Bitcoin Forum

A Month in the Merit System
by Lovecove

Background (You can skip if you're bored)

I'm going to start off by saying, I could've posted this sheat in Meta and get some fame and pats on the back. But I'm posting it here because I know what it's like to struggle to get merits.

The merit system has been around since only January, but already the whole forum is in an uproar. The crypto industry is insane – 1 day is like 1 year. Everything moves so fast... And I guess that's why I was surprised when I found out the merit system just rolled out – people already have infographics, videos, blogs, and wow so many storms of walls of texts about the Merit system. I mean, from all the content out there, I honestly thought the merit system was around since last year. You already have like 1000 theories and guides about how the merit system should be or should be changed.

Just chill people, lol. The admins aren't going to do anything until everything's settled and there's actual data to look at. I guess this post will be my own personal 2 cents toward that data stats.

That said, I'd like to start off by saying that I had tried joining bitcointalk before this account. I really didn't like the 360-second wait, and the message said that it's because I wasn't around for long enough. So I figured if I posted more, I'd be around enough that the system wouldn't timer-block me.

So, you know, I treated the forum like any other forum. I went to random threads and off-topic, posting things like, “cool story! I like this.” and “yeah I used to buy that car, but then I sold it, haha. Cool.” and “Yeah I was hodling Eth, dropped it for Bitconnect, daym sun!”

Pretty soon, I was banned. So you know the drill, I made a new account only to find out it's my Ip that's banned from account creation because of my 1st account getting nuked. Had to go over a friend's house for some burgers while I low-key asked him for the password to his wifi and used my phone to get a new Bitcointalk account XD!

Well now I have my new account, and before posting anything, I read the rules and unoffiical rules carefully (or as carefully as I could). Trolling is against the rules, btw. But there are other rules I'm still unclear about, like “burst posting.” Not to digress, but I still don't get what that is – so even if you post high-quality, relevant posts within 5-minute intervals, you'll get banned? So far I've gotten away with posting 14 posts in a day... So I dunno, maybe I'm just lucky XD. That said, I'm not really going to change my whole life schedule just for bitcointalk. I'll post when I want to, with the amount I want to.

Anyway, onto my experience with the merit system:

My ~Month With the Merit System

Now, you know, I just wanted to get to Jr. Member and didn't care too much about the merit system. I noticed that after a while of posting, my activity wasn't going up... So I wondered why, then head over to Meta and found out about the activity/merit system.

Just in case you didn't know, you only get 14 activity every 2 weeks. (There's more to that rule, but just check that FAQ thread and you'll see the timetable spreadsheet.)

Despite not caring about the merit system, I was immediately awarded a merit on my 2nd day of being on Bitcointalk with this account. It wasn't necessarily a long or polished post. I simply refuted what everyone was saying about the government not knowing about bitcoin or holding any. And one of the long-standing members merited me when they came across my post and replied positively in the thread about how I was right.

The merit made me happy, and then I thought I was one of the better posters on bitcointalk if I could get a merit that quickly after joining. I thought it would be a cinch to get 1000 merits! I was floating on air! I felt like some kind of king among groundlings.

So I went on a posting spree where I shot my mind off in well-articulated posts. I foolishly thought I'd get like a million merits for each post. Four days later, I got 3 more merits for a long post I wrote on the pros and cons of bitcoin reaching mass adoption – there I talked about the shortcomings of the advancements in bitcoin wallets, and the pros too.

Now, you might be thinking I was happy about this, but I wasn't. You have to understand, I was writing many posts between my first merit and these 3 merits, so I was utterly convinced I was supposed to get more than that.

I tried a little bit harder, constantly trying to post long, relevant content. But you know, that's kind of draining, and without any merit given for encouragement... I fizzled out and decreased my posting and length. Just didn't have the energy. I had the impression that you either get merit within hours of your post, or you're not getting any merit for it at all. (Now I know that's wrong)

So I figured I'd join a sig campaign in the meantime – figured it's wise to get paid for trying aimlessly to get merits. I mean if I'm typing up hours of paper-level posts, I might as well get some coin for it.

When I got into my first sig campaign, I wanted to make a good impression. They tell you to do your best with your boss and be utmost professional. So I wasn't going to cut corners – I wanted to show them my best and leave a good impression. With that renewed motivation, I went about posting volume-length, relevant posts again.

And that's when I got another merit. I found someone asking for feedback on their posting quality and why they weren't receiving merit. So I gave it in detailed form, like it was a school assignment that was going to be graded. A day later they merited me.

Suddenly I was on the roll again, and getting merits almost everyday, but still wasn't satisfied that I was only getting that many merits for the amount of posts I did.

Then I made the mistake of bragging in Meta that I could be like nullius and get 1 merit per day... Noticeably after that post, I got 0 merits per day no matter how long my posts were! I'm guessing I got on someone's bad radar (or the to-watch list of a hidden inner circle of long-time bitcoiners who are mostly merit sources).

After realizing I stepped on some toes, I desperately tried to post higher-level content, but still got no merits for a whole week. I decided to give up and post only my necessary weekly 7 posts for my sig camp.

But then merits slowly trickled in. It looks like they realized I wasn't trying to merit farm and was organically posting.

With That Preamble, Here Are a Few Things I've Noticed on the Most Successful Ways to Get Merit

From when I started getting merit, to right now, I've noticed a few patterns in receiving merit:

1. Never ask for or complain about merit. You know the octopus in the room? Don't talk about it. It's like if someone got mysteriously pregnant at work and you know they're not married. And you see they're literally pregnant. Just don't ask. Think about it, these people are either merit sources or are getting regular merits, which means they won't care if you can't get them. They can't feel the pain because they're good, and they believe in the merit system (which is why they got merits in the first place.)

Now if they give you a merit for complaining or asking, it's like they're sheating on the system. If you ask for or complain about the merit system, you're most likely going to get on the “blacklist” like me.

But there's a caveat to that. You can get merits by complaining about or asking for merits by articulating with detail how you've tried, why you're frustrated, and other intelligent sayings. Don't just cry. I've seen people getting merit this way, and so it works, but it's still a gamble you shouldn't take.

2. Don't give up. There are many chances for your high-quality post to get a merit. So now I can safely say that even if my post doesn't get merits during the first few days... I've had posts receive 1 – 3 merits a week or two after I've written them. One time, the OP merited me 3 weeks later because maybe that's when he had a chance to revisit his thread and read my reply.

That said, your good posts can get merits weeks after you post them, so don't feel bad if they don't come soon after your post.

Even if your good post doesn't get merit, there are unlimited chances to get it merited. Just meticulously catalog your posts that aren't receiving merit. Then when you see a “merit review” thread in Services or Meta, just drop the link to your unmerited posts.

3. Give merits to people. When you get 2 merits, you're allowed to send 1 to someone else without losing any merits. That's why they're called sMerits. I'm not sure, but it looks like the inner circle of merit people have a merit log or something to track when merits are sent. So when they see that you're letting the merit system flow and not hoarding sMerits, they're more apt to give you some. When I gave out sMerits, that same day or next, I received 2 merits from two different people.

In case there is no merit log, what you should do is look for high-quality posts (usually you see them in merit review threads), and then merit that post. Then you should announce in that same thread something like: “I really liked your reply, So I gave you a merit even if OP didn't. Cheers.” Or if it's in a non-merit thread, reply with: “I liked this ^ (pointing to quote). I agree that blahblahblah, I like the analysis blahblahblah. Because blhablahblahbalh.”

Giving sMerits makes you a positive contributor in the eyes of the more legit bitcointalk members. If you're actively participating in the merit system, and rewarding good quality posts, they'll think you're legit and not just here to spam. It's like psychology – sending sMerits to good posters means you actually took the time to look for good posts without anything expected in return.

A person who was on bitcointalk simply for spam or signature spam reasons would be more selfish, and they couldn't care less about anyone else's posts but their own.

4. Don't join a signature campaign when you're a newbie or Jr. Member. Join a forum-cleanup cause. It's psychology again. If you join a signature campaign and you're a relatively new member (Jr. Members are still new), then the merit-givers will assume you're just out to spam for signature money.

Even if you write high-quality posts, they'll err on the side of caution when giving you merits because they're not sure of your intentions. The merit system is becoming a quasi-trust system.

That's why you need to give the image that you're here altruistically. That you're not here for personal gain, but here for community and learning reasons. Join campaigns where people advocate for no signatures. I've noticed that members who join such campaigns get loads of merits within the first few days of joining.

Or make your own signature, like: “I don't use this space for advertising. Because I came here to mingle with crypto peeps, not sell ICOs.” ← probably doesn't fit in the sig space, but okay XD. Make a matching personal text too!

If people see a good quality post + your altruistic signature, they're going to merit you just because they'll feel like meriting you is supporting the merit system and what it's trying to accomplish.

That said, Here Are the Ugly, Desperate Ways to Get Merit:

If you want fast merits and want to do it right, there are more desperate measures available. These are kind of dirty, and you shouldn't really resort to them unless you're just that kind of bottom-feeder.

5. Out the Scammers. I've seen it, you've seen it, we've all seen it. Newbies who write long threads sheating on a potential scammer get like 15-30 merits! Again, personally, I don't think you should do this unless someone is an obvious, obvious scammer about to do harm to someone financially.

But, like some kind of schizo, if you catch a small whiff of someone being shady, you can piece together some kind of crazy paper trail and post the evidence in Meta or Reputation. If other people kinda, sorta believe your evidence, they'll merit you...

But this is putting a huge target on your back, and that person will most likely red trust you XD.

6. Yell at People Complaining About Merit. Yeah again, this is kind of like feeding on your own kind. We're all secretly antsy about the merit system. And if someone breaks the cardinal rule about complaining about or asking for merit, going to town on them will most certainly land you merit points if you're writing a detailed post outlining the faults in OP's logic and merit-receiving attempts. The inner circle will merit you just to make your post stand out and uphold the Merit SJW.

Some tips on this: Don't just yell like an idiot. Give constructive criticism. Spend the first half of your post being an angry dad. Then spend the second half of your post being an angry teacher: Show them how they can improve, give suggestions on how they can fix what they're doing wrong.

7. Just post, man. The last, and probably best tip is to just pump out good, relevant posts. Just be a part of the bitcointalk community for once. Really join a conversation, rather than just posting something that you think won't get marked as spam. There's a huge difference between posting something articulate, and something that you hope passes the spam threshold. When you stop caring about the quality of your posts, and only care about getting your true ideas and points across to the people in a thread, then and only then will you truly be a Bitcointalk member.

Over time, the legit merit sources will see that you're an earnest member. And #7 will land you a few merits.

I'll admit that this last tip won't get you as many merits as the more directed approaches... but it works too!

Well, I hope this helps. Not sure if people will read this, being that it's in this section. But I can promise you that if you do all of these steps for a significant amount of time (like 1 or 2 weeks), you'll get at least 1 or 2 merits MINIMUM.

If you think it's too much work, then consider this: Do you really want to be THAT guy who has 120 activity but 0 merits? Dude must've spent half a year posting, but didn't put in any effort. Wouldn't you rather spend 2 weeks trying these steps out? It's better than spending 5 months in Merit System Hell.

Edit: Additional caveats

1. Don't post in megathreads. It's occurred to me that even if you have a high-quality post, if it's in a thread with over 5 pages of posts, then they're most likely not going to merit your post. I've been warned once that the thread my post is in is taken into account when it comes to quality.

Now I don't quite understand that logic. Because if you earnestly read through the whole thread, then post, why is your post suddenly considered spam? I guess I haven't been around bitcointalk enough to understand that. But just keep this in mind, and don't post in any thread longer than a few pages.

There are some exceptions to this rule, of course. Reputation threads where people are chowing down on popcorn while watching the drama for pages and pages -- great way to earn merits by inserting jokes or an insightful comment about someone or an aspect of their reply. I have not tried this myself, because I'd rather stay away from drama.

Today a new friend of the BCT forum asked me how to get a Merit rating, and I replied that there must be a good review of crypto, blockchain quality forum admin to consider. Merit points. I also wonder why I posted more than 80 messages but only 42 active messages. I entered the forum and found your interesting posts on the rules to be recognized as an active member on the forum, contributing to the overall development of Bitcointalks. I have an unanswered question-who will evaluate the new members to merit points? Can you explain me? It is nice to read your post about the topic MERIT.

I quite heavily disagree with quite a few of your points:


Let's just post this one under your "the Ugly, Desperate Ways to Get Merit" shall we. Literally the exact opposite of what the Merit system was supposed to be but whatever I guess


Why the heck is this on the list of Desperate and Ugly ways? It's a straight forward way to contribute to the forums, if you're outing an actual scammer where you have enough evidence to prove your case and thus protecting someone from being defrauded in the future just in what way is that ugly or desperate. People did that before the merit system existed too.

Now slander to please the opposition might be considered desperate abd ugly (ie all those threads trying to malign <insert reputed member> getting merits for example) but a proper scam accusation doesn't constitute as ugly in any way


Reminder: Non DT negative rating do not show up on your profile publicly beside your posts (as in you don't get "red painted" as you need to go to the trust section of the profile to see those under Untrusted Ratings) and generally are bullshit anyway so you don't need to get worked up about those. (if  you want to read my ramblings on how I interpret readings and recommend others to (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3169656.msg32851114#msg32851114) then you can read my reply)

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I still disagree with a ton more of your points but those were like the trigger points for me. To sum it up if you want to learn about the real dirty way to "earn" merits then this is the guide for you

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PS: Just a pet peeve of mine but those "XD" make you sound pretty immature

that was a long story bro, but your tips is very educational i like the idea to be a part of the bitcoin talk community.
to summarized it, you just need to go with the flow. post must be constructive and related to the thread. good for you guys that English language is your first language for me even though i want to say something i'll end up posting just a few words, because i am lack of vocabulary and too bad on grammars. in the end of the day the only words that i remember is from the scene of the Hollywood movies so that's why i can speak English partially.

I dont have the time to read all the words you posted maybe even some members will not spend time reading that.  If they want to gey merits then they must workhard to earn it

I'm not sure why I keep seeing people saying the merit system is not fair? Just post constructively and you're fine that was a golden rule before the merit system aswell.

I subscribe and relate to most of what you say here. Long posts are often difficult to digest, but it is just after lunch here so I thought I'd give it a go at your one. I've written some long posts related to merit stats and must admit that they’re not easy to digest by others.

Regardless, the basic rule of thumb is to try to make every post meaningful, especially if you are required by a signature campaign to post a large amount of posts per week. Don’t be tempted to fulfil your campaign contribution post quota with a bunch of gibberish posts. Put some time and effort into every post.

Given that they can't all be impressive, but at least assure that they are not lame onliner references to luck, moon, lambos and so forth.

@BlueTyrant Thanks for your feedback. I see that my #5 has emotionally affected you that you would call all steps #1 through #7 “real dirty way to 'earn' merits.” Mind you, this includes #3, which is giving merits to deserving posts, and #2 – posting high-quality, relevant content. Ok.

To this, I'd simply like to remind you that we both have different ways to farm merits. Wanting to help out newbies, I created this guide to share my insights. So, please don't insult other people's ways of earning merits.

After looking at your post and topic history, I understand why #5 greatly triggers you. Within 7 days of joining, your second topic started is a very long and detailed post outing spammers/scammers. And around 13 (25%) of your merits are from scammer or reputation threads. It's not something that someone who is new to bitcoin talk, like me, would be adept at creating unless he were an alt account. I'm not saying you are or not, but it is impressive that you have 52 merits with only 28 activity.

But let's just say I can see that within a week you've learned all, if not most, of the forum's functions. So, either you're brilliant or. Anyway, good job!

Anyway, as I've stated in #5, it's perfectly fine and encouraged to out scammers with real proof of them being scammers and spammers. But there are a plethora of threads where someone isn't a scammer or spammer and people have merited them anyway. I remember spending a good number of hours (of fun) reading through such a thread, and the final verdict 20 or 30-something pages later was that the person in question simply had circumstantial evidence against them. There was no real determinate truth. Yet the OP still got a bunch of merits for the mega thread (perhaps 15 – 20 merits). That person also got a whole bunch of red trust.

Anyway, I'm warning newbies not to head into drama like that. If you're on bitcointalk to join a community, there is absolutely no need to involve yourself in drama. It's not a lie that there are inner circles on bitcointalk, both good and bad. Don't piss off either side. Just stay neutral, keep your head down, and trudge on. If you decide to monetize your bitcointalk account, you don't want the wrath of those antedelluvians on you. That goes for more than just signature campaigns, but trading as well.

The path of least risk is often best. And there's no point in making enemies because it only limits your business potential on the forum. I've seen people complain about DT1 users giving red trust for political/religious views. And that does affect trading and sig campaign viability.

So if what you're about to post is in some kind of emotional/drama-ish thread, just stay out.

First of all, if you'd like to receive merits on this forum, I suggest you improve your English and post-articulation skills.

If not, then you should go to the local board of your native tongue and become active there. Then, you should apply as a merit source after showing leadership qualities. I believe that there's a huge need for merit sources in foreign languages, so the bar is lower and you'll get in with earnest effort.

I give you the following tips:

1. Browse the forum for daily important posts, then go to your local board and start a topic, like: "Important Posts Translated 3/27/2018" In that topic, provide a link to the original post you found, then write an original summary on the important points of that post. Do that for the other posts you've found for the day of 3/27. It's more impressive if you do it all in one post rather than posting multiple times in one thread.

2. Answer questions people are asking in your local board.

3. Provide insights on how your native speakers can increase their participation on Bitcointalk without seeming spammy. Because they probably can't speak English as well as you, their posts will probably be marked as spam if they're anywhere else on Bitcointalk, so try to encourage them creatively on how to post more articulately.

And to answer your question, the current merit system has no standards for evaluating new members' merits. The sole arbiter of whether your post is worthy or not of merits is each person with an sMerit reading your post. In a way, this could open up the possibility for you to receive more merits, because everyone's judgment is different, some easy and some hard.

But now that anyone who merits anyone with a sheaty post gets scrutinized as a possible "merit seller." It's kind of raised the bar on sending merits. People are no longer apt to give out merits willy-nilly. You can see the drastic change yourself if you look at merits given out in January -- people were handing out merits far more generously.

Then suddenly there was a clamp in merit-sending after that, when everyone was too scared that they were meriting a spammer/scammer. Now they're scared that if they send a merit to a poor-quality post, they'll be labeled as someone abusing the merit system.

@yazher

that's okay man :). No one's english is perfect, and yours is pretty good. I'm pretty sure you can get a merit if you follow my steps with your level of english.

I would suggest going to Serious Discussion and finding a thread that's easy to research. Then, there, do your research and find key tidbits of info that are really intresting and meaningful to that topic. Find more and more of that info. Then give it a good angle. Then just write two to three paragraphs where you explain the background of that topic, adding your slant / angle, then including all the key tidbits of research you dug up.

I'm not saying that's going to get you a merit right off the bat... but if you do that 2- 3x, you're bound to see a merit sent your way ;).

@tukagero

You're my pet peeve. Honestly, if you were a newbie, your post would be considered a sheatpost. But you're a Full Member, and so you're allowed to join a thread and say, “I didn't read it, lol. So i'm just going to say something generic that doesn't even make sense.” And that's what you did. Wish I could report you for it, but, ah well. The privileges of being ranked.

@MoonIsBlue

You're right. The only people complaining about the merit system are the ones who suck at posting. But, I do think that there's a significant number of new members who are unsure of whether or not they're going to get merits. Like me, they posted high-quality posts, but were not merited right off the bat. This makes them feel discouraged, and maybe they complain before letting their posts marinate for a few weeks.

I made this guide with them especially in mind. But the system can be quite harsh and has a steep learning curve. Let's be honest, you won't be getting any merits if you reply to a “Bitcoin is the future” thread by typing 30 words explaining that bitcoin is decentralized and will only rise when fiat becomes more manipulated. You have to write at least 75 words.

@DdmrDdmr

Thanks for the merits, my friend :).

I didn't really think my post was difficult to digest, given that I have bolded out the important points. I'm actually an avid writer and write articles often online. I followed my typical article format (with some lax because, well, I didn't get paid to write this =) ), with reader-friendly spaces provided and even subsections. I think it's somewhat well-organized, but maybe there's some jumbled pasta here and there.

You have more merits than me, so I guess your long posts on merits work well for you. I've seen people get 8 merits for a paragraph-long post, and it sort of triggers me. But, that's just how the merit system goes. It all depends on who the merit-sender is, rather than the post itself.

I like your take on sig campaigns. And I use a similar philosophy myself. In fact, I actually am taking the view that a signature campaign is actually a “paid to write” gig. You know how people get their Masters only after working at a company? It's because they're taking advantage of the practice where the company pays their good-performing employees to get advanced education to increase their skills. So they work during the day, then go to grad classes at night (for free). The rationale is: Why pay for grad school when a company can pay me to go? So they join a company with the intention of getting the company to pay for their advanced schooling.

I believe that's a good business model – if there's something you want to do, try to find a way to get someone to pay you for it.

And that's how my sig campaign is for me. My end goal is to earn more merits and rank up, but why post for free when I can get a sig campaign to pay me for it?

Thank you for this interesting piece. I guess I read every word. Well, I’m already a part of a signature campaign as a Jr member. I hope I don’t flaunt any other “rule” as I aspire to become a full fledged member of the community. However, I have one question; does it mean merits can only be gotten via creating a new thread or comments can also fetch merits?

You're an extremely good writer, no taking that away from you.

I merited what you wrote, but mainly for points 1, 2 and 3. I don't exactly agree with the points after that, but I can definitely see why you wrote them, and I can see some value, also.

May I ask one thing of you, please, and it's just to preserve your own credibility....remove your sidebar post. The "Thank you for all merits" shit.

I realise this may be ironic on a level I don't get, but it undermines your whole post. Lose it.

EDIT: You're cynical on a level I'm not, but I can't really fault you for that. Will watch your posts with interest.

Just a little side note : It is not the length of the post, but rather the quality of the contribution that gets merited.

You can write a "Wall of Text" in every post and it will not be merited by most people. The reason for this is simple :

~ People are pressed for time, so they will stop reading after the first 2 paragraphs.
~ Some people are just too lazy to read.
~ A lot of people will search for unique posts that are not just a duplication <copy&paste> of other people's ideas, before they give sMerit.

A well structured post that adds constructive value to the discussion, will be more beneficial to the forum than a "Wall of Text" that says nothing.  ;)

This should be tattooed on every new members mouse. Quoting those great walls of text is even worse. Always remember that if a merit awarder skips over your post, then there is no chance that he will give you a merit.
 A diamond is worth far more than a pile of horse manure. :)

Indeed a very long post OP, but I enjoyed it.I think you can cut short by keeping the explanations short.

I have few more ideas for gaining Merit, if you agree, you can add it to your post.
1. Create something constructive like Good Infographics (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2834641.msg29065043#msg29065043) or something useful like this (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2534500.0) or that (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3127909.msg32346685#msg32346685).
2. Merit Data analysis for ex. 1 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3078328.0) and 2 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3082289.0).
3. Keep an eye on giveaway threads (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3048258.0).

Last but not the least , Do not copy others articles/work for Merits or any reason

Gotta love that underlying passive aggressive tone but let's go through it anyway.


Wait what? That's utter bullshit to say it's emotionally affected me. I have a firm stance of not doing business with scammers and that includes stuff like aiding them. I have always outed scammers on other forums and forms of communication media (though I will not provide links to those to safeguard my privacy).

My opinions on the other points are independent of that point. From your points I can only conclude one thing, you encourage scammers and their scams.


Just to make a point here:

I am not trying to farm merits, I were I could easily do so by lurking in the in "right" places AKA getting in touch with the so called Bounty Hunters running merit farms and exchange rings.


Oh boy, we here have a Hypocrite


Don't judge how others get merit says the guy who judges how others get merit


Read above, I despise scammers, everyone should unless they happen to be one


All I'll say is:

Hurray!! I finally lost my NotAccusedOfBeingAnAlt Virginty, I have ascended to the ranks of the reputed folks who get accused of being an alt. After all having the ability to read the read the report format and just having a look at other threads makes you an alt!


I love people who say this. I've moderated several places and people give this excuse of being new and thus having not read the rules yet. All places have like a bunch of resources they highly recommend reading. I always read through the rules of the place I join to make sure I don't fuck them up. Grasping how the forum works is to put is simply easy as shit. If you have been a part of several other forums like this it'll barely take you any time.

The scam report format is generic as heck and nothing really out of the blue and it's obvious why every point is there for an obvious reason so nothing great about filing a report.


You do realise in a lot of case, assuming guilty unless proven innocent works better than the other way around. I'm not saying it should be used every time, but quite often it works. Example:

Person A buys a physical item from person B. Person A accuses person B of not sending the item. It is impossible for person A to prove he didn't get an item apart from some circumstantial evidence. It's way way easier for person B to prove he has sent the item by say providing the copy of the shipping receipt.


blah blah blah tl;dr

(Imagine the of someone asking the audience for a response with a large number of people attending)

DO YOU WANT TO MAKE EASY MONEY SPAMMING YOUR SIG? *YES*

ARE YOU FUCKED OVER BY MERITS? *YES*

Good, then let me teach you how to quickly farm them so you can go back to the good ol' days of Bitcointalk money making

So what was the point of your post, then? You're a shitposter. Your post adds absolutely nothing to this conversation, and you're simply spamming your signature. GTFO.

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Hey OP, while I don't necessarily agree with what you wrote, or your view on this merit system, I merited your post because you obviously took a lot of time and thought to present your findings, and it was made with the underlying motion to want to help others.

After reading your post, I also wanted to state what @Kakmakr already stated; your ability or potential to earn merits has NOTHING to do with the length of your post. It just has to resonate with someone that feels that your post is meritorious to one extent or the other. Case in point? I received three merits for posting the following:


Obviously, other users agreed with my short two-sentence statement. Why? Because it was true, and it fit the given context of the situation where I presented my opinion.

While I'm here, I want to leave a shameless plug for a challenge that I run, where the main goal of it is not the rewards involved, but rather a way for me to help out willing participants who want to improve their posts. I critique the participants' posts after every weekly round, and provide feedback to them. If anyone reading this is interested, take a look here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3055616.0

Cheers!

pats on the back?? More likely... you might have been banned... AGAIN.

Did you just admit to ban evasion? ??? ::)



Apparently you didn't read them that well... ::) ::)


*thread has been archived: http://archive.is/kwTqm*

Dammit that's a good catch, I skipped his sob story. I suggest reporting the OP w/ the archive link so mods can nuke his ass

@23xfi

Both comments and threads can be merited. It doesn't matter if you create a new thread or post in an existing thread created by someone else. What matters is the content and if it's good quality and very relevant.

See my edit in the OP. Don't post in megathreads or threads that are considered spam threads. You might get a merit there, but the chances are very low – so it's basically a waste of time and effort. I've posted a very good post in one of these megathreads and applied to a merit giveaway contest. The contest host said that the quality of my post deteriorated because it was posted in a spam thread. I argued that a post's quality should be independent of the thread it's in – but he disagreed, and that's the majority opinion of most merit-awarders on bitcointalk.

It sounds unfair, but yes, just don't post in large threads. My rule of thumb is to post in a thread with only 2 or 3 pages of replies. Best to use “Show unread posts since last visit” to find new threads with still few replies!

@HodorHodl

Thank you so much for the merits! You have a ton of merits, so I'm sure you know what you're talking about. But I see that all (except for 1) of your merits came from #5 and #6. They're from either discussing someone complaining about merits or making insightful comments in scammer threads or threads created by scammers to spite people who reported them – the drama threads. So I guess, even if you didn't agree with those two points, your merits came from them XD.

But oh my gad, I see you got sooo many merits from your own Beginners & Help thread! That's what I was going for LOL. I was trying to go for that low key “trying to help out, and not really farming for merits with my own thread XD” so I posted it in this section so that it would look more authentic and people would think I was being more altruistic :D. But I failed hard lol.

Oh and btw, I have the “thank you for the merits thing” just for gratitude and nothing else. I can't reply to every thread where people send me merits, so I figured I'd just leave it in my personal text so that people get thanked automatically lol.

@BTCforJoe

Thank you for the merits man!

For you as well, even though you don't necessarily agree with #5 the exact example you gave falls under it. It's so easy to get merits when you act like police on bitcointalk, that even two-sentence posts, as long as they're pleasing to read and on-point, will get at least 1 merit.

HERE else you can read what topics are better affected in order to get more Merit
The topic is in Russian, but I'm sure it will not be difficult to translate the page. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2869111.0
I hope that this will help you