Bitcoin Forum

I know that some users will attack me due to the same thread appeared on the board already, but I wish to ask in any way:

How can we regard the case when a member stays some merits to a signature campaign's OP to be accepted into the campaign? Coz the first post of every signature campaign is standard (picture, links, rules, signatures and so on), does it really deserved to be merited or it is simple ass licking?

Thanks.

In almost all cases a signature campaigns recruitment thread isn't something that deserves merit from my point of view. However, users can do whatever they want with their merit that they've earned. I guess a few people aren't "asslicking", and might just be rewarding the manager for managing the campaign well. Not what merit is suppose to be used for, but I'm sure a few users have done it for this reason.

I'd say it depends on the thread. Merit means: this post is worth reading. The campaign (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1935179.0) I'm in, has received Merit from 4 different users. Considering how long it's been running, and how much it pays, the thread is for sure worth reading. And I'm pretty sure Meriting a Legendary campaign manager who runs a very strict campaign isn't going to help you get accepted.

I've also seen ICO-campaigns that earned Merit, and those aren't worth it at all.

What deserves to be merited and what not depends on the judgement of the merit awarder and not others. While people might give merits to some threads simply because they agree with it, they may do so for other reasons as well. Although merit is subjective it is generally awarded to helpful and informative posts.

In my opinion some signature spammers who were desperately wanting to get accepted in some or the other campaign on being accepted on a certain campaign after failed attempts at many other campaigns are so full of gratitude for the manager that they end up meriting their thread.

I recently saw this reason which makes quite a lot of sense from a marketing/inverstor point of view:

Deserved or not, meriting the ANN OP can have the effect indicated by @fonship (who does not run an Ann thread) in the eyes of many.

LoyceV was right OP, now you know why your post doesn't have any Merit. Simple logic isn't? :)

Well, there are some Bounty thread/ANN thread that is worth giving merits because of the descriptions indicated in the thread or it's very attractable to some big investor groups. Even though i didn't give any merits to those ANN/Bounty threads, i realize that it's really hard to create or design a Bitcointalk page for a project using BBCodes + editing pictures and logos + the Signature codes is really cool 'cause i wanted to master that thing. Also, moderating the thread like answering all the concerns of those who are interested in the project.

After all, these threads might be a factor for the success of it's ICO.

But if it's only a translated ANN/Bounty, it's not worth it. Copying and translating some posts is not a good thing to see and the idea to create those threads was not from them since they're just working to receive a bounty.

Merits was given to those persons who is dedicated for creating valuable contents and those who have intelligent and knowledgeable posts.

Meriting those sorts of threads is more likely people just using the merit as a 'like' button. Ass licking isn't against the rules either, but I don't think meriting a post is a guarantee to get you into a campaign anyway, but maybe they are trying to ass-lick in the hope that they will. Something tells me that DarkStar isn't going to accept you into Chipmixer for merely meriting their Ann thread. If people request that their post is merited to join then that would be a different matter but I don't think 'ass kissing' is a huge issue right now.

Many things are needed to be taken into consideration before reaching any conclusion like:

1) Suppose a member who is already accepted send merit to a manager after few weeks. This might be because he is impressed with the ways he manages the campaign like keeping the thread updated with detailed replies.

2) Some might be sending merits in support of the campaign being promoted.

However, if someone sends merit to a manager in bulk before applying should not be encouraged.

What theymos said :


But there are even one liner low quality post by newbies which has received 50 merits. For instance if you see the recent top merited replies, this particular not so great first post made by a brand new account has received 50 merits. Does this even deserve a single merit?


Merit has been used as a ranking up tool by alt accounts and spammers, rather than highlighting quality posts. Some newbie bounty managers also ask the participants to merit their bounty thread, so that they would reach the member position easily which also makes them somewhat superior! Merit has been introduced to stop the shitposters from ranking up and they are not to be rewarded to something which you agree or you have been part of. It is not a like in fb nor a retweet in twitter, this is something which we should award for quality posts, but it isn't happening neither!

I haven't seen one like this, but have seen a quite opposite case where a newbie bounty manager receives 20-30 merits to his Bounty Thread by a Hero/Sr Member who has been recently accepted.

It depends, I am on the same page as LoyceV. You can not just generalize. Let me give you another example...


User Zapo is doing some great job on his signature campaigns. He is just a member not a Legend or even a full member yet (possibly an alt of someone but we just can't say that).

This was from BTCforJoe and we all know BTCforJoe. If you read the users bounty topic then you will understand that this is no way ass licking. Zapo deserved it 100%. BTCforJoe even left a positive trust for him.



If you are seeing someone is doing extra ordinary job to help out the community which is ultimately benefiting the forum then don't hesitate to encourage then with whatever you have. I see another positive trust from jacee too. Giving a thumbs up encourage the person to do more who is already doing some good job.

PS: Some may say I am ass-licking for zapo coz he accepted me on one of his signature campaign even though I have a negative trust.
The truth is, I am not ass-licking. I can assure you that if you read his signature campaign topic and observe his selection process then you will also have a positive thought about him even if he reject you from one of his campaign.

I had this thought too like OP and others have that meriting an ANN or bounty is bribing or sort of things. While in most cases we see the licking but there are cases like zapo, DarkStar_ and LoyceV and few others that these are well deserved.

I think it depends on the campaign. The chipmixer campaign isn't a good example, most probably OP was referring to a campaign ran by a non-legendary user that needs merit to rank-up.

Some people are 'ass licking/kissing' managers with merits to get accepted and this is wrong if you ask me.

Top-merited topics, all time (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=toptopicsat) shows a good example: ⚡ [ANN] DeepOnion ONION ⚡⚡ DeepOnion DeepVault Online App Released ⚡⚡ (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2683530.msg27411367#msg27411367) received 314 Merit. DeepOnion is "famous" for being one of the worst spamming signature campaigns.

Shall we play a game

We've had this discussion pretty recently if I'm not mistaken, and nobody really can say why people merit the OP in a sig campaign thread.  It happened in Chipmixer's thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1935179.0) by some senior members, and I don't know if they were kissing ass or showing their gratitude.  Who knows.

I do think it's kind of a waste of sMerits and it's not really how they should be spent--but that's just my opinion.  I've merited posts that other members might not think are worthy, so everyone has their reasons.  As long as merit isn't being bought, sold, or used to get accepted into a bounty or campaign, it's fine by me--and it can't really be proven that any of these people are "licking ass" or, as we say in America, "kissing ass".

It's not like there's an abundance of great posts to merit anyway, and it also depends on how many posts you read.  I suspect that most campaign participants don't do as much reading as they do posting, so giving a campaign manager some merits almost seems logical for them.

It's OK if merit given for top quality thread, but when you give a merit to a Bounty thread/ANN thread you actually give it to a user who started those threads and in the most of cases it is low ranked members or newbies at all.
Coming back to the main point of the thread I think the situation is 50/50, I mean there are both cases: asslicking to become a part of a signature campaign, which appear rearly on the forum this days, let's admit it; and giving merits to good manager's work of the campaign.

Zapo's thread is what most of the managers have to learn from.

@mdayonliner, Gave you 3 instead of 1 merit for your overall help for of the forum, man. ...and as you know I love helping people /who deserve/ to rank-up :)
Welcome to the Sr. Member club.

Indeed.

Thanks mate. Appreciate the bonus   :P
The Sr. Member club is quite exciting.

LoyceV you are always spot on! :)

I don't see how a campaign thread would get that amount of merit but since merit is not moderated, we can complain all we want nothing is going to happen :)

Thanks for explanation :) You could count my post as not interested and that is your own opinion which I respect. But the main target of the post was to see what other users think about the case, couse I am sure that meritiong of the main posts of signature/bountty campaigns is simple ass licking with the expectation that manager will pay you back by rolling you into the campaign.

Damn, I reported so much spam there. I remember at one point is was unreal. Patrol was covered in DeepOnion spam accounts, and there was no real way of fighting them off. The fact that they'e received merit when there's other more deserving users is a pain in the arse too. However, the fact that thread is going to continue having traffic just because its one of the most merited is also annoying.  

I too have noticed that some Bounty managers recive impressive amount of merits for their threads.

As some members here already pointed out, this is a 50/50 situation.
Some do not deserve the merits, i feel that some bounty threads get merited when bounty hunters get a juicy payout even if the campaign was not adminstred in high level.

But there are cases when Threads are merited because Bounty manager is doing a good job compared to other bounty managers who sometimes are doing so bad job that I wish i could demerit them :D
But whatever the case it would be very hard to implement any rules on this without human evaluation on every situation.

Should they not be rewarded some other way? Wouldn't the trust system be more suited than rewarding them with merit? They might run a good campaign, but might not be the best of posters themselves. After all the merit system is suppose to reward those with high quality posts, and not high quality services. Maybe, its just me, but I would prefer to not give them merit for how well they run the campaign.

For some reason my view was limited only to merits.
I lean towards " trust " more than merit in this situation. Even more if the situation where there are users who are abusing system by trading merit for acceptance in bounty campaigns is true.

Dont take trust or merit to draw a conclusion about any person of this community. The type of posts a person makes will earn them so merits but you never know who among them is going to con somebody in the long run. There will always be these people who ruin a community but doing something bad and then running away.

Both of the terms are subjective and your views may or not be same with others. Still what you believe is your to keep.I already explained in this thread previously what I thought about the topic being discussed. If you think its not a good thing to merit an ANN then its not. A second person may or may not agree. :(