Bitcoin Forum

I am very worry about new merit system. This is like killer rules for newbies like us. As i know that if somebody gives merit rating only then our rank will grow. Without getting merit from someone we can't rank up from jr member. So, who will give us those merit rating? Is this rules for avoiding new comers in bitcointalk? I am truly feeling too bad.  :'( :'(

How is the merit system for avoiding new comers? More like for avoiding spammers, shitposters, and account farmers. People used to rank up really quickly even with little to no knowledge. Now you actually have to post useful and good stuff to be awarded with merits; and I really don't see the problem with that. To be honest earning merits isn't even as hard as I thought it would be. You'd only need to be worried if none of your replies are given merits by people(because obviously, your posts might not be good). It's only survival of the fittest. If you have this problem, STUDY.

Also, you don't need to have merits for Jr member. You only need merits to get Member and above.

First of all, welcome on board. The first thing you should do is to acquire knowledge and understand how the things work. Forum administration want to boost quality content and hence merit system is introduced.

By the time you will learn and explore the crypto industry, you will share your knowledge/opinion/suggestion with other members. You will get merits according to your contribution so I appreciate the merit system but I am expecting much awareness about the same.

P.S - You don't need any merit points to jump at Jr Member rank so don't worry it.

In my opinion it is mostly against spam and account farming. Merit system helps to grow the users who are helpful to the whole community and blocking shitposters. Community gives merit points to each other, we give merit points to each other, so there is no manipulation in the forum administration activities and in this idea.

You only need 10 merit to reach Member. The Merit system has been around for just over a week, I've earned 20 merit in that time. You can surely earn 10 over a similar time period.

You need to make high quality posts. You need to introduce new information to the community. You need to join discussions in boards where higher ranking people (who have merit to spend) hang out. When you have good, new information to share with the community consider starting a thread so that more people will read and react to your post.

The merit system was not established to keep newcomers away (obviously, no one requires merit to join and stay here). The system was established to ensure that opportunities to rank up align with the contribution one has made to the community.

No, newbies are still welcome here. Merit system was introduced mainly to stop Newbies from posting garbage to rank up and then participate in signature campaigns. Still, you can reach Jr. Member rank without any Merit points and you only need to get 10 Merit to reach Member rank. It'snot difficult if you will post good content.
Who gives these Merit's? By default, users starting from Member rank have some sMerit, higher ranks have more which they can send to other users. And for example, if you will get 2 Merit from someone, you will be able to send 1 sMerit. And there are 57 users called Merit sources who have huge number of sMerit to send. For better education, please read this topic:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0

Its a good development to tackles the offtopic members and those only trying to increase their rank without having any knowledge about cryptocurrency which is most likely the purpose of this forum
...

I'm curious, how bad was this "account farming"? Like what was it actually? I keep seeing it mentioned.

Out of control, for (dare I say) years!

But mostly we've seen a crazy influx of newbies joining in 2017 as the Bitcoin price as soared and people started to give a shit. All these Newbies lead to a lot of poor quality posting. And the motivation for the new entrants and the shitty posting was participation in bounty and signature campaigns, i.e., getting tokens or bitcoin "for free". For people to participate they need to reach the Member rank or higher (generally), this system requires Newbies to prove they've made 10 posts that others believe are worthy of merit before reaching that rank and participating in the other privileges this forum offers.

In answer to your question and looking at your own post, looks like it does not stop newcomers  :P

There is no reason to feel bad, you can become junior without merit, and it only takes 5 to 10 decent posts to rank member, which anyway would take a couple of month to achieve I think. Frankly, if you have not made 5 or 10 decent posts in a month you should feel bad about it.

I think that merit now is a bit "expensive" but in the future it may be granted for posts that are just a bit useful and targeted to the issue.

Staff members in the past of busting hundreds of accounts that were connected. For the amount of money that one can earn on a signature campaign and how easily it was to abuse the system and rank up it was likely thousands of accounts that were soley created for that reason a day.

Hopefully with the new restrictions it will calm down and we can reflect on the number of new registrations compared to what it was before.

Maybe not like that my opinion

The presence of Merit may want to show the quality of Bitcointalk forums, so not much spam etc ,,
In this forum can share knowledge and even share solutions.

The only people it 'kills' are those that are unable to contribute anything worthwhile here which is the exact purpose it was designed for.


People were signing up with numerous accounts each just so they could join a sig campaign and bleed them dry by lazily spamming. One user had 200+ alt accounts all just rewording and regurgitating the same one line shitposts over and over one after the other, that's how bad it was. Sylon, the worst campaign manager on this forum, was paying them all to do so and that's why punishments need to be giving to shitmanagers otherwise nothing will change.

This really worries to newbie entrents like me because i joined recently and have few questuons , what if i post quality content and still no one give me merit points thinking their points get exhausted? What if no one really gives me points because there are too many messages in the forum that no one ever recognized my comment? This pointing system is very bad, only few people shall get recognized

Well if you read about rank requirments, you can get  a rank up to junior member without merits, and you only need 10 merit to become a member rank, it is not that hard.

Also, not all newbies come in this forum for rank and/or bounties. Some of them are genuinely want to know more about what happening right now in crypto


Sending merit wont cause us to lose merit. sMerit is the one being used to give merit. If you dont get merit for your constructive post, try to joined the merit give away by Srmembers - Legend, they are willing to give sMerit to the deserving one

No. You do not need to really rank up much (especially not quickly) if you've come here for the right reasons. Stop whining because shitposters can't rank up.

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I need to remember to never give OP any merit.

If only few people get recognised then that isn't a bad thing. It's only a bad thing to those who have come here to exclusively earn and now that's got a little harder which again isn't a bad thing. However, if after a while it becomes apparent that the system isn't working effectively or many deserving users aren't getting recognised then the system can be tweaked or more merit sources added. It will probably take a few months to see how well the system works though.

Yes and that is it's intended function.

Anyone that has an interest in contributing towards a healthy discussion on ANY topic related to Bitcoin or any other altcoins, can do it with a newbie account. Only people that care about their ranks ergo their potential farming opportunities from this place, they are the ones with the problem.

The merit system is in place to bottleneck that influx of new signature farmers that are shitposters.

Merit system is not like avoiding new comer in bitcointalk but instead it avoids new comer or anyone here to post unsubstantial comments just to rank up and earn profit. Merit system was established to improve us all in giving or sharing quality information that can help everyone here and the community.

The merit system was needed to stem the flow of alts, shills & shitposting. I think it’s a superb addition to the forum by theymos. Just get your head down & make good, constructive posts & you’ll rank up in no time.

Everything that mjglqw said is true. The merit system wasn't made to burden lower ranking members, but instead to motivate and mold them to be constructive members of this forum. I really think that when you're joining forums such as bitcointalk, it is your duty to post something informative and interesting and not just post anything that does not make sense. This situation just solidifies the fact that you should be doing your duty as a responsible member of this forum. The merit points is just for recognition to those who are truly showing their effort. So if you want to receive some, work hard and it will definitely pay off sooner or later.

Part of the problem is that the beginners board appears not to be moderated, and therefore it is difficult for new members to participate in discussions to learn about Bitcoin. As a result of this, they turn to other boards, and they start threads like "what is Bitcoin? ". This turns other members away from those boards, and thus it is difficult for posts to be noticed.

I beieve it would help new members if they were restricted to a welcome board, and the beginners board until they found their feet in the forum. Of course this is only true if those boards were moderated for the benefit of new members.

You can say that I am a new member here. Though I became a Member with default 10 merit points given in merit system, I am doing good even after it was introduced. After, I started submitting posts here, I have got merit points everyday. Good thing is that I still get merit points for posts made a week before. And believe me I have no connections here, I am just learning more about the forum operates. You can also earn merit points provided you observe closely.

Do not worry about merit point system, if you are a worthy person, you will surely get the points of merit point system.

And to answer your question, this is some statistic that i gather on my thread, there is an interesting fact about low rank member upon this merit system

https://i.imgur.com/Pq4tI84.jpg

As you can see from the yellow box at the right, low rank member is the most rank that is affected by this system, but some of them are happy and agree of this point and some dont but the number is bigger on the agreement of this system. This mean that some low rank members are a positive person and wont leave forum just because of this.
If you want to check my thread you can come to here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2822349.0


(i use a lower resolution for the graphic, the original one is on my thread)

This new system requires everyone not just the newbies to have a quality and constructive post, something that can contribute to the forum and help other people with their queries. I think this will have a positive effect on the forum as there will be no spammers and this forum will serve as knowledge base for cryptocurrency.

I think the board is not avoiding new comer in Bitcoin talk, every one is still welcome to this forum, we just want to cut off the spammer and the farmer account, that make this forum messy, take your time and learn, try to help and make useful post, I believe you can get merit if you do that

Many are disappointed at first and I'm one of them but I've come to realize the importance of it and we need to follow for the betterment of this forum. Work hard for you to move up to the next level, that's all I can say.  ;)

Completely agree with you. Actually, the only issue is that new members are comparing their situation with that of old members.

  I don't think the idea is to avoid new comers .it is to challenge the user to post useful comment that can enhance
 Knowledge  to  the readers.

A story which I have read. Long time ago bitcointalk forum has meaningful posts. educative posts, helpful posts.  but time came greedy persons invaded this forum, shitposting everywhere scammers everywhere that is why red flag is everywhere but when the merit feature was implemented by admin theymos. things that have been lost will be renewed by great things to come with the help of merit, scammers, spammers, shitposters, account farmers has limitations so this merit feature is the worst nightmare to scammers, shitposters account farmers, spammers. Then this is a great news to new comers.  Don't worry OP superior knows the best.

Depends on that newcomers. If they come here "only" for the money, they will surely cant stand the merit system and will leave the forum eventually. But if the newcomers come to here to find knowledge about bitcoin and cryptocurrency and make "finding money" as their last purpose, they will be fin with it, in fact some of them maybe will embrace the merit system. The main purpose of merit is to fight spammer and shitposting, so if a newcomer feels merit is hard and bad for them, maybe because they are the spammer or the shitposter.

I joined this forum in November 2017 and most of the merits in my profile are earned after merit system. So this forum welcomed a new comer like me with open arms I guess.