  Thanks, bud.

Interesting offer, if it's okay I will send you a PM then. Take your time first since I don't really need it ASAP.

Even your username still not changed by theymos until now, but at least it's changed in my own monitor :P

https://i.ibb.co/r6GWLB7/thescepticalchymist.png

I hope your device doesn't have anything associated with any sensitive stuffs e.g. seed pharse etc Do not use a wallet that do not bring out virtual keyboard (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5396861.0).

Awwww.....you don't have to smooch my gluteus that hard.  

I reviewed your post history and would have given you 50 merits for the month anyway, so I decided to just give them all to you in one shot.  I also did that for a couple of others already--but there have already been cases where I've had to tell members to improve their post quality.  This is no charity I'm running here, y'all understand?  I'm trying to be as generous as possible, but if you know anything about me you should know that I've got standards and I detest shitposters.

As one of the beneficiaries of your benevolence in the recent past (you practically ranked me up from Hero to Legendary), I say "yeah" that's true. I didn't know you even had a soft side, having had a little "post response/exchange" with you during my noob days. I can't recall vividly what transpired then but you came off tough as Hitler on me. I avoided your posts for awhile before shaking that experience off. Perhaps what I felt as harsh response from you then was tough love. Thanks for all you've been doing here.

I move the motion for theymos to reject any name change for ya 🤪. Your moniker, The Pharmacist, has been ingrained in my head.

Geez, I don't remember what happened between us at all.  I'm guessing it might have been when you were new, prior to the merit system when I was always on edge due to my fight with account sellers and shitposters.  My apologies, because whatever it was about, you stuck around and became a solid member of the forum. 

I've also mellowed out somewhat since 2019 due to various RL stuff or perhaps just with age or changes in the level of drama on the forum.  But thanks for voting against my name change request, fucknut.  *lol*

And not for nothing, but I'm burning through my earned sMerits like crack in Charlie Sheen's hands, so I'm hoping the almighty T will grant me some more.  Seems like everyone on the forum has tuned into this thread, which is a good thing as long as I have enough love to spread around.

As you have said earlier also but clarifying the rules with the help of this thread will surely help the low rank members who wants to PM you for post history review.The specification of the board in which they post is certainly good because due to many spam posts in certain sections like the Altcoin board many hardly visit it so you need to check for the post in them if they have written some quality one's over there.

We have been also benefitted from your smerits in the past to rank up to the next possibile close rank on forum and many still are getting this helps but delivering them to the deserving members and making them improve their post quality by guiding them also is really good job being a source.

And and far as smerits is concerned you will somehow manage to gain them by earning some of them apart from getting it as source on monthly basis.Maybe one time your name change request is accepted by @theymos but for us @Pharmacist is well renowned one on the forum.

This is a direct shut your mouth thread to users like myself, below the Legendary and Hero rank from complaining about merits as to its circulation. Its a rare opportunity made common and open to those who sees the need. The only limitation would be spam posting and shit posting which is spam in a way.

I see how in many ways, this would call for an improve post quality for users wo evr wish to apply and it agrees with the principles that the merit system hopes to uphold.

So renowned and it would be a struggle to know The Pharmacist by another name/user but, if you want it so bad and it suits your personal reasons, I do hope the forum grants you this singular wish.

Why not above Legendary? Don't you think they deserve merits? Kidding. There's no more rank above Legendary but I have no problem now if theymos adds one lol. However, there are some club like 10k merit club, 5k merit club and I really hope that you will help all that guys too and consider their post history review offer  :D
I'm not actually looking for merit here. I'm not requesting a review either but it would be great if you would accept such request too because it would help to distribute the merit perfectly. For example, most of the times, I'm out of smerits (only last few days, I have few) and I wasn’t able to merit some of the local post which I thougt deserve merit. I know I can report them to LoyceV's thread in reputation but I only report post there which is somewhat a great contribution only. If a post deserve 1 or 2 merits, I don’t feel reporting them on that thread.
Just my 2 cent but I appreciate your effort. Not everyone spends such huge time behind  reviewing the post.

Well well well,... finally, an adventure of The sceptical chymist  :D
Uhmm...can you diagnose some pills for my wellness? I've been sick lately  :P.... This name sooths you and I guess you're gonna take up vital responsibilities for wanting to bear a magnificent name like that...
I'm happy for the development incumbent chymist and I really wanna send some shout-out to Theymos out there;c'mon buddy, this is a good project as @Ratimov isn't helping anymore (reasons best known to him)
@The sceptical chymist; I'm a tutor; I teach both grown ups and kids, really chocked up with some busy schedule lately. I'm currently working on a project which is organizing a scheme for classes in a local government primary school. These will be my first visit with my team to such a REMOTE peripheral but I think they need the knowledge, yeah so hopefully I'll have you look at that when it's ready,if it's sooths your meriting policies,yhen that's fine
Once again, kudos for the great conception

Regards
Sandra :-*

Somebody slap me hard whenever I decide to make a boneheaded move like not locking a thread like this immediately after its creation.

In addition to running out of sMerits and having my inbox blow up all day long, I'm finding that I'm wasting time reading posts by people who have no business asking for merits.  You might think you've got nothing to lose by asking for a review, but I've rapidly arrived at the point where I'm taking it personally that my time is being wasted.

Therefore, if you're posting just to get paid and don't put any effort into your shitty-English posts, don't ask me for a review.  I'm not even going to PM those members back with suggestions on how to improve, and their PMs will in fact be blocked.

That said, when I do get more sMerits I will pick up where I left off, which is with a list roughly 10 members long whose posts I have yet to review.  If you send me a PM after reading this, the list will probably have grown much longer, so be patient.

*slowly backs away, closing door behind him*

Why not?  Because then I'd have my inbox flooded with requests more so than it already is, and being a merit source would then become a full-time job.  In addition to that, it isn't a merit source's job to replenish other merit sources's sMerits; that's Theymos's job if he deems it necessary.

If you don't believe me about how popular offers of merit are, just try opening a thread announcing that you have, say, 50 merits to give away and to have people PM you.  Then you'd understand.

***I've updated the OP to modify my terms, which I figured I'd have to do as the requests started rolling in.  It's obvious that I need to spell things out as clearly as possible (though I thought I'd done a good job of that already) and to be a bit more of a hard ass than I wanted to be.

That's OK.  Most of you have seen the hard ass version of me already, especially when it comes to willful ignorance.***

I'm bumping this thread because in the past week I've been inundated with requests for post history reviews, and my sMerit supply simply can't keep up with what I'd give out if I had an unlimited supply (or even an extra 200-300 right now--are you there, Theymos?).

So instead of having to PM people individually or in a group--which I don't like to do for anonymity's sake--I'm making the announcement here that if you PMed me within the last 7 days it might take a while before I'm able to review your posts.  It's such a fucking pain in the ass when I'm stuck like this, and if Big Bro is reading this, perhaps he might think of me on a day when he's in a good mood and airdrop me some sMerits.

Also, word has obviously gotten around the gambling "community" that I offer this service, and I've been looking at members' merit profiles, i.e., where they've gotten merits from and who they sent them to.  I'm seeing a lot of the same names pop up again and again, and I'm warning you: if anybody is abusing the merit system and is trying to get me to facilitate said abuse, I will swoop down like some extinct flying-winged creature with razor sharp claws and will make a sandwich out of your eyes and lips. 

We've got some very good researchers on the forum who can link accounts far better than me, and I won't hesitate to ask for help from them if I start getting funny feelings.

In addition, I'm also raising my standards for quality posting in the gambling section since I'm seeing so many posts being made there, and many are obviously done just to satisfy the members' casino campaign's quota.  And remember: post length =/= post quality.

I've added an update to my rules, which is that I don't need reminder PMs and ask people not to send them.  Right now I'm absolutely slammed with requests for post history reviews, and I've been chronically short of sMerits.

Reminder: Read my rules and abide by them.  I'd also like to say that if you're a shitposter who, in my judgement, wouldn't ever be able to increase the quality of your posts (most likely because of skill in writing), I'll most likely send you a short PM telling you as much and then block your PMs.  Sorry I've got to be so harsh, but my offer and the responses I've gotten have turned this into an exercise in pure Darwinism.

I'm going to leave this thread open for a few hours in case anyone wants to reply.

Pharmacist, let me ask you a question.

About the third point in your rules, are you also going to ask people to tell you the list of that specific board? I want to avoid mistakes when sending you pm for the next review, so I hope I get the answer. If it was necessary for every time I asked for a review, then I would.

I'm not going to bust your balls too hard, but read:

I'm assuming that the flurry of requests I've gotten has been the result of me creating this thread--I can't see any other reason why both would have occurred almost simultaneously unless word spread (particularly in the gambling discussion community)--and so in going with that assumption I'm making a further one, that members have actually read my rules before PMing me.  I know you did, but you obviously didn't read closely enough, else you wouldn't have asked that question.

So please, as they used to say on TV back before all of you were born, "Reading is Fundamental".  RIF.

Just bumping this thread to let those members who've requested reviews that they're coming.  My source sMerits have been trickling in slowly, and it's a waste of time doing even one review if I've got less than 50--and preferably I'd like to have around 200 because that way I could do 4 reviews and hand out 50 merits to each member if they've earned it.  Long story short, it's much more efficient when I've got plenty of merits to give.

Also, right now my waiting list is 10 members deep so please continue to be patient--and I've no doubt that in about 8 hours from now that list will be even longer.

I'm going to leave this thread open for a bit just in case any of you want to comment.  I'm about to pass out in my chair, so I'll lock it back up when I awaken.

Man, you wouldn't believe the shitty week I've had.  I won't bore y'all with the details, as I have no doubt that none of you care (and rightfully so).  What I wanted to tell the community is that I've had a massive backlog of post history review requests, with new ones coming all the time, and a dearth of sMerits just to put the poop cherry on the big 'ol wang cupcake. 

I haven't checked to see how many sMerits I have right now, but I do plan on spending some serious time trying to distribute them to all of you who PMed me.  Since Theymos is being an insufferable dick on multiple fronts and hasn't increased my monthly sMerit allocation, I think I'm going to have to limit the number of them I send to any individual member when I'm doing reviews, i.e., I likely won't be handing out 50 merits per month on a single member anymore.  I'm going to sleep on it.

OK, I've taken a longer break than I thought I would from reviewing posts, and I apologize for that.  I just woke up not too long ago, so I need to get some coffee into me and wake up a bit, and then I hope to pick up where I left off in the very long list of members who've requested reviews.  Please note that said list is so long that I've paused the offer to new members for now, so if you've never requested one from me, now isn't the time to start--so please don't.

I'll restart it to new members if and when I get caught up and/or the PMs stop flooding my inbox.

K?  Have a nice day, now.

I am sure this message has been read by all who have sent you PM and they will obey it.
I myself can imagine how you face a long list that goes into your message inbox.

I hope your day is fun @The Spectical Chymist.

Oh yes. I am happy that your signature box is now filled. But it would be more happy if I could serve a cup of coffee for you because coffee is a favorite drink that always accompanies boredom while working.

https://i.imgur.com/tu5Dlvj.png

Cheers

Do you care if I join you taking some coffee ☕ as well maybe it will relief me from stress and family pressure around me?

Lol..

Don't mind me just joking anyway

I was one of the many who asked you to review a post I had and at that time I succeeded, but as far as I can see the second request failed. Don't mind me, for there are lots of people you should be reviewing by now and have a great day The Skeptical Chymis. ;D

Thank you sir for your full clarification but there's this i want to know, i have requested for a review before does it mean that i can still request for another one since i have previously requested during the first time you started reviewing, this was about 6 months ago and i have never requested again.
So is possible for me to request again?
Sorry for the stress sir @The Sceptical Chymist

I have noticing that you were not around, Welcome back from the Easter Break. According to Doctors, when one wake up in the night or early in the morning, he or she should not just get up and move straight to the outside, kitchen, or toilet but the person should have some rest for like 3 seconds so that the movement of the blood will settle down and the eyes will be opened clear to see road. Therefore, your rest is very much necessary. I greet you personally. Thanks you for the great work.

That's why you see so many bottles filled with piss in garbage cans and such.  Or maybe you don't, but I do.  And yeah, I'm on a semi-holiday until Thursday or thereabouts and then I'll be back in full force giving this forum the hell it deserves. 

By the way, I haven't paused my offer to everyone and meant to lock this topic but didn't.  It's just suspended temporarily to members who've never requested reviews before.  I'm sure that'll be as confusing as any other explanation I've given previously when I've gotten overwhelmed, but it's the best I can do.  I'm trying to chip away at the reviews, but I still haven't had my full sMerit allocation replenished (or I've used up most of it already).

Anyway, carry on!