Bitcoin Forum

I was introduced to this forum by a brother five months ago and I always call him to ask questions about the do's and don't's of this forum but I think it's high time I started asking the right questions here by myself, hence this post.

I've made almost a hundred posts and yet I have only few merit, what am I doing wrong? Are my posts not quality enough? If yes, please I need corrections and guidelines to grow my account. I truly need words of encouragement and affirmation that am on the right track to enable me step up in the game and I also need you guys to help me point out some of my posts that aren't so good, if there are any, so I can learn from my mistakes and do better.

I would have sent a direct message to some senior men here to get some information but this place isn't like social media and I don't know how to, as a newbie that I am, I know most of us will tell me about rules and regulations, plagiarism, spamming, but y'all don't have to worry about that because am a rule keeper and I avoid plagiarism and the rest of it like a plague.

You just started and your primary intention is to learn not earn via forum.

I would say, you just made 94 posts prior this one and got 6 merit but already tired of it then you are doing it for wrong intentions.

Merits will be awarded quality posts but another fact is not every post created on bitcointalk has merits. You maybe posting in wrong boards or you still in the learning phase to educate someone else.

Stop looking yah post stats and merit stats and focus on learning more about BTC and how this forum work and all that. Ones you know you have start learning and you can see your self improving and your post more impacting. You would see that your merits stats would start increasing, one thing you need to know also Is that not all quality post that are  being merited and it's not fixed that any quality post you create must be merited. Meriting is personal choices of any users ones they find your post interesting to them you. They may merit it.

You already get 6 merits on some of your post which means there’s already a guide for you on what’s to do next to receive. You are only posting on B&H and your local board which means your post has less exposure to be find by merit source/sender.

I suggest to keep contributing on your local board and to other board which you are good at and report your unmerited post that you think deserves a merit to merit source threads. You can’t expect to earn a merit every time you post since you are still newbie. Better to focus on your local board contribution since your board has a very good merit to post ratio and has an active merit source.

I think you are misunderstanding me here, like you said merit will be awarded quality posts and that's why I made this post, I only want to know if am doing it right or wrong,  you are also missing the part that I said members should help me point out some of my posts that aren't good enough so I can learn from it and see what am doing wrong, you also talked about posting in the wrong boards, how do I know the right or wrong boards? I asked a question that requires answers and words of encouragement, I never said I was tired. Thank you for your response, I appreciate.

A glance through your post history shows that majority of your posts were made in your local board. If there is a shortage of merit circulation in that board then you would not be getting much of it. I would not advise you start posting in other boards you are not comfortable in simply to get merits, that can lead to spam and get you on ignore lists, which is the opposite of what you want.

You first have to stop looking at merits as the determinant of quality here. What quantifies your time spent here is the amount of knowledge you are acquiring, not merits you are getting. The more you learn, the better your posts get.

- Jay -

Earning merit is subjective, people give merit because it supports their idea and at the same time get new supporting facts about the idea, while others just feel happy or funny about what they read and they give the person merit. Most members here give merit if the post or reply is informative and not a simple generic reply that anyone can give. 

If there is a topic to discuss, members will not hesitate to give the post merit if it is done with research and visual examples or an in-depth explanation of a fact.  But I would suggest to keep on improving oneself and don't think too much of merit.  Try to help other members who are asking for clarification and be the first one to inform the forum members of the changes and updates that are going around the cryptosphere.  I believe this kind of topic or reply is mostly the one to get noticed and has a high chance of getting merit.

I think you have to understand it yourself that since your post is not getting Merit, then maybe your post is not having enough quality to get Merit, moreover, another point is that your posts may have skipped the eyes of Merit sources.My first advice to you is that firstly explore the meta board and read more than posting and know what is a qualityfull post. Then when you can post quality flowers then your merit ratio will be higher. Moreover, you kindly read the description below each board to know whether you are posting on the right board.
Moreover, you can read this list, which will be useful for you in the future.

You made almost a hundred non-quality posts that have not brought any achievements in education or even an effective education question. I went through your previous posts, but I discovered that all of your posts are not quality posts, which I saw in one of your  quote  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5412657.msg63597296#msg63597296) that is so irritating in the forum and it has been discouraging, it is called  pyramid quote (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3749076.0) which if truly you engage in research and asking questions you won’t do such quote, although you are still new in the forum and you don’t have to focus more on gathering merit but gathering knowledge which will help you and make you achieve more than you expected in the forum.

This is the way I see it after going over your posting history to some extent (for the benefit of throwing some light):

Since 85% (81 posts) of your overall posts are on the Nigerian local board, and though they may be comprehensible to the outside (the board) reader, I’m not keen on making much of a statement over them. For those posts, it would probably be better to get some feedback from your local board.

Your 14 posts on Beginners & Help (12%) are essentially recent. They seem to me rather opinion based in general terms, but with little connection to bitcoin, which should be the pivotal topic on Beginners & Help. Beginners & Help, as of some time ago, seems to be quite populated with topics of the sort, where it’s easy to add a comment, but likely difficult to obtain Merits due to what I inwardly call a social/kumbaya focus, as opposed to a bitcoin focus.

The other two stray posts on Reputation and Gambling are thin opinions.

I’d probably focus on two things: one reading a few books on bitcoin, which should enable you to get a better grasp and confidence on bitcoin matters, and to specially facilitate participating with greater ease in bitcoin focused discussions. The other would be to do so at a smaller scale, focusing on topics treated on given threads. It’s normal not to know all the specifics on any given topic, but reading and cross-referencing should enable one to build a base for discussion with a referenced base. Bear in mind that the idea is to facilitate discussion/questions/answers/whatnot, and not to, as we all know, copy/[spin]/paste content.

It goes without saying that things take time, and rushing is generally not a great stand to take. Even the top merited accounts can have a ratio of merited posts that is not too far from the 10% figure (url= https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5434211.msg61579483#msg61579483]sample data as of a year ago – see last column in data[/url]), which doesn’t mean that 90% of their posts belong in the scrapyard. For newcomers, one can only expect the ratio to be well below these marks to begin with (for the most).

As to the right boards or the wrong boards to post in, there are boards that are more prone to receive merits than others because more people with sMerits may roam them as a habit, but above all, it should generally (not always) be content that drives attention. Obviously, other factors have a lot to say besides content: writing style, clarity, tone, novelty, post placement (i.e. page 20 of a thread in Bitcoin Discussion is likely not a good spot), vivacity of the topic being discussed, and so forth.


Note: If you want to see stats related to merits/board and such, you can play around with the data on the Merit Dashboard (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ddmrddmr/viz/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/PersonalSummary), but it wouldn't be my first stop right now.

Most of your posts are on the Nigerian local board, and we all know there isn’t a lot of merit going around there. Even with the poor merit circulation on the local board, so far all your merits have come from there. The few posts you have on Beginners & help are applications on merit threads. I think it’s time you start participating more in the general boards. Don’t be afraid to engage in discussions. You once said the forum is like a school to you, (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5482788.msg63569635#msg63569635) then you should get busy with your homework.

Getting six merits in this forum shows that you are not doing badly. There are so many accounts with more than your posts that have zero merit. However, there is a need to improve your post so that you can get more merits. If you learn more, you will write more quality posts, and more merits will be your reward. My advice is that you should take time a read about Bitcoin and how the forum works. Visit other boards and don't concentrate more on your local board. If your post is enlightening or impactful you will attract merits.

Asking the question on this board is a good idea to avoid being accused of unsolicited messages. Since you know and keep most of the forum's rules, focus more on learning and not merits. If you focus more on merit you might not last in the forum because you might become discouraged if it doesn't come the way you expect.

To increase benefits and activity, it is important to create informative and high-quality posts. Try to share your opinion, ask questions, participate in discussions. Use clear and competent language. The more you contribute to society, the more you will receive in return. Good luck!

The problem is that you are viewing this forum as a career where you rank up, join a signature campaign and earn money, but in order to rank up you have to actually not care about ranking up, signature campaigns and just be enthusiastic about Bitcoin and provide your own valuable input in topics. So instead of wasting your time trying to earn merit and join a campaign, maybe refocus on finding success elsewhere? Like learning some skills that would allow you to earn money for long term in the real world.

First of all stop running after merits. If your sole motive is to earn merits, believe me you won't earn any. Just be natural. Try to engage with others in a constructive, informative manner. But most of all read a lot what other says. Bear in mind that, merits are given in exchange for contribution to the forum. Quantity won't matter here, whether it's 100 posts or 1000 posts. So focus on maintaining your posts quality and you'll be good to go.

Even if you don’t have anybody to ask questions, then you can just make use of the search function, and if you can’t find answer to your question, then you can create a thread on the forum here just as you did and ask any question which you want to ask, am sure your will get right answer to your question here, don’t be scared that maybe you are new here, just make sure you follow the forum rules and regulations, and you free to post.

It’s not about posting always, it’s about making quality posts that will be useful to the forum members or the forum itself, so if you have made multiple posts and people fine it useless, the you won’t be merited, so it’s better you post less and make quality posts, rather than posting more, and making rubbish posts. And also maybe people that find your post useful to them don’t have any smerit left with them, they won’t be able to merit you.

Why will you have to send personal message to some people, it’s better you Create a thread, let’s everyone makes their contribution, don’t be surprised that what you will learn from low rank member like you if you create a thread, you won’t learn it from high rank members which you are going to send personal message to.

At your stage or your vision in this forum shouldn't be an pursuing for merits rather focus on learning how to build yourself with your Bitcoin journey which is primarily aim and objective why this platform was discovered.
Merits would come when you come up with the right and quality post and it is usually unpredictable of which post would earn you merits.
Hence... For coming up with quality posts, you can spend time going through posts of those whom are experienced in the forum. Specially those or higher ranks.
You can also learn by asking questions just as you did and it course make consultations through those whom are knowledgeable in this forums platform

You arent doing it wrong the fact that you have received merits means you been able to do good post. Its not that everyone or anyone should always merit you based on your post unless that one is really good and liked by many or lets just say helpful to them. Many newbies doesnt even have merits received inspite of hundreds of post. Maybe try to improve topics you are posting or introduced something unique, or yet engage with other topic and show them that you know or can help whenever theres a question topic at hand.

looking at your post history, I see that the majority of your posts are on Nigerian boards, try reading posts and joining discussions on boards that you don't usually visit, learn new things from those boards, and share what you learned with people who are asking.

also, don't get discouraged if you don't get merit in a lot of your posts, your priority should be learning and self-improvement.

edit: I just saw what DdmrDdmr posted, I suggest following what he wrote.

You write dominantly in the Nigerian local board, so you should probably look for an answer there. They understand you better there and your compatriots will recognize if any of your posts deserve merit.

The rest of what you wrote is mainly a discussion about merit and how to earn it, or you applied in threads for merit. Such posts are honestly not worth getting merit.
You should relax and enjoy this forum, merit will come as a reward for your dedication.

Generally, you must make good posts (with good quality or shows that you put your efforts in it to contribute something interesting in the community), and you need another condition which is some members will read your post and have sendable merit to give it to you. Sometimes, readers see your post is good but they don't have sendable merit at that moment and they will move on. Very few members will bookmark your post and return later to merit it, they are likely merit sources.

I don't know what you did in past few months but if you actually spent your time to learn, you will see some pinned threads in Beginners & Help board which is a board you posted this thread.

I believe if you read those pinned threads, you will find answers there. So if you have yet read them, now it's time for reading.

I guess you can very well answer your own question. You only need to take a look at those merited posts. Hundreds and hundreds of posts here earned merits. There must be something in them. And I guess you're capable enough of knowing it.

And while there's more than one reason for a post to deserve a merit, you must have noticed what's common among those users who have earned the most merits. BPIP.org has a list of the top merit earners on the forum. You can take a look at these users' profiles and their posts to have an idea of what it takes to earn merits.

I understand the feeling of thinking that you're giving your best and not getting the desired result that you expect, it can be discouraging, but that is the more reason why you shouldn't give up but continue pushing and getting better, eventually what you seek will come to you. I'd advise you to focus on learning about Bitcoin and increasing your knowledge here in the forum, because there's so much more to cryptocurrency than having merit and ranking up in the forum. The knowledge and experience that you're gaining from this forum can make you rich, if you apply it in your crypto trading or investment. 

After checking your profile I can say you are mostly active in Nigeria (your local board) which I don't know why is not supportive to you because they really support talent and those who contribute to the overall forum or the local community. Besides the Local board, you are only active in beginners and help, and this is your first topic outside the local board, and you made around 2 topics only in the local board. If I consider the support of the Nigerian community, and you are not getting one, that would mean you are not even contributing to the Local board while 90% of your posts are on the local board.

And you are not even posting in other sections, like BTC discussion or whatever the most suits you best or you like the most, just visit more sections and try to contribute by following the rules and you will get rank, I suggest your first and only priority on this forum should not be to get merits, because going after merits will not bring any, you have to go after contribution and building your image then you will automatically start to get merits.

There are actually some posts that are good but not meritable enough. And probably you fall on that. But the fact that you aren’t getting good amount of merits, then the only key is to improve your knowledge so that you can also improve your post and add more relevant information that will attract other members to give some merits to your post. However, since you’re still a newbie, then learning should be your primary focus. Take your time to learn and study the forum, when you’re good enough, merits will easily follow.

You should not post in this forum just to earn merits. This forum is about sharing knowledge and learning through reading. For making this forum good and reliable is that the posts that are low quality or spam post will be deleted. I advice you should start contributing to this forum by posting high quality posts which is good enough to get merited. I was once like you before where I only post to meet the required post count because of signature campaigns in ICOs but didn't even reach member rank much faster and also in full member rank until I stop doing it and here I am reached hero member rank.

Don’t be too obsessed with merits as it’s not the most important thing in the forum but focus on learning. Never stop from doing DYOR most particularly on the difficult topics you encounter in the forum. Eventually you will notice that your posting quality has improved and that you got to add more meaningful information on your post. I was also like you before but what I did is I just do my part posting without breaking some rules, and also making consistent research. Try to read some hero or legendary post as well as it can give you some ideas on how to improve your post. Do it more often and you will be amazed what you have become, until receiving merits will slowly taking place.

I don't mean to be rude, but do you think other forum members have nothing better to do than
"point out some of my posts that aren't so good" so you can get enough merit?

Every time newbies ask the same questions (requests) related to the same problems and want others to do your “work”. All the necessary information (previous discussions on similar topics) is available on the forum. Don't be lazy and study on your own. This is not a kindergarten where they will personally babysit you. Look at other accounts (their messages), compare with yours, analyze and draw appropriate conclusions. Everything will work out if you don’t wait for outside help, but show activity yourself.

You already have 6 merits and this is not the worst result. Many people have not received this for years, but you have saved up in less than six months. So, go ahead, amigo.

In the early phase, every new comers focus is on reading and learning, so it's normal for a newbie/jr member to get a little merit. Limited knowledge greatly affects the quality of posts, so the best advice for you is to keep learning about wallets (there are many types of wallets), private keys, and practice some tutorials on privacy and security...it's the best way forward.

Midway through, you'll encounter difficulties, and that's the best time to ask in topics related to your problem. Discuss like humans do, don't overly focus on merit. Over time, your beneficial and informative discussions will naturally appear. That's where you'll earn merit. Don't rush in learning... enjoying it is more fun. I am sure you will be able to get through this difficulty.  ;)

Obviously your primary reason for being here is to gather merits. You don't need to beg for merits, you will get it when people deem fit to merit your posts. For now, I'd advice you have an open mind to learn, the merits will come eventually.

Was your primary purpose of joining this forum to earn money?

If yes, you will have to learn the ways and become worthy of a position that will reward you because it's not just free money but you get rewarded for your knowledge, your insights, your time, and only if it's worth it.

If no, you shouldn't worry about Merits if your primary purpose of joining the forum wasn't to earn money but to gain knowledge because you don't need a higher rank for that and you can learn and grow without even having Merits or a high rank in the forum.

Why have strong desire to earn merit though? I guess there is more than what you are telling us, I believe the real reason why you came on this forum was to earn via signature but I doubt you will do pretty well because your whole mind is focus on quickly ranking up and you are still a newbie, it takes time to rank up.

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You need to calm down and improve your contribution, just be active on the forum and forget merits for now, when you are able to create high quality topics and posts you will get merited, you won't see it coming, it will just happen and this is better than rushing to earn.

If you keep rushing you will do something wrong, been slow is the way to get better on here, learn from others by reading their posts, ask interesting questions, bring new ideas, if you just want to make money on here you won't have a lot to share, you are doing it wrong.

First of all, you're welcome to the forum.
Secondly, I don't know what your brother who introduced you to the forum told you was the main aim and purpose of this forum, but if he told you that the major aim of joining bitcointalk is to focus on earning merits, joining a signature campaign and start earning some money, then I'm afraid your brother has given you a wrong information. The only wrong this I see you doing here is being here for the wrong purpose.

Yes, it's true that when you've earned a good number of merits and grew your account to a certain position or rank, you can join a signature campaign and then start getting paid, that's actually true but it shouldn't be your driving force to participate in activities here on the forum. As the name of the forum Bitcointalk implies, its a forum where people come to talk, learn and share knowledge about Bitcoin as well as other crypto currencies and also some general topics. This is what we do here and if your contributions to the forum is good enough and worth meriting then you get appreciated by being merited, and that's how you earn merits.

Now as a New member here that's just been a few months old here, I'll assume you haven't gathered enough knowledge yet, except maybe you already have enough knowledge about crypto before joining the forum, either ways, as a new member here, rather than struggling to post and hunt for merits, I advice you dedicate your time and energy to learning how the forum works and also about crypto. And after you've learned enough then you can start contributing by posting informative posts, and then people will see the meaning in your posts and then you start making merits without stressing yourself. It's as easy as that

I know you sometimes look at the legendary member's merit stats and you begin to wonder how they magically earned soooo many merits and then you start investigating on how you can earn so much merits too, it's not magic mate, those people dedicated time and energy into learning and now their sacrifices are paying off so do the right thing and you'll also see the same results.

You only create three threads: two on your local board, which is the Naija local board, and the third one is this thread you created. However, merits are not given to low-quality posts, and you are only active on two boards, which are the beginners and help board and your local board. All your posts on the beginners and help board are not worthy of merit, and for your local board, nobody from another local board will come to your local board and send some merit since they also have their own board, so for you to earn merit here, you need to work for it.

And currently, you still have a lot to learn because your posts are still lacking in quality, so I think you should go and learn and have your own post style. The reason I said you should go and learn is because you are still learning and active on only beginner and help boards, and one board cannot give you merit all the time, so I think you should focus and learn and stop thinking of earning merits.



Are you still a newcomer here because your account has been registered since September, which I think is enough for you to understand everything about the forum. All these things you mentioned are against the forum rules and regulations, but what you need to understand is that obeying the forum rules is not what will make you earn merit, but creating meaningful, helpful, and educational content for the forum members to achieve something from what you write is what will make you earn merit

You actually sound funny by telling him to get busy with his home work since he said the forum is like a school however, you've given him a clear view of telling him to be more active in the general board rather than only focusing on his local board of which the Nigerian local board doesn't have much merit sources though it's just so funny how newbies become so impatient that after they've made some certain number of posts and didn't get merits they start panicking and creating threads about not getting enough merit even when they feel they've made quality posts.

Well, to add to what you've said, I knew how long it took me before my posts started gaining merit so one thing I've observed about the forum is that inasmuch as you're making good and quality posts, no matter how long it takes the posts to be Merited it would still be Merited one day even at a day you never thought it would come because definitely, when a thread or Post is being made, not every one that finds it suitable enough to gain merit as some users may actually see it and walk away while others that sees it as helpful and informative may merit it if they have smerit or merit sources come across it and award merit to it, so the forum is open enough for every one to see and monitor the activities of each other and to give reward (merit) where necessary and also to caution people who ain't getting it right so all amounts to being active and give constructive opinion and ideas and also requires patience and perseverance before a favourable success can be achieved.

Since you posted your post as wrong or high quality it means that you have the ability to understand which post is high quality and which post is low quality. Read the posts you have made on your profile and try to understand what kind of posts you have made. If you feel that your post needs to be improved, focus on improving your post. There are many members in the forum and every member is posting regularly in this forum and maximum member among each member is posting quality in this forum. If you expect merit in return for every quality post, you are wrong. You will not be disappointed as much as you try to give something better in the next post. The more you try, the better your post quality will be and you won't have to worry about merit when you post quality up to regular standards.

In life you must need to sacrifice your time or use your time wisely. What you get in life depend on your effort. As your name implies @city hunter, I can see you came to hunt merit to rank up and join signature. For you to succeed in life you must Work hard. Not only hard but bringing out the best in you. There are things we haven't discovered in our life but due to lack of zeel and lack of focus has made us not to achieve it. As I went through your post I discovered that you are only chasing thread where they distribute merit. Do you know that everybody you see here that ranked up worked effortlessly day and night without sleeping just to make sure we achieve something tangible. So coming here to say such thing is just like trying to show case your nakedness you should be greatfull your brother introduced you. That is how we all where also introduce and we picked up and learn everyday so go and learn new things and add value to the forum not only taping from others.

You don't need to send any messages to other people, you can learn by observing every thread created by seniors and how they can get merit easily. At first it is difficult and requires effort, but when you find the rhythm it will be easy to get it. Not just commenting and getting merit, but more than that. This depends on where you comment, your post and the knowledge you provide for a thread.

So we have another merit farmer in here. To get more merit first thing you need to do is stop posting for merit. Trust me i got more merit on posts where i did not expect to get merit than the post i made to get some nice shiny merits. Use this forum like you use other social media platforms just keep interacting with other people with knowledge and facts so that they learn something from you and drop some nice merit in your post. Still you won't get merit in all of your posts because many good posts just don't catch the eye of the merit sources and remain unmerited.

Does any post made by any of the forum members deserve merit before they could begin to know that, they are making quality posts? 

OP, you should know that we are all here to share knowledge about crypto and other life-related topics, so worrying only about earning merits shouldn't be your primary concern; instead, you should know that everyone is posting in the best way they can while also learning from it. 

Merit should be an added bonus to our posts, not something that defines us or indicates that we are not doing things correctly in the forum.

Yes, here it will be less effective if you send a PM to senior members to ask several questions, because there are various reasons why they don't respond. Actually, it's more effective to open a thread if you have some things to ask, technical or otherwise. And you can also often use the "search" feature to look for information about various things, not only related to the rules and what you have to do in this forum. but there are several things you might have in mind to ask, and it turns out they have already been discussed here. So, the "search" feature is indeed as important as adding insight.

And also one thing that is important when you are on this forum is your consistency in continuing to try as hard as possible in making posts and improving them. Try to make posts that are informative, it doesn't always have to be an open thread, but provide opinions and responses through replies or quotes in several posts, with post content that is more informative, has the source included, or posts that are solution enough to help other memes. Consistency is important because all the memes here are also learning the same thing, namely struggle and progressing optimally and continuously.

You would have received numerous responses to your post, including advice on how to improve yourself and grow in the forum. What I will add is that if your primary goal in joining this forum is for something other than to improve yourself in this community and understand what bitcoin entails, you will have a difficult time ranking up. Ranking up will happen when you begin to do the right things, but don't focus too much on it so that your enthusiasm for ranking up in the forum is not diminished.


It is best not to send personal messages to the forum's high-ranked members. Everything you need to know about the forum has already been posted and pinned to each board, depending on what you want to learn about. Not everyone likes to receive  personal messages, and publicly asking questions in the forum will benefit other forum members who are unfamiliar with the subject. Stick to the rules and do a lot of self-study about bitcoin and the cryptocurrency space to help you grow in the forum.

Even though this could ve a possible makeup story which is something that we are already used to on this forum, since many other newbies who want to attract the attention of the members of the forum always come up with make-up stories just to gain attention and any other possible favor from the forum members and m for that this doesn't impressive me in any bit, but then i am not denying the newbies having the ability and i to control to follow up.

It doesn't matter how many posts and threads you make; the merit system relies on the quality of posts/topics that are most informative and beneficial. The key is not to despair and continue building your experience and learning from reliable sources. Then, you have many different boards in the forum to post on. Do not focus on one board. Your posts and threads on other boards may be more accurate and appealing to members of the source of merit. Indeed, the Nigeria board is crowded with members. I think it is among the top boards on the forum in terms of posts and members, and it is possible that there is a shortage of merits there. I wish you success.

Do not be static, learn from all boards.
It is not easy as a newbie to be able to navigate through different boards to make useful posts, especially on boards you are not really conversant with. This is where you have to step up your game by learning.  You do not have to ignore posts you have no knowledge about, even if you are not joining the conversation,  just read what other members are saying and with time you will be able to join conversations.

I was once a newbie and I fully understand that feeling you get when it feels like your efforts are not being appreciated.  Then it occurred to me that I was not being versatile enough  because I concentrated on only the few boards I had little idea about. You can be making hundreds of posts in a board where your posts are not appreciated, whereas there is a board out there seeking for what you possess.

I also looked at the OP's post history. If you want opinions, then my opinion is that you are afraid to learn about Bitcoin or do not want to. All the posts that were sent to Merit sources for review are far from discussing crypto.
We can understand that for many, it is difficult to start learning, but you claim that these are not social networks in which everything is discussed. The forum has areas that are interesting for people to read. Your posts so far contain discussions of life or general conclusions. Try asking and walking more purposefully.
I see one newbie like you (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=3489106) doing this; he is very actively communicating on issues that interest him in the topic (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5132720.msg63618270#msg63618270).

Based on your last words, would you like the same interlocutor?

I will tell you not to be discouraged with the forum. You are even lucky to have earned a merit this early considering you are not coming from a tech background. Many of us that joined this forum for the knowledge spent months post and never earned merits but we were not discouraged.  I have left this forum on several occasions because of the frustration of not being able to make sense woth posting, however, I always found reason to return because the knowledge and information repository of this forum is beyond imagination.

My simple advice is that you should not despair because with time you will be able to meet you objectives here and the forum will begin to make sense to you. If you have the ambition of earning so soon, I will suggest you drop it and first build yourself with the right knowledge to be able to work for the pay.

Meanwhile, you got enough response regarding this thread, but let me share my opinion too.

You should spend more time on reading than writing to learn more about Bitcoin, blockchain technology, and everything. I said not every post got merits too which you missed to read or you didn't take that point and jumped to the conclusion that if you made a quality post then you should be rewarded merit but it doesn't work like that. Someone has to read that post and if they think it is helpful for them or someone else then they will send you merits.

You are free to post on every board but I excluded from posting in most sections where spammers invade and keep beating the dead horse like in discussion boards or economics but I do read where I don't post and get the insights if I find it helpful.

Another factor, engage in the discussions, don't just post and then move to another thread.

Hmm, seems like there was a mentor for you before but honestly most of the time we get to know about the system by interacting with it and that is how I grew to this point, you should explore by yourself and ask questions & answer this is how you'll get about the system on the same time there's nothing wrong if you have fewer merits, because mostly people merit threads, and natural engagements.

I'm not able to directly help you but here's a tip for you make sure to participate in new topics in early time and make your posts full of engagement points and discrete/useful information. participate in discussions actively and share something unique in your domain it will help you get the mods, and merit sources at the same time best way to grow on the forum is your local community which can support you well in learning and growing on the forum.

I believe spending five months here in the bitcointalk forum should have been enough time for you to start understanding things better in this forum, especially about the roles and regulations that guided the forum. Instead of even asking your brother about do or undo, you should have just created a thread and asked, and you will get the answers here correctly.

It is not about the number of posts that you made that can determine the number of merits; it is all about the quality of your post. There are some accounts here with a very small number of posts but have received enough merits, so if you want to contribute something great to the forum, you will receive a good number of merits.
 
In fact, why are you eager to rank up your account? Or is it because you want to participate in the signature campaign? Yes, nothing bad, but I will not encourage you to hunt for merit around the forum. If that is your plan, you will later regret it because you will not learn properly here, and that may even affect you when you get the opportunity to participate in the signature campaign because you end up spamming and lack good knowledge.




If it's all about learning here, I don't think sending a personal message is the proper thing to do; in fact,  why will you even think of sending a personal message to someone? It will even be better to create threads than personal messages because it will take time for some members to read and reply to your messages.

One thing you failed to realize is that,
You ain’t here to impress no one but to better yourself. It doesn’t really have to be just about your Bitcoin or crypto investment choices and how you manage it but, your life as well. Without asking specific questions as in OP about how to merit fish because, this is just how I interpret it, you @OP having to try and correlate your post to merit in a ratio, that’s a statistics available on BPIP.org but, doesn’t really work in a particular way, you just have to build yourself to be a better writer.

Do your thing and when your not getting the feedback your expecting, be more conserved and ensure each time you have to say something, you see the utmost necessity in it and have it written in such a way that, it’s easy to understand. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be a little figurative in your writings but be on point.

Don’t make your posts yo be particulate on merit, these tricks are easily discovered and distanced.

The answer to this is really obvious and free to everyone to see and use. Those accounts you see getting merit, you can check what their comments are saying, pay attention to how they sound and also try to be good at responses and posts you make. Just do it with the mindset of trying to be better, and then eventually maybe merits will come too. In all, don’t be too cut up chasing merit. Just make quality replies and post.

Exactly that is my observation about this merrit , that means one must be up and doing in putting down quality and informative post inroder get this merrit. Though as a beginner is still cheerish the idea as it also stand to be a guide for people to be creative and pass information that is helpful not junk is a welcome one. If not of moving to another level I never reason the merit aspect as my major concern is to get more information and how to be creative and good investor and trade well in this Bitcoin, I gave my self out for reading every pin post and better links conveying helpful information. But my request to our senior boss them is to see how to will still help us to Alliviate us from this not receiving this merit as expected.

Just keep being positive in the forum, avoid breaking any rules and spend most of your time learning from experienced an knowledgeable users here, so far as you make quality posts no matter how long it takes it is going to be Merited one day what matters most is your ability to be active in the forum rather than looking for and easy way to rank up. Ranking up isn't an issue but what contributions are you making towards the betterment of the forum? so make good and quality posts also be informative like relate information you know can be of help to the forum besides we'll are newbies and since we are new to this platform we ought to learn more than we make replies as with time we will get used to the forum and of which achieve our various ranks accordingly.

 Never send a PM to any high rank members here as doing so might lead you to making some mistakes that might cause you your account being damaged because not every high rank member would take it lightly as soon can even give you negative trust or neutral tag so if you wish to stay longer in the forum, never think of sending a PM about merits to anyone.

Forum is not as difficult as you think. You friend/brother that introduced you to the forum can't give you all the necessary information, he can only give you some tips but you can basically learn everything by yourself if you stick to the etiquette of the forum. As a beginner who is finding it difficult to understand the forum, start by reading
Newbies- Read before posting. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1689727.0)


You have made 100 total posts and more than 50 of them are from local board which is Naija board, not every merit source will find your post helpful or understand what you write as your information is only limited to Nigeria discussion and because Nigeria board has just 1 merit source with a limited number of merit(less than 50 a month), the merit can't always go around. I Wil advice you engage in more active board like Bitcoin discussion, trading discussion, meta board which discuss things about the forum.


Sending messages to people might look like begging, it's better that you made the post public so that other people can give you more contributions and advise instead of been directed by one person. You might likely not have what you are even looking for and begging for merit is totally bad here in this forum. Improve your post and be active, it will help you rank up.

Don't message anyone yet but you can message them about a post or perhaps something you don't understand and you think they know it better, nobody is senior here or ahead of one another, the only thing that differentiate us here is the rank and reputation, you can literally learn anything you want without going to anyone DM. Just like you ask now, you can always ask more questions but not often, make use of the "Search" bar, you will get anything you want in this forum about rankink up.

Your post history don't quite centered on Bitcoin, your discussions are newbie discuss and doesn't get the attention of people that want to merit you, improve on that and you will see that merit will come when you don't even expect it. A quality post is always recognize from far even by merit source or anyone that has Smerit to give you.

Reading is a source of knowledge, if they are still beginners and are lazy to read then they will not understand what to do in this forum. The bitcointalk forum is a forum with a more dominant text base and requires you to continue listening to what other people have to say. If they are not used to it they will not be able to interact on this forum. You will gain a lot of knowledge about crypto, being a beginner will be a choice to be consistent and you can improve to become an expert in the crypto field and level up if you have good contributions.

I'd say - everyone's time ticks differently... When I started, it was way too off for me at first -  i can recall having only 16 merits for months without a single top up... That actually encouraged me in some type of way - it made me realize that it ain't just so easy to rank up!

---

OP, you still got alot to do in here... Merit is only given as a form of an accolade for a problem well solved or a theory well proven; weren't there times I'd read myself up, as late as anyone would wanna take a nap atleast for the day's strenuous activities?. By 4am? .. my hub be like - what you doing awake up until now for Christ sake? ... DEDICATION MY FRIEND!!

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

What do some people take the forum, because I can't understand why will a newbie just send a random to users based on the fact that they are of higher ranks, this is a wrong approach to the whole thing, because most of the higher ranks have newbies on ignored because of the default forum setting and restrictions on new accounts.


Secondly again,  if you can read and make use of the search feature of the forum, you should have a whole hand full of resources that will help you to gain knowledge and experience that will help you contribute to topics of discussion on the forum and being on the topic, I don't think you even need to rely on your mentor so much as long as he already gave you the basic intro.

Thank you guys for your response on this thread, I have gone through all of it and I have seen a few of my mistakes. Based on your response and advice I have been doing a lot of research and now I know better (not an expert yet, but we learn everyday)

If you are not breaking any forum rules, then you are doing the right thing. Not getting merits do not mean that you’re not good enough, you’re good but you need to add more facts and relevant information every time you post so that other members will see the content value and appreciate your post. Just do your due diligence to read and research more and don’t stop learning everyday, you will get numerous merits in the future. Learning takes time, as much as waiting to earn merits requires patience.

Never think that those who earn lots of merits have gained it in just a short period of time. They’ve worked hard for it since from the beginning and have waited for long before they start receiving merits. Never lost your hope but increase your motivation instead. If you think you’re not good enough, then improve your posting habits and learn from the legendary and reputable posters in the forum.

Reading can do a lot of myth. If you are patient while reading their posts, then you will learn a lot from them also and apply it when you make your own. Increase your knowledge so you that you can also share a lot of reliable facts in the forum.

I looked at your post history, and most of them are on your local boards.
Just so you know, there aren't a few merit sources that are giving merits to the local board although there are some merit sources that are giving merits on their local board, I don't think that there is a merit source that gives merits to the Nigerian board. This is one problem why you aren't getting enough merits. Most of your posts are in a section that rarely the merit sources visited.

You aren't doing anything wrong IMO, and what I expected when I visited your post history is that you will be like one of those low-ranked members out there who are posting their proof of authentication on the Bounties section. If that's the case then you really will not earn merit but it wasn't so there's still a chance. :)

To answer the text I bolded, IMO, you aren't doing anything wrong. It's just that you are posting mostly in a section where merits aren't distributed that much. I started as a Full member when the merit system was implemented, and luckily I'm not a Legendary member, and you can look at my post history to know where I post the most. It took me years to achieve Legendary, and faster for those who are more knowledgeable than me.

What will I say to you OP if you want to earn more merit is that watch documentaries, and read articles so that you can share something here.

As much as you seem interested in improving the forum and contributing positively that is really appreciated. It is important to avoid plagiarism by following the complete rules. Eligibility of the forum depends on the estimation and relevance of your contribution. We all engage with other users' posts and ask thoughtful questions. We all make mistakes so should always strive to make meaningful contributions. We will definitely not be disappointed by the number of merits. We will make progress over time. But the effort must continue.

Yes, that's right, as stated by Games.Bitcoin in the forum, we must also have a role, where we are not only members of this forum who see and read posts resulting from someone's thoughts, we must also be able to prove that we are also capable of this, but with terms and conditions. where what we will convey is clear, directed and if necessary it is conveyed in accordance with the factual data that is currently occurring. There are many rooms that you can visit and participate in if you have sufficient requirements and are able to do so.

Actually if you can understanding about forum working its easily how to raise the higher level with your account, its not matter how many your pots and small merit receiving actually depend with bad or lower post qualities and then you not find the right board with large opportunity to get many merit points. Check with meta board discussion and looking there user have raise the higher level and checking their merit received source.  Learn and understanding well with their post habit and which one board more active receiving merit, its simple ways if you want get more merit in bitcointalk forum and first important thing need to change your habit post.

Don't miss opportunity active in local board because many merit source there each local board, I think you can start and looking the user in this forum more active sending merit then check which one their interested board for sending merit. Start your post there I believe you have chance to receive merit from merit source.