Bitcoin Forum

Good day forum members, I have been on this forum for some weeks or months now and I haven't validated any of the rules guiding this forum, but there is one thing that disturbs my mind all the time and I need a clear answer to it.
Since am a newbie, can I merit any profile that is BANNED on this forum?
I am a bit confused that if I merit any profile that is banned I might get banned also or will I face other penalties outside banned?

Move this to meta. Scroll down the thread, you will see move topic beside lock topic, click on move topic.

It is possible to merit a banned account, but merit only quality posts.

Can you identify a ban profile if you see one? 
I don't think you will be banned for meriting a ban account. Merit is to be sent to the post that you find worthy of being merit. 
But I don't see any point in meriting an account and then banning it since it will be of no use to the account, so better still reserve the merit for more deserving posts, which you will always come across every single day when you walk around the forum. 

Yes, you can send merit to an account that has already been banned but it will just be a waste of merit and time. And I doubt if you'll be banned for that.


Yes, you can by using bpip extension on your desktop browser,  but if you only have an android phone then you can also use the extension by downloading kiwi browser.
I'll try to search for the tutorial and update my post.

Edit:

Here's the link to the thread. BPIP extention using method in Mobile Browser (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5436914.0)

No one will ban you for such actions and we do not have any rules governing such actions. The only thing is that you will waste your merits by giving them out to banned users. You can always check if this or that user is banned with the service BPIP (https://bpip.org).

P.S. Your topic in this section is an off-topic. Move it to Meta (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0).

First, you can't Merit accounts, you can Merit posts. As long as they aren't deleted and you don't have the board on ignore, you can Merit them. But you'll need sMerit to do so, and at the moment, you have none.

Merit is given to posts that were helpful or answered a question. Meriting a post of a banned user is not an offense in the forum but it might be seen as a waste of merit because it is useless to the poster. But it might not be totally useless because the member can be unbanned in the future. But I don't think I will merit a banned user's post except I don't know that he has been banned. It's not wrong but I am not just comfortable doing that.

There's no need meriting a ban account because that account remains inactive and useless as much as the account doesn't contribute to the forum anymore. So I will advised you sent those merits to a valuable user who contribute more to the forum than just a ban account. However your free though but is useless giving such account a merits.

As far as I know there are no rules in this forum that say that when you send or give merit to a banned account here you are violating the rules and policies of your platform.

      That's all that will happen because it's like you gave a flower to a dead person in the cemetery, I'm sorry, this is the illustration that was given as an example. Or maybe that will just give merit to those who you know are active and still able to contribute to this platform.

As long as it is permitted, it won't always be wasting anything. Some "most earned merit" members also spend their smerit on trivial things and they never think it's a waste of smerit. After all, not all constructive posts from banned accounts are plagiarism,at least they also occasionally use their minds. lol

No, otherwise many user (including few merit sources) in this page (Top senders to permabanned users, last 180 days (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=topsendban)) would already got banned or other penalty.


It's also possible the account changed changed (usually due to hack) where the new owner perform plagiarism.

I thought the question was, can a banned account send merit points if they have it, and then it would be a reasonable question.

Since there is no clear mechanism for identifying a banned account, there will be no penalty for sending merit points to that account.

Technically, unlike merit sources, you are allowed to do whatever you want with your sMerits you have, but some practices may cause negative trust (selling sMerits or sending them to an alternate account)

There is no doubt that what the OP is asking is possible, but is it possible for a banned account to send merits? I am primarily referring to permanently banned accounts - because they still have access to their accounts and can send and receive personal messages.

you can merit anyone as long as you have sMerit. you will not get banned or face any kind of penalties if you merited a user have been permanently banned. anyway, if you asked me it would be much better to merit someone who is active than those who have been banned.

No, you won't get banned but why would you even want to? Seems kinda futile to do so.

Its considered that for a person to merit a post then the person must have found such post worthy of being merited based on what receptive information that's seems to be beneficial to the person in question, so wether be it a banned or not banned account it's a thing of choice out of the worthiness of such post. But one thing I find wasteful is that such merit would be of nonuse to the receptor as such account has been banned and has no legitimacy within the forum activities to operate so it's better to not merit a banned post at all irrespective of how interesting such post is to the reader for the sake of avoidance of waste.

As of now, sMerits of permanently banned account can't be spent.

At the time when merit system was introduced it was possible then after sometime it's found that banned accounts too got airdrop merits based on their activity number and they used to abuse it by trading merits then theymos restricted banned accounts from sending merits but they can still receive merits.

I am trying to find that old thread about but not really able to find cause it's few years old thread if my assumption is right.

I do not consider it a total futile to send merits to inactive accounts. For instance when people talk about Satashi and the famous bitcoin for pizza buyer. Maybe also the HODLING posts guy, I could brag to them that I actually know where those people wrote and I personally sent merits to such monumental posts.
It might sound silly but I makes one feel among those that made the history even when the accounts are no longer active.

YES. Merit is not moderated so it means that there’s no punishment by the mods on whatever you do to your merit. You can only get a negative tag from DT if you use it on improper way but your account will not be ban by the mod.

The status of the account doesn’t matter if the post quality is good. Besides, you can’t see if the account is banned or not if you are not using Bitcointalk plugins like Bpip.org to see the status of the account. Merit is based on the post and not to the user who post it. Eyes on the post.

Why not, a banned account can be merited since it's all about what the user had done that left you a desiring touch base on the quality of the content to tye post made, but make sure that what you're giving merit to worth the standard for receiving merits, accounts like Satoshi and that if Hal Finney still receives merits while they have remained inactive for long or probably being banned, but in your case, the account you are meriting matters as the post you wanted to merit, but if a user got banned and you insist on giving such merit, what has it got to benefit you or the banned user account.

Nope dude. People shouldn't do that. That's not a reason to give -1 to someone else. It's not like if there is money involved in.
Oherwise, everyone could give -1 because everyone think others don't use the system correctly.
At best, it could be a neutral feedback but to be honest that doesn't even derserve it.
99% of the time it could be solved quickly by communicating each other. Send a friendly PM to the user and debate. Or something around.


Not moderated by the mods because after all that's not their job but it could be moderated by the admin.

This said, I agree with the remainder of your comment.

When you send merit to a band account it must be sent.  But this merit of yours will be a complete waste.  Because that account is not usable at all because it has been banned.  So this merit of yours will not be of any use. Since that account is banned I don't think anyone including you will intentionally give merit to it.  So if you accidentally send merit to a band account and if it's a good quality post.  Then there will be no problem with your account or there is no possibility of your account being banned for this reason

Depending on what mistake you did.....!
Here there are several cases of your account profile being banned and can't be retrieved or used.
1. plagiarism (copy/paste).
2. Ban Evasion.

Except:........!!!!!.

If you commit this violation.
Or this.
plagiarism (copy/paste).

It's possible that your other Alt accounts also have the same fate / are blocked.

To understand about the clarity of the rules/someone committing a violation and being blocked you can read here: Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.0).

You have explained correctly about how someone will be banned, but OP asked about other possibilities especially when he is sending merit to users who are already blocked. You are certainly right about the explanation, but the OP is not get banned just for sending merit to banned account. It was just waste, even if the posts he merited were really useful. Even though it's still possible for OP to be banned because of mistakes he might make in the future, but I things isn't because he sent merit to an account that has been banned.

Merits are meant for deserving posts not minding if the account is banned or active. It is funny to note that it is impossible to know if an account is actually banned or active by mere looking at a users profile, So no penalty whatsoever comes with meriting a deserving post. Quality and uniqueness should be the aim of giving out merit so if a post is deserving irrespective of the account's status then it is all fine.

I think he'll also be thinking in his mind; how well can I really identify a banned account?...maybe for that reason, if he ever had Smerits, he'll have to wait to be really sure he's not tryna cause unnecessary arousal...lol, the dude be so perspicuous...
Dude, do well to follow them Bpip links to be able to ascertain a banned profile Least youget screwed by tryna be applauding...Yeah? "Screwed".. cus that's what it feels like wasting resources when you don't even have anyone left.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

I'm thinking the same way, it might OP think it's a waste of resources (smerit) when meriting a banned account, or even an inactive account.  My advice on this is just installed [β] BPIP Extension: user info & extra features add-on/extension, Firefox/Chrome (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5224821.0), you can manage different features on you web extension such as like this,
https://i.imgur.com/BowCzuj.png

In this way, you can easily spot a banned account like this and it's worth meriting active accounts.
https://i.imgur.com/eMuiBEW.png

Merits are tickets to level up your account so I prefer to give it to someone who has good standing in the forum so he continues to give quality posts, its a way of telling him to continue posting this kind of stuff I consider it a vote of confidence to his post, every merit to me is important so its not worth giving it to ban accounts.
There are a lot of members active with no bad feedback that are quality posters so between the two I prefer the first one.

It is correct that merit is giving to the post and not minding the account that made the post. And it is also correct that you may not know a banned account by mare looking at it, unless you use some third party extensions and you will know that such an account is banned.

I remember when I was new in this forum that Ratimov had to help so many of us to rank up to the next level. But sometimes so many of the new people he help got banned and he was topping the list of users that merited banned account.(I cannot remember the thread)
But the consequences was he sometimes had to drop in the list of generous users in the forum. But that has not stopped him from helping people to rank up.

 Nice one on this @LoyceV, you can't merit an account but a post, not just a post but a worthy post and a deserving one as the case maybe. I still don't get it why someone would be thinking of giving merit to an account that's not functioning. Is never done here and I can beat my chest on that, it is better you do something new that would get you a merit and removing the mindset of meriting a dead account.

So we can still give merit to a banned account, but to give it seems in vain because that person's account has already been banned, is it better to give merit to a better post, even though the rank of that person's account is still relatively new.

Anyone can give you merit for your good quality posts. And in the same case you can also give merit to anyone no problem. In that case  if your account is banned. there will be no problem to that person to whom you have given merit. or if the account of the person from whom you have received merit is banned then there will be no problem with your account because, merit receivers has nothing connection with merit senders personal account problem.

No, if the account from which you got the merit is banned then there is no chance of your account getting banned or you will not get any penalties for his account problem.
But remember,  if that banned account is your multi and if it is banned for any illegal activity like plagarism, scam etc. and it is proof that your account is fully related then your account may have problem.

Forum doesn't moderated scam, so you wouldn't get banned for scamming anyone in this forum.

The main problem is the account was been banned and if you create an alt account, it's broke the rule of ban evasion. It doesn't need to have merit sharing from your alt to main account to get banned, but if someone have expose it or the forum administrator know it, you will get banned.

I was somewhat surprised by this question. Are there really so few good posters on the forum that the OP seems to want to give credit to someone who was banned? As a rule, those who fall under the ban have any violations in their history. OP, do you want to support a spammer, a scammer, or someone else whose posts you've been impressed with? Try to find another "living" example for yourself so as not to wear the "flowers" of merit to the graves of those who are no longer here.

You can still give merit to a banned account and there is no prohibition for that, but you must still give merit to quality posts from the banned account so that the merit you have is useful and not wasted.

If you already know that account is banned then why you want to waste your merits on them because they will not rank up or contribute more to the forum so it's complete waste of time.

This has been discussed earlier also and the answer remains same that merit should be delivered to posts which are deserving and unintentionally if you have not downloaded the extension you can give it to banned members and there's nothing wrong in it as you have given it to good post.

Right. Why give to someone to whom merits will no longer help. There are many other users who deserve this encouragement and need similar support. This is a senseless waste of merit points, which OP already has a little. I would try to distribute them more intelligently, and not scatter them in vain in this way.

Theoretically, I don't think that merit of a banned account is a clear promotion of a scammer or spammer. Hypothetically, even such an account can have good posts. The probability is low, but still. In practice, it is unlikely that there will be good posters among the banned accounts and I would not recommend OP or anyone to encourage them with their merits. Because it doesn't make much sense or benefit.

Yes, there's no rule that says you can't do it, meaning you can earn some of their posts with merit.
It's just not much use because basically the merit you spend on them will not re-enter the merit cycle considering that the account can no longer be used other than just watching.

Every banned account is an account that break the rules, the question is probably the same as that asked by @lovesmayfamilis, what's the point of supporting them? There are thousand of other users who deserve that merit more, so try to use it wisely.

The same understanding that giving merit to an account that has been banned will indeed be wasted because he will not contribute again in the future, unless the OP really wants to give merit to that post but in reality it is his right because there will be no ban whatsoever.

Maybe he didn't find the thread so asked about it here but luckily many members provide even more detailed explanations so this will be understandable to the OP already knowing it is pointless giving to banned accounts.

Continuing to use the BIP extension will really help find out which accounts are banned in their profile.

Still you can send a merit to any post of an active account here in forum and also you can merit the post created by the banned account. But always remember a banned account cannot post or message all they can do is scroll and read. So it is waste of merits if you send them. And also I am agree with other user above who said that if you know already that account is banned then why you still merit one of his/her post?

When it comes to distributing merit, sometimes you come across a post, and if it piques your interest, you can leave a merit on it. That's just to show how interesting or beneficial the post was to you. Ban accounts are not indicated; It just have the usual profile, just like every other account, so you can't be banned for taking an action you are not even aware of (like meriting a post when you are not aware that the account is banned).

Since banned accounts are not revealed to forum members as banned, it won't be anyone's faulty if they merited such posts as that of a banned user. The quality of the post could be an attribute that made it irresistible for a member to award some merits to the post. It doesn't change anything, but if a user is aware that a specific account has been removed from the forum, it's a bad stewardship to waste merits on their posts. Hence, the forum doesn't have any penalty for that, if not, they would have disabled the merit button on any post associated to a banned account.

As far as I know if you earn merit from any account then there is no problem. and if any account has good quality full post merit cent then no problem. Many times it has been seen that the account you have sent merit to. That account has been banned but there will be no damage to your account. and you won't face any penalty so I'm sure you can post quality posts and earn merit.

No, you aren't silly. Exactly the perspective I hold. I wanted to quote that comment from hilariousandco before I saw your apt response to it. I think the relevant thing is the post being merited and not "account". If I see a post that appeals to me, I don't bother going to find out if the account owner is active or not, or banned or not. I just merit it. Banned accounts and inactive accounts share the same peculiarity. Look at those inactive accounts you mentioned and the loads of merits they got because of the relevance and importance of the posts they made.

You have a point. Personally, I don't really mind giving merits as long as it contributes to the topic ans as what you've said it id also relevant, but it is also useless right coz banned accounts as far as I know cannot give merits so it will be a waste. It doesn't changed the fact of course that some if their posts brought contribution in the forum though arguable but that fact alone is enough proof to be acknowledged and be given recognition as a form of merit, so I guess it's not that big of a deal.

If we already know that account will already banned then for sure we won't give them merits because of the reason that it will waste the merit circulation. But we can not deny the fact that before those user being banned they make a good or a quality post or let say they have done a good work that contribute  on the forum. Which is worthy enough to give some merits and this is what happens why some banned account still got merits even though they are banned.