Bitcoin Forum

So I was interested in how to obtain merit and so I looked at a few profiles of members with a large amount of merits (250+) and saw that a few seemed to be sending merits backwards and forwards to each other repeatedly. I’m assuming they were either to friends or his alts but surely this is against BCT rules and should be cracked down upon?

I think you have a point, but the rules doesn’t have that limitation. You have the freedom to send śmerits according to your discretion to a constructive post or someone deserve it. If you have found abusive use of this system, it is better to report it in meta as there is an existing thread about that. And just move this post, as it isn’t belong in Marketplace. Merit System discussion is a forum related issue that can be found in Meta Section (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0). Proof is needed in accusing someone a friend of or an alt of anyone to establish this connection.

If that is really true... Don't you think that will be difficult to prove? Yeah! You are right about proof instead of throwing wild accusation.

Proving something needs more than accusing anyone of anything, proper investigations and technical analysis is needed. That’s why, those who are doing such effort has to be applauded because it’s not a easy job and most shocking is DT (default trust) or other members, doing it for free. To help this forum and the members to have a better place to discuss freely without us being annoyed about spammers.

There is topic in meta regarding merit cheaters so if you have found users who are exchanging merits you can post it here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2896910.0. I can tell you that sending merits to friends, exchanging merits and sending merit to alts is very usual around here but don't worry eventually they will all run out of merits.

If you come across someone exchanging merit, ppint them out. You can see that there are topic poping out from time to time in meta about merit abusers and there's also a whole thread dedicated to the merit abusers reports. It's not that it's not being cracked down , there's just so many people, but still is something to kill some free time. Them russians and turks yo.

to get merit I think is very difficult, the problem of some people is very stingy to give merit to others. yes it is good to not give merit to just anyone, but a lot of hope to get merit appreciation from my friends bitcoin forum .I have a merit, and I certainly will also give to friends who post quality. I hope we can improve the quality to get merit .

We can make presumption that those acts are shady ones but we cant really conclude yet since we don't have an evidence that they are alts or do belong into one person which means its still valid to have those exchange because there are really some scenarios that community members do really give out merits to those person who do give them merits too.Just like a exchange of gratitude and I know you do feel the same way.Therefore,we cant really accuse someone if we don't have strong evidence among the connection of the two.

I also see the same thing, and this is less effective. or maybe this could be a trap for those who have alt accounts. or share the merit with their friends, but on the other hand it becomes one of the greatest guidelines when so many new accounts are scattered so we can conclude that the quality will be more in priority at this time

I made a report yesterday on the meta section. I don't have any proof that the accounts are connected but they are surely abusing the system because of the non helpful posts that they merited.

There's nothing mentioned on the rules but according to the FAQ thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2766177.0) by hilarious this is frowned upon. Users that are caught abusing the system will get tagged by DT2 members.

Its hard to prove something if you have no basis but you have to tell us who are these people who are abusing the merit system.

And check out those posts that are being merited, you can see if they are only sending merit for nothing or they are sending merit for a reason and those posts must be merited.

Those people that has large amount of sMerits are called merit source.  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg28856522#msg28856522)

The only thing OP you have to do is this quoted word above^.

Well merit system are being tackled so many times, and if you have your proof on this better to post it here and let people judge it, cause it might be accidental or they just really deserve to receive the merit.

I don't have proof but handing out 7 merits to the same person for comments that deserve none and receiving some back in return is highly suspect. 

First of all I am impressed by those people who came up with that merit increasing move, I wouldn't actually say it is 100% unfair because they actually did the effort and way to fight the more even unfair merit system, you see, for us new members it is actually impossible to rank up given the required merit to progress, in my case I need 90 merits and that is just so impossible, at least a very very very small percentage of members here rarely give merits.
To those who found a strategy to have merits, I'll commend their smart asses though if you look at it on another perspective, yes it is quite a bit not fair given some members here really take their time to earn those diamond merits.

Just post the link and let the higher ones decide for that post if it deserved to received 7 - merit.

There are others who are even sending more than 10 to 50 merits and those are suspicious ones so if you are aware and you highly suspect those people that are giving that amount of sMerit.

Put the link here.

Yes and you can only complain if you just see some random shit post being given merit and then you can put two and two together to see some alt accounts abusing the merit system which I can see so many people and legends have been doing  already to hunt down such accounts.

As you said though, there is nothing anyone can do, and only if someone finds your post constructive enough or helpful, will they give you merit, so we all have to live with it.

true to what you say, sometimes not just share the reward with a friend but there is also with greed someone wants to earn a lot, he has made some accounts and the reward is only given to akunya own. is it fair, whereas many beginners need merit, to raise rank, but here in need of quality post to get merit, but most people do not understand what kind of quality postings.

Bros, I really understand about the low rank guys worries. They are not go up with the activity alone, after the merit implementation by our moderator theymos. All we need to do is try to gather more merits.
You and op has mentioned some of the people randomly get merits each other. For this issue hilariousandco has opened a thread on meta section and tag the people for abussing merit system. There are many signature spammers found by him and added with negative trust. You no need to worry about this at all now. If you are worry that someone not have potential post to get merit and someone merit each other for spam post. You directly report them. That kind of act are most welcome.

Well, some members do it and they will always give you good reasons why the other person deserves the merit. If truly this is how the merit system will be then its not what we hope for. But the good thing here is that, there is less shit posting in the forum now since the merit system started. OP, if you notice and have a genuine investigation concerning members  whom are sharing merit to each others then simply report to moderators with proofs and references and they will look into it. And I think this should be moved to the Meta section.

I think you should create a topic at Reputation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=129.0) section to report about this case. I can ensure that you'll get merit for your work and all these account will be tagged because of abusing merit system. Although they know but they think they're really lucky and they'll not be founded out. LOL

For me, it's their own rights if they want to send who ever they want inside the bitcointalk.org . As long as no evidence of selling or buying merit, and of course, there's system and process too that may review all the merit sent if that is accountable to be awarded. I think some people did that , cause they need to survive and rank up here, for being honest, it's hard to have merit cause it's very limited.

If you remember those users you can report them on here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2896910.0 they're not following rules that's the big problem on this forum. Following rules may assured to avoid account being punished. When the merit comes there are many problems because of that like account farming and giving merit to each other which is not allowed.

Apparently, it would be difficult to prove and it would just count as mere accusation as the person in question can easily deny it unless it is just glaring to the point that a sane human can know that a particular post does not deserve a huge merit. I have seen a shit post with a huge merit before and I just smiled, funny enough, someone already reported the linked accounts and the person was dealt with, so at the end, there are some that are being punished if glaring.

If you found some users doing this then report them, create a thread in the meta section of the forum and expose those members to the community if you think they are abusing the system, if you are right someone is going to give a negative rating, there are many people abusing the system but there is not enough people to police it and to look around at every single merited post.

That is a whole lot shitty but since you cannot prove anything, I guess there is nothing anyone can be able to do about it. At the end, the merit still favors those who have legendary alts with a lot to dash out but at the end will only end up giving it to the person they feel like if they want to do at all, but at the long shot of it, whether they are giving it to alts, or cycling among friends, what can anyone do? If you see anything fishy though, you can always report on the accusation thread of anyone once you have a proof.

Yeah, it is not really easy trying to link up some of these accounts, but some are really doing a great job helping to fish out those abusers anyway. The way the merit system is, some will definitely be benefitting a lot from it and most especially some legend that may have several smaller alts to want to pimp up, but for how long before getting caught and it may be like that for now, but over time, some will suffer losing their accounts for such reasons and apparently, some will have to be the scape goats, since merits cannot be deleted.

Hilariousandco already doing this good. If you feel that someone utilizing this merit system and trying to scam someone with that. You need to report this to him.
I see that he has taken serious steps like giving negative trust to signature spammers who are all utilising this just exchanging the merits like selling the merits. Hope everything will be resolved if reach him.

Maybe you should have Post this complain to Reputation section, or if it pertains to the forum situation with this Merit meta Section is the right section to Post This. And before saying something you should have to be clear with your statement, if you are pointing to somebody else's merits received/send then you should post some proof to it for validation of the issue. accusing somebody is not a good idea without an accurate evidence, you made the right choice not posting some names without evidence or you'll get tagged with your shady complain.

Op doesnt deserve to get tagged because he is only helping to bust those cheaters and greedy people in this forum. We should actually thanked op in the first place rather than keep complaining about his good deeds. i myself do also caught a bunch of cheaters in the past but i forgot to report them and i was also busy that time but next time they cannot get away with me if our roads Would come across again.

It is a bit discouraging to see that due to the time I joined I won't be able to rank up as easily.  Has there been any discussion by the moderators about possibly removing the merit system?

Give it time and let it run for a long time. I haven't seen that there will an implementation that the merit system will be removed.

The system runs well and is helping to give the forum a way to clean with account farmers and even the buyers. At least this is effective and if theymos sees this to be beneficial to the forum I doubt it will be removed.

You can still rank up, you only have to post just the way you want but don't spam.

Global mod hilarious is really doing fine in regards with fighting on those merit abusers and the community can anytime make reports if theres a malicious or suspicious exchange with these merits.It isn't bad for those people who do exchange merits as long those post being merited are really worth of.If those post aren't good or doesn't contribute at all then its really shady and you do really have the right to report on.

Most of the moderator will be busy by finding and searching a thousand of bitcointalk user, cause most of us will do anything just to survive this merit era( some did a good post, some are not like selling merit etc. ) . Well if the author have a enough evidence, he is free to do that for sure. The link above is good section to report those who abuse the merit era.

Exactly and that would really help in cleaning the system anyway. I have seen a lot of posts that actually do not deserve merit and if someone can even start from there by tagging them, it should really help a lot.

It is one thing for us to see some shady stuffs going on and it is another thing for us to expose such actions to the public rather than silently complaining about it. The whole idea is to have a sane system and as long as that keeps happening, then it is fine.

That's a point, but the system is still new so I am pretty sure that changes are going to be happened.
There is no chance that people will be able to send 100 merits to other people, I think that they should set a limit of 10% of your current merit, which means that if you have 100 merit available for sending, then you will only be able to send 10% of it to other people.

The real problem about merit is that usually people just keep it for themself or they are not aware of the system, so you are actually end up without getting any merits even though you have some helpful answers.

As long as there is a room to report such activities, then I do not see why we should be complaining about merit cycling. It is expected and some will definitely be the scape goats before we start having some sanity with the merit system.

If anyone feels there is anything shady with a particular account and can show some proof, I do not see any reason why they cannot report it to the mods and since they have given room for that, then we should please do.

Just the plain fact. Sure, some people may be abusing it by giving their alt account merits even after dropping shit posts which makes it even more glaring as to how crazily annoying some accounts can be. This type of accounts can easily be flagged and reported to moderators. However, for those who are using theirs and not going against any of the rule, I really do not see why anyone should be bothered about how they share their merit.

It is funny though that even in the merit system, there would still be some sort of monopoly. Also, I have seen some legendary accounts getting merited when they really do not need it anyway unless theymos want to decide to add an upper level to legendary account.

Those who need it and deserve it should be given but if anyone decides to give it to anyone they please, it is their merit, and they can decide to do it however they wish.

I think this merit system is a good idea, by itself. Because quality must always prevail over quantity. Higher rank definitely has to be earned through efforts and hard work, not through excessive spamming and flooding.
But actually, the system of merit rewarding is poorly considered, what results in regular infringements.
First, the majority of the bitcointalkers just send merits to each other encouraging only themselves.
For the second, it created "shadow" segment of the market, where the participants exchange or even sell merits, and that is very difficult to prove sometimes.
And the most significant flaw of this system is that the majority of active forum members work so hard, write a lot of decent information, initiate sometimes very actual discussions, share the ways of solving a lot of trading and other issues, but nobody ever appreciates their effort and don't even send a single merit. Why? That is quite easy to understand. The forum "whales" very rarely pay attention to "newbies'" posts (I mean not only newbie ranks) and often consider all their posts as useless junk because they already know the information provided by them, and the "whales" can't apprehend that the majority of other users don't know it and it is the useful information for others. Eventually, only the "whales" like Hero and Legendary don't need merits, they have lots of them, but they still reluctantly reward decent efforts of newcomers.
Talking about the others (Members, Full Members, Senior Members), they naturally don't wanna send their smerits because they also trying to reach higher ranks but in order to reach them, they have to collect plenty of them. And of course, they know very well how hard it is to receive a single merit, that's why nobody wants to share them, in order not to make this task easier for the others. "Why should I give it to somebody? I busted my **s out to get those merits (and rank) one by one, with hard work. Why should I pave the way for the others? It's not of my concern."

I think this system needs revision and amendments, taking into account all its flaws. My suggestion is that forum's moderators or other assigned users have to check other users' activity and contribution. If a user was active, useful for the forum, its quantity of posts exceeds the required for the next rank, such moderators or assigned users have to check their posts and participation in forum's discussions or problem solutions. And if this person finds his contribution valuable for Bitcointalk, then he might reward him with the required amount of merits (or part of it if its contribution or efficiency is still not enough) to reach the next rank if he really deserves it.

I think to obtain merit, having a lot of friend here who trusted you so much was an advantage for sure. Then, if you are a newbie and don't have any friend here in the forum I think it would hard for you to gain merit. Because, in my opinion smerit is depending on your discretion or decision on which topic or to whom who gonna give a smerit whether it is constructive or not.

If you do have a friend then its quiet an edge but its not really necessary because you can earn merits if you are really good on what you are posting.The entire community would able to recognize it.You shouldnt focus or confident that if you do have friend considering how many merits required for you to rank up and they cant pass up bulks of merits which would result into a violation.

I'm just a newbie, I've tried to learn more about the rules, and some other information relevant to how we could be a full member of this forum... Merit is just one factor to be full member... I hope sooner there will be someone to give it to me...

can someone answer me this? how we could get a merit, is it in a post/reply to someone OR should I make my own thread to get a merit?

Yes, unfortunately I've noticed that too. It's a pity that there are signature campaigns, at which payments may depend on merits and such people with low quality posts, but high merit work there. I hope forum moderators will deal with it.

The circulation of merits is very important, people will be able to send merits only if they receive merits, therefore, the merit circulation is very important. But there would be a time when all the members will run out of merits as a person receives one merit when the 2nd person sends the 1st person 2 merits which means the sMerits keeps getting halved. So maybe at such a time, it will be just the admins and the moderators that will be left with an unlimited source of sMerits.

I am a single poster and it was clear that I can not compete with merit exchanging groups or friends. And there will be probably also some kind of market for purchasing merits.

When the merit system was introduced, I was one stage prior to reaching Sr Member that requires an activity of 240. Now my activity is 280 and I am still Full Member and probably will forever.

I have seen a lot of shit and and spam posts on this forum without any consequences and as a honest single poster you have now to pay the price for not connected to inside teams!

Do you really believe that all merits are always sent on a fair and neutral basis?

If not, do you think it is fair that others who have started or joined activities to get merits earn more in signature campaigns than single posters with a probably better quality?

I think your assumption is very good. should this topic let me directly discussed the same BTT admin. LOL

that number will greatly reduce soon since DT2 members are serious on this issue, i notice a lot of accounts getting red tagged in the past few days. Don't worry this forum will be cleaned out as the time goes by, only serious users and interested person on cryptocurrency will stay on this forum.

It is better to focus on getting the higher ranks in the beginning as this is more important thing and that you need it the most even than that of getting merits. Right now, you need to burn your midnight oil and that you need to keep on learning as many things as you can and that you need to gain enough knowledge which can then help you out in having some basic knowledge about the things. With time, you will manage to get merits as well yourself.

There will be always cliques on anonymous forums like bitcointalk.

But you are right, they have already started to clean up what you can see when visiting Reputation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=129.0).

Curiously, even though the worst posters are already cleaned and the normal posters should have a better chance now, the number of available signature campaigns is unlike lower like it was before.

You have 0 sendable merit why  ??? now 3 week past but same massage ?

Welcome to the club!  :D

I had seven sendable merits and thats it. As far as I understood everyone has a certain number of merits to send, depending on the account level. Higher ranked accounts have an unlike higher number of available merits. Unfortunately, newbies are disadvantaged.

I think I need two more merits to rank up. Come on!

Our journey to this merit system is just like the endless horizon to the sea. You need to explore and explain well all the land we may encounter, but most of the bitcointalk user don't care enough what is that f*ck*ng thing you want to say. Oh you also encounter this in the sea shore , kind of crab, crab mentality. lol . Good luck folks, hoping that you find an island that full of understanding and new wonders.

Unfortunately, the introduction or addition of something has to start from somewhere. The merit introduction to the forum couldn't have waited for everybody because you have members rank being updated every 2 weeks depending on when registration was done. So if you had crossed or myself, it would have caught other users.

The best thing we have to do is to put more effort.

Oh, and I think your account is caught too , proofing of your red mark flags.More effort, yes you're right but also you need to avoid some fishy kind of moves or transaction to avoid wasting you've started. Sad life folks specially this merit era.

That's actually the goal ofmour moderators that at least lessen the spammers and those serious serious will remain as this isn't a big joke. Likewise, it's really hard to earn a merit especially we're hundreds of members here and we're lucky enough is someone will appreciate or at least read pur post however this shouldn't be the hindrance to not make quality posts. With or without merit we should make this forum well informative to all of us.

You can see most spammers in alternative coins section, just to promote different kind of tokens, newly created. Most common thing is creating a newbie account and post same content then spam. I report all the account doing that kind of shitty works.

If one the user gives merit different for any his a useful post or comment, what poorly in is, that the other in the answer will pose him +merit?! Of course there may be an agreement, but why not... I don't see anything illegal about it. Purchase - Yes, forbidden, but I as a newbie would not prevent this legitimate function  8)

Trading and sharing your merit to your friend with a very good post is not prohibited as long as the post that that you have merited deserves, meanwhile as you stated that there are illegal thins which was try to be done in incognito but don't worry if somebody will get busted they just have two awards to receive it's either red tag or being ban. So if ever you caught one don't hesitate to post in the reputation section with a valid proof and is 100% accurate. Your reward will not be in vain as long as you do the right thing mate

what you say is true, sometimes people always exchange rewards (reward each other), but in their posts are not very qualified, for the sake of their promotion to give each other. but in all of this we can not accuse each other because it is very difficult to prove this.

i have a problem i did not have sendalbe merits  ???

I appreciate your friends words and strongly agree that share the most important merit is the best post that should get a merit even if it's a friend or don't know at all ,I have given some merit for those who are entitled to get merit with my personal judgment for a quality post

People of high rank have their own circle of friends, and they get Merit by sending Merit to each other! This could be a Merit system problem!

It is very difficult for JR members to get Merit.

I totally agree with you..as I was in exactly same position as you prior to merit introduction.
My proposal was to give initial merit proportionally to how close you're to next level (so for
example you and me would get about 240 instead 100) but I was bashed hard by people who,
suprise surprise, made account week or two before you and me and just ranked up got 250 merit

At this rate you and me are set back about 3 years

Well, you just trade with your merit into someone better to start posting a good one so many people will appreciate your work.



Its difficult for everyone, its just so happen that those who are in a higher ranks make their name popular so they can easily get it but of course they deserve it also.
But if you look at some Sr/Hero account (like me), they still have no merit or lower merit because its really difficult to have it, its a matter of time and we can have want we deserve.

I found merit system fair but I don't have a hope for being a full member after all. nobody giving any merit. you should have contacts or knows somebody to earn.  :'(

This is very possible. But I don't think there is a clear rule against that, even though it is not right. Merit is a new system introduced this year on the forum, so there would still be a lot of loopholes people can use to get around it; for example this. Also selling merits is has not been explicitly ruled out, but its frowned upon, and in the earlier days when merits were introduced this was happening, but has slowed down now. However, you have done a good job in spotting this, but there has to be proof. Once there is proof, the mods can now learn from this and tighten up ("regulate")the Merit system. I guess our own arses are being bitten up in here. Out there we are mad about crypto regulations, soon there would be merit regulations in here... ;D

Well, the scammers are everywhere and after the creation of the update ( Merit system) , I see that many users have become traders of merit point , Moreover, some of them have multiple accounts and they give to  themselves many points. But thanks to merit system, Many of them have been punished by neg trust , also it is good that  the rank up is not easy  and there must be a lot of effort to achieve that, contrary to before.

In addition to that, I think the appropriate solution for the traders of merit points is the simple click on report to moderator, and it's certain that after a while of time, those traders will be punished.

Yes you are right it can be definitely a good question merits system is find only for the development of good and valuable post but higher ranking persons will be use merit points for their friends circle only .

To me, it is their own right if they want to send anyone they want inside bitcointalk.org. As long as there is no evidence of selling or buying services, and of course, there are systems and processes that can review all the rewards that are sent if it is accountable for grant. it is difficult to get a reward because it is so limited.

I have same question like you.Thank for many great answers.
 But i have more question. How can we get a merit?

Sorry just want a little opinion for this issue.
Previously I apologize if my conversation is stale, please be advised, because I am a beginner or can be called also like a baby who has no sin.
With reason, because I want to know more and how about the policy of smerit points that have become the current cryptocurrency rule.

I want to ask.

Does Crypto's regulation of this crucial point come back like the origin of an unprecedented muala?

If only I could choose a good and straight path. I choose this smerit rule would be good if it is not there as it used to be. But if this can not be changed,
Whether you want it or not,
I have to accept with reality.
And until whenever I will never STOP to do this job

And I will always be patient for this process.

Hopefully this party provides policy for beginners.

thank you

This is the advantage for those people who already established their names on the forum on where earning merits would be easy as pie but theres no doubt towards into their post quality because its justifiable and not questionable.I have seen lots of them which they do really deserve a merit but we cant really avoid the fact that merit abuse would be there,sending back and fort could really give some presumptions,its possible but would really need a strong evidence towards those accounts.

very interesting, I also hope someone can give merit to me. Because I think it's a hard job to get a better ranking than jr.member.

Can merit owners sell merit? I do not know for sure about this, hopefully, I get a little enlightenment by listening to the comments on your thread. thanks

I think it is quite hard to accuse people exchanging and abusing merits.
My own judgement is based on:
>If they have given merits above 5
>Merits above 3 given to a useless post.
>Exchanging of merits of two accounts or three accounts connected.

For now these are my basis, Unless two accounts are proven to be alts, it is hard to accuse someone abusing the forum itself.


Selling and buying merits are not allowed. Though many are doing this today hidden, it is considered as abusing the new system and you can be tagged by the mods when proven. Also, begging for merits is another thing that irritates the mods so be careful when discussing about merits or they would ignore you for the rest of their lives. Just try to be more informative, not FUDs and try to make sure that your posts are not just duplicates.

Everyone is working here for earning money. But definitely there must be some standards that have to keep an eye over quality and sense of the post.

If everyone is just coming and posting something about bitcoins or altcoins or anything related to crypto that will be demerit the crypto world. So better is to mark according to the deserving right of the post, without having any sense of whether altcoins or bitcoins.

As they came here to make money but in a legit way bro. Merits system is not in the part of earning money, it make sense whenever you make posts in the right place and for your ranking up as well. Please check the threads you know and make the post on those thread if it is really needed.
Else you need to ignore the thread go with the different one.
Deserving posts will be needed in every thread but all does not following that here mate.

Yes everyone needs to look at the good quality posts and give them an appreciation by the merit points otherwise no one will getting higher rank the toppers only in toppers and the lower ranks people are always in low rank.

There was a recent ride upon altcoins meriting within their accounts. All these account were given negative trusts and they were taken out of campaigns. As you said, this is not far. What will people with a single account would get merit. Everything needs to be counted. Though we have mates assisting the members to rank up by giving merits to accounts, its one's responsibility to contribute and gain as many merits as were quire.

I have to admit I did not read how this merit system is working. But you have a point here that we were one step to Sr Member and getting 250 merits instead. Now we have the same position like someone who just reached Full Member.

I just see that you have the same Activity like me, even though you already received 16 merits. So how much merits do we need to rank up to Sr Member?

250, so in your case 150 more...at this rate you'll reach it in year 2036...and I'm not joking, I calculated it

To be honest, only those who managed bounties and airdrops are the ones who always get merits so I think that the other members thought that it is the only way to get merit because not everyone would spend time to read every posts in a thread.

At least in some signature campaigns you receive unlike more per week or post if you received 5 merits as Full Member. And in the signature campaign I currently participate the difference between Full Member and Sr Member is only 25%, while I have already seen differences of 50% in other signature campaigns.

We will see if there will be any adjustments in the foreseeable future. As soon as I get 2 merits more, I should be fine for signature campaigns. :)

One of the examples with those campaigns are handled by yahoo since hes the only one or the first campaign manager who do require merits when it comes on categorizing payment structure on each rank.It do have significant different tier for those who don't have merit and for those who have which is quiet fair to everybody but would really differ into their weekly payment which its normal for those who have merit would receive more than into those who haven't.This is why merit is being abused for sometime because of such requirement.

Pretty interesting how people are using this system. I don't like it though, since it seems like this forum has turned into the other forums I hate where people keep on asking for "likes" and "+reps". Seems like that is the case now.

It is not the same. People in other forums continually beg and try to ask for votes, likes and reps without anyone really preventing them or the community going against it. Usually it is greatly tolerated in those forums.

From what I've seen around here, it is extremely different because of another factor which is he trust rating system. In case anyone is cause selling, trading, begging or abusing the merit system, the forum community can go against those people by leaving a trust feedback. The best thing to prevent its abuse is when DT members get in the action and leave a proper red trust on those abusers. Like what I've said in a previous post, even if a user has a billion merit points but was tagged red because he was begging, trading or buying merit then it doesn't matter.

I personally dislike the votes, likes and reps system on other forums, but the merit system in addition to the trust rating system will be great in the long run, in my opinion.

I guess so. I do hope it does help with the spam problem around here. But generally, I still think it will result to people begging for it indirectly. We'll see.