Bitcoin Forum

As a newbie in this forum. I am very curious about merits. even though at the beginning when I just joined this forum I didn't know the use of merit at all. I think merits is just like the like button on facebook status that can be given by anyone even by beginners who just joined. but it turns out I was wrong. because when I first joined this forum I tried to give merit to someone with posts that I thought were useful. but it can't. because it turns out I have to have that merits first. and collecting it is not as easy as I imagined.

And I also think that it doesn't matter if I don't have merits.

but when someone gives me merits for the first time. I became very happy and began to understand the importance of merits.

Because I feel that my writing is appreciated by someone who gave me that merits.

but I'm wondering, what are the reasons or criteria that can make all friends in this forum willing to give merits to someone? ???

if I myself if I already have enough merits.
then I will give merits to someone if their writing is useful for me.

So I ask this question to be a learning material for me who is a beginner. to be used as a reference or future reference in writing topics on this forum or when I want to comment on someone's topic.

thank you very much everyone.

Posting quality. If you have good posting quality, some people will like you for that, including some merit sources that will find it difficult not to merit your quality posts. The more you stay on this forum, the more you know, the more you gain knowledge and experience, the more receiving merits will never be a problem, then receiving merit will become something usual. Always try to contribute with quality posts and learn from established members.

Read: FAQ: Everything you need to know about forum 'activity, account ranks and merit (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2766177.0).

Summarily,

• You send sMerits when you find a remarkable post.
• To earn 1 sMerit, you need to have received 2 merits. (Unless you're a merit source)
• You're free to merit any post since you're the one who judges what's remarkable and what's not.

Here's my criteria: BlackHatCoiner's meriting policy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5348133).

means that with this merits award system, it is hoped that it can encourage members not to be careless in presenting and writing in this forum, right?
because if someone makes a perfunctory post such as a status on social media that is less useful then it won't make the writer get merit from the reader, right?

I just understand now. indirectly this can make this forum clean of posts that are less useful.

Has the Merits system been implemented since the beginning of the formation of this bitcointalk forum?. I think it's a genius idea about this merits system.
someone's eligibility is really tested.

---

Thank you for being willing to answer my question.

oh I just found out that I can only give merit to others when I already have at least 2 merits. thanks for telling me.

and well i will read more about this bitcointalk forum.

I think there are no specific criteria, sometimes it can be quite subjective. Meme posts or pictures sometimes can get merits if someone thinks it deserves. But mostly those posts to get merits have fulfilled the common standard such as quality, constructive, informative, meaningful, or helpful to others. Don't worry, if you always try to make good posts, you may get more merits again.

I'm feeling generous today, so you got some merits that you can give out to a post or two that you like--and that's basically the criterion for why merits are distributed (or at least it should be). 

OP, you weren't here back before 2018 so you probably don't realize how bad this forum was back then before the merit system got created.  It was a measure taken by Theymos to curb the rampant shitposting by members in sig campaigns or bounties and to make it nearly impossible to farm accounts, i.e., create a bunch of them and rank them all up just by posting enough to gain enough activity.  If you'd like some reading entertainment, search the Meta section in late January 2018.  The whole section just exploded with threads about merits, and it was friggin' wild.

Merits is a very subjective issue, so if you are looking for a general criterion for giving them out, then i am afraid you would not find any, every user has their own personal criteria and you prolly should have yours, and that will help you to give out merits effectively when you see posts that meet your criteria.

But mind you that merit sources for example would prolly have a more lenient criteria for giving out merits since they get replenished every 30 days, and source merits not used up within that time get decayed, so they definitely would give out more merits that a user who isn't a MS. I said that so as you fix your criteria you understand that you might always run out of smerits, thus you make sure you give them out to a post you really like.

Having said that, the forum really doesn't care what you do with your smerits, just do not sell them, and do not give them to your alt accounts.

It has been here since 2018, OP. Before 2018, it was all activity-based on how you would rank up in here. Think of merit as like Award system in Reddit although there are no ranks there, I believe.

Lol.
I recall B&H being bombarded by "plagiarism" posts by many newbies trying too hard to earn merits. :D

• Welcome message (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5036308.0).
• Merit & new rank requirements (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0)

To discover it, let's read two topics about from theymos. Why he decided to create the merit system and his advice to forum members exclusively newbies.

Merits should be awarded to members who have good contributions. Sometimes you can see some members exchange merit and it looks like they use merit as a like on social media. Anyway, it is not the main use case of merit on the forum and somewhat is not relevant to the main use case of the merit system.

I don't think it should be debatable when someone give their merit because different user had different criteria, but "quality post" criteria will always included on every users. It doesn't matter which user it is, his religion, his personality, his negative feedback or even got banned. As long as I read the post can be useful to anyone, I will give him merit. Don't need to worry, if you have given someone merit and no one discuss you on Reputation board, pretty sure you have doing right about meriting someone.

Why are these questions in META? OP, please move your thread to the Newbies section, there is plenty of information from equally curious newbies who are interested in merit for bounty and subscription companies.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=39.0

I read your story, in fact, this issue seems to be of great concern to you, and you have repeatedly asked about it in your Indonesian section.
I think you have already been given a lot of advice on how to get merit, but you stubbornly do not understand. If this continues, your journey with merit may be a long one. Learn faster.

I'd like to think of the merit system as the like button on most social media platforms or the upvote button in sites such as Reddit. Merits in bitcointalk is a way to make a post stand out so that readers skimming through a topic could find the "best" replies and read them. There were even talks about add a "sort" feature where you could sort posts based on number of merits they've received (it wasn't implemented though).
The only difference is that you have to "earn the power to upvote" on bitcointalk. It doesn't come free. To do that you have to receive merits yourself.

There really isn't any fixed criteria, everyone does their own thing. It may be a post that made you chuckle or a well written guide that is useful for everyone like this (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5240594.0).

The only thing I would like to add to what has been said is that they are called "merits" for a reason. In theory you should give them to someone because you believe that what that person has written has merit.

But as pooya87 says everyone does their own thing. There are times when merits are given not so much because people believe that what the other has written has merit, but simply because they agree with what he/she says, without the post merited expressing any profound idea, nor has it taken much effort to write it.

The thing is that now you already have some smerits to send, so you can start practicing, while you keep on noticing how others give merits.

I can't call myself the one who distributes merits very often, because I'm not very high-rank yet, and each of my smerit is derived from the merits sent to me. Although I already know that there are merit sources on the forum, and when the merit system was introduced, high-rank users received a certain number of smerit by default and could distribute them before they received their merits and converted to smerit. That's why I'm very picky about my desire to send merit to someone, because I think of them as a finite set, and I don't want a situation where I want to give a merit to a member and not have it.

For me, the main criterion for meriting posts is based on how I see the forum. This is a platform for discussions. These discussions are based on arguments put forward by users in support of their positions. It often happens that I do not agree with the position of a member, but I like the way he argues and justifies it, because it is convincing, and makes me think about the appropriateness of another point of view. And it expands my ideas and horizons. The same criterion applies to those arguments that support the same position as my own. I and some other forum member may be in the same standpoint, but someone has found a better argument to support this view, and I appreciate it, because it helps to strengthen my own viewpoint.

I'm aware that many newbie members are asking the same question and trying to understand but there is no single answer.
We are all different and each of us has our reasons.
There are no rules for granting merits other than a ban on the sale of merits.
Personally, I always give merits for posts that bring some new value to the forum, with some new information, analysis, thinking etc.
Since I'm active in the Croatian part of the forum, I also opened a topic where all local members can report their quality posts on the forum and get merits.

My criteria of meriting depends on my mood. But usually I give merit if someone shows me a solution or hint on problem I have or question I've asked. I can give merit to an explanation of something I dont understand, but this something must be that I search myself. Something not imposed. For example when I visit beginners section, I would not merit every single guide I see, but I will merit a guide of a crypto thing I find interesting and feel like I need to learn that.

I shuffled your sentences to better answer your questions. I merit posts where I see that the user invested time and effort to write what they did. It's as simple as that. I put myself in their shoes and think how much time, knowledge, and effort would I need to write it the way they did. I don't have to agree with the content, but I am still going to reward that post. Well-reasoned, intelligent, or funny posts can also receive merits from me. 

Let's now talk about what I don't like to see. I am going to use your words because they fit in nicely with what I am trying to say:
You are happy, confident, you feel appreciated, and liked when someone merits you, right? You think other people have recognized and appreciated your efforts. Well, I want to see that the people I merit do the same things for others. You have to be part of the system to benefit from it, in my opinion. If you only get merits, but you don't give any to other forum members, you are not part of the system and it's very unlikely you will be merited from me. Exceptions are high-quality posts by members who obviously couldn't care less about the merit system (receiving or giving), and new users (like yourself) who don't have any sMerits to give out. But now that you do, start spreading that feeling of appreciation and respect to other posts that you feel deserve it. Because next time I come across a post by you that I believe should be merited, I am going to check your merit history  ;).

I don't often use the bookmarks feature in my browser, so I use merit to mark posts as important and maybe it will be useful to me in the future. Or personally user X has a lot of informative posts for myself which with limited remaining smerit I can't give enough to all his posts at one time. To find all these references, BPIP helped me find my smerit spending history.

Sometimes I also violate my own terms of spending my smerit for other reasons.

I am not very strict about giving my sMerits cause I know I am part of the ecosystem here in out forum so I give my sMerits to those who are worthy to be given or when I read their post or reply it was interesting or new to me like these so I ill give you a merit.
In addition what Other said if someone put an effort to his/her post and try to learn something new in my own perspective it is the example of worthy to be given.

To give you a personal breakdown of my criteria in sending sMERITS, please keep in mind that giving out such is purely discretionary on the part of the sender. While others may have their own criteria which may be entirely different than others, there is at least some commonality as to the benchmark of sending it. Nevertheless, here is mine:

• Someone replied to my posts which further expounded the discussion on a certain topic;
• Post contained useful information about cryptocurrencies in general; and
• Scam reports which included substantial proof.

While the first two are self-explanatory, the third point is something that is beneficial to the forum. People who report scams (with substantial proof) should at least be rewarded with some merits.

at third point really caught my attention. because I didn't think of getting to this point to give my merits.
but after reading this i got a new insight which is true this point is very important for all forum members. especially for those who need information before someone is caught in a scam.

I myself have experienced being deceived by someone in 2021.
In 2021, there will be frauds under the guise of investing in telegram groups that promise double money and profits every day. because in the past I didn't know anything because there really wasn't any information that came to me. I also fell into their game of deception. after I investigated it turned out to be a ponzi scheme scam.
then from that incident and your reply in the above point. it makes it very useful if someone posts about a scam with valid evidence. and deserve to be rewarded merit.

OP, I think by now you know some alan about your question in the thread and I think by now you should also know that you have broken rule No.32 for your reply, so please correct it. This means you will have to merge your last two posts into one post as they were created in less than 24 hours.

What is my criteria when it comes to meriting a post is if it contains some content which I can learn something new or reminding of something which I know earlier but clear explanation of what is about and everyone have their own criteria and you don't need to convince anyone just stick with your own posting habits and let the merit senders attract towards you.

Just don't care about merits and you will get more merits automatically, it is like mirage in a desert, the more you run after it, the more away it goes from you, but just accept that you have to make good posts, posts which you are sure are not spams, which can consist from knowledge to your just opinion, and although quality matters a lot, sometimes even with the best of quality, you will not get merits, and hence, the best approach to it is to remove expectations, write and express without any expectations of anything in return and be content, and if you gain some merits after that, it will make you just happier :)

The main criteria are quality, constructive and useful posts. Post criteria like that are expected to help users to get merit and rankup.
So far I don't have any specific criteria for post merit to someone but mostly use them on posts that I think are quality. Sometimes I can also send it to those who have helped me answer some doubts briefly and meaningfully, but the main criteria is quality posts.

The two points below may also be useful for you to consider when you want to give merit to other users, one important things are posts that are quality in your opinion.

There is no certain fixed criteria for sending out merits and we all can give them as we feel satisfied as if you agree with some post or some good and useful information is being shared over the forum deserves merit but how many you want to give depends on you.Although there is limit of 50 smerits per user in 30 days so keep that in mind.

You have now 14 merits which will give you half the smerits which you can send to any user whose post you like so try giving it out.

You feel generous most of the time helping them to reach next rank which is why you have the name on this  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4523027.0) list and we are familiar with your meriting policy also.

This merit system implementation was of great help to the forum to some extent as many of the shitposter who were unable to rank up left the forum rather than choosing to learn and make quality contributions to the forum.But still spam posting is there on forum but the aspect is accounts which are legendary or hero without a single merit but with lots of activity can't grow over the forum.So they will not be able to join any campaign also as most of them demands some earned merits in past 120 days.Overall implementation of this system is applauded by most of the forum members.

It looks like the OP got some merit and tips and lessons on how and what to get merit for. But everyone who generously presented him did not explain to him that it would also be good to bestow merits on others. As you can see, the OP hasn't handed out any merits yet.
And as a bad example is contagious, I'm somehow sure that soon you will see a few more newcomers here who are also interested in the topic of merit, and hoping to get upfront just as easily and simply by changing the theme for newbies to META.  :D

Well Pmalek actually did that, i assume you somewhat missed his post above, i will quote it for you below, i am also of the opinion that more users should be encouraged to join in the merit system (giving and receiving), though it is clearly understandable if a user doesn't really care about such, and then users who have such criteria that a user should be involved in the system before earning merits from them could also likewise skip their post in relation to merits, except it is a post of extremely high quality, just as Pmalek highlighted below. Having said that, we will see over the coming weeks if OP is the type that hoards merits; and God Meta has been somewhat free from newbies making a lot of threads about merits, so i really hope you're wrong and we do not go back to that ;D. Here is the post i spoke about earlier:

Merits system will definitely serve as your motivation to improve your post quality and grow more in the forum. Merits will only be given to you once other members will see your post as a constructive and very productive. And as long as you always contribute good discussions and always attracts the attention of other members in a positive way, merits will be credited to you.

That is the main purpose of introducing the merit system in the forum by theymos so far. Anyone whose account rank was below Legendary at the time the merit system was introduced should be able to post something of an quality "according to other users" to earn merit so as to help him rank up.

The merit system is quite effective in terms of improving the quality of posts of users who care a lot about rankings, it has fostered a lot of motivation for these users to do something better especially in terms of contribution and quality.

I don`t think this advice really works for you, since you didn`t receive any merit for the last 120 days. I also can`t agree that not caring about merit is productive as well. Sure, focusing on this alone will not add constructiveness to your posts, but you need to think about the future possible merits, because in this way you can imagine what other forum members can evaluate you for, and thus write a more contributing post.

I don't think so about this line from you cause in my own opinion. It depends on how the user handled it or how he/she makes a good post or not. Cause if someone runs for merit and he/she doing his/her best to create useful topics and made a good quality reply then the merits will come easily.
Chasing a merit is not just hard if you are knowledgeable enough.

Having to align Facebook likes with the forums merit system is a misconception that seems to have taken root within the forum. This is some familiar context that I recently looked into and found out that, they are rather too distinct to be used together. From how they are earned and functions, they are just too distinct. I was to post my reply here as a comment but, it kept expanding and as such, I crafted it into a thread on the beginners and help board as I feel its, where its most suited since, meta is filled with ranked up users whom are already familiar with all about the Merits and can conclusively different between them both.

You can find my findings here: These two don't go and yet, it keeps been used! (Misconception) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5391112.0)

Meanwhile, accreditation of merits on a post is users Judgment and it doesn't have to be limited to what you can use but, whatever appeals to your Judgment. Hence, you deem it merit worthy.

I might sound odd but I honestly do not have a set criteria which a post must meet before I deem it merit worthy, it all depends on how I feel after reading a post, a post I feel is very sensible get merited by me if I have smerit at the time , it doesn't matter the kind of post, it could be about trading, investment, scam, bitcoin, altcoin, gambling, services, anything at all but post has to make sense, it's as simple as this.
Though no rules states how a post should look like or feel like before we merit it, but we as users should only merit quality and sensible posts in other to discourage shitposters and spammers.

OP, do you think this thread is still relevant enough to keep it open?
I think it's time for you to lock it in and draw conclusions because we will have almost the same answer to that question. Yes, I know there are sometimes some differences between merit source and non-merit source, but in general it's always about quality posts. So, what do you think?

Personally, I think the better phrase is if the person is not too keen on chasing for merits but continues to provide and create quality posts, then his/her posts would inevitably earn merits along the way.

Lots of users nowadays are too focused on merit hunting (which is not a bad thing IMO) which somehow floods the forum with repetitive posts. Though it is still highly appreciated whenever they try to create a discussion, I think it is still best if they could create posts that are open for discussion; and make posts that can be a battlefield for discussion.

That's the point of how to earn merits all we need to do is that but for now what I am seeing most of the topics nowadays have a similar threads before all they do is revise the topic and posted it here.

OP I am agree on what BITCOIN4X said above all the answer are you looking for is already here so it's better to lock this thread in order to prevent some redundant reply/ spam reply. You can lock this topic in the left lower part of this thread.

for a newbie like me maybe when later I have more merit. and when you want to share with someone. then my criteria are almost the same as the others.

namely "in addition to the quality of the post, I also really appreciate posts that contain education and the impression of high morals or wisdom, such as people who value someone's time and effort. People like that deserve to be rewarded"

because I know it hurts when we are not rewarded for the work we do.

Or maybe because I'm a crybaby.

This varies from one board/topic to another, so there is no specific rule. If you follow it, you will get merits or vice versa.
As long as you worked hard to write a topic and it was of good quality or added new information, I think you deserved Merits.


Some sources have technical knowledge in certain boards and therefore you may not get merits from a specific source.

Personally, I try to distribute them to all members of all boards, but there are boards, for example mining, I do not have enough experience to assess the quality of the posts, so I do a Google search and rely on some trusted members of that give you some merits.

Generally, the more merits you get, the easier earn more will be.

Your criteria are almost the same as mine, namely topics that are useful especially in the field of education and morals. and which has the impression of wise words in it. because I also judge the quality of writing from the words that came out of the author. how wise he is in speaking. because from word by word we can guess the original characteristics of the author himself.

I want to share the happiness I experienced when I got some merit from the good people here. I want you to feel it too. by giving you some merit. although I still don't have much but this is a matter of my support for fellow beginners and it is hoped that it can raise your activeness in writing and interacting in this forum like me who became excited after receiving some merits.

Meriting posts is subjective and to each benefactor to their own choosing. I like to merit posts that make me see a situation in a different shade that I never thought of. It could be a mild criticism, I don't mind, but the person seeking to do that must of course be good at what they're saying. Secondly, any post that is literally well written and funny gets my attention as I consider such merit worthy. Thirdly, posts that relate with my position on issues. Again, posts which are didactic and address pertinent issues of the forum in helpful ways to the community also get my attention and  merit.

Careful though. Even if the post is quality for you, it could be plagiarized and that would be a waste of merits as that user would be banned anyways.
This is why I do not award merits that easily when a user posts a long wall of a topic.

---

OP, if the answers of the many already satisfied your question, it would best to lock this topic to avoid further unnecessary answers.

For a while now I'm attempting to give a user not more than two merits (one each for two separate posts).  I do find that on occasion I want to give merits to a user who I've already merited, however, on the whole, I tend to stick to just two merits per user due to a limited supply.  (And yes, I'll usually check out loyce.club merit list for a user to ensure I haven't given them merits in the past)

There is some difference in this because you are thinking that way but i have seen some members only caring about getting merit so that they can join any campaign for earning purpose ignoring the quality post fact but ends up getting nothing or nearly one or two merits.So merits should be in your mind but quality preference for long survival should be more important and delivering your best to this community.

Or say it's the other way around like if you have knowledge you don't need to chase merits  ;)

There are many such members who are willing to deliver many statemens related to meriting policy but they themselves have not been contributing to this system well like not getting any merits due to zero good contribution to the forum or not sending merits.So the best is exchange of knowledge and merits as well to grow on the forum.There could be your personal way of giving out merits but it's more important to give and earn them in efficient manner.

I am afraid of this advice or statement. I know a merit owner has the right to decide which post to give merits. But I have seen somewhere that someone was called out for giving merits to a very low quality post. I cannot find the post now though. Can you say something about this?

Very good criteria. As I have seen this, it will give me the idea of the kind of post to make and the amount of merits to be expecting from you. That is very good innovation.

That's easy, if you're remotely close to the inner circle or you are secretly multi accounting, you will be able to gather as much merits as you like. They just peddle you the BS that you have to be good with your post, they don't want to share their merits. Might as well let it decay. Oh, it's also subjective just to be safe.

Do you know that envy is a very bad and completely unproductive feeling? If you do not manage to earn merits, it means that your posts are not appreciated by other forum members. Maybe you should review the basics and start writing something better? It is very easy to shift the responsibility for one's own failures onto someone. If you want to be a member of this community, you need to learn its rules, and not be offended that you are not taken to the playground, while you do not know the rules of the game.

I agree with you. The post to which you are responding is full of resentment, but I looked at the reason why the owner has such conclusions. Yes, you're right, he often applies to subscription companies whose managers don't seem to think he's a good poster. But many such people among us do not conclude to correct themselves, do not seek to start with themselves, saying that there is corruption on the forum, and promotion in rank, or just getting merits is too hard to work.
It all depends on the person, if he can achieve his own, then his desires will come true, depending on the efforts that he puts into this.

motivation and encouragement is sometimes needed for beginners and the merit system is the answer. like what happened to me. I am encouraged and motivated to be more enthusiastic in discussing and being active in this forum. after I got the merit. so there is no harm in pursuing merit if it has an impact on improving the quality of writing and active membership in this forum.
like if we work in a company and the boss gives us a tip. then we will definitely work harder.
but despite all that. Everyone has their own opinion and commitment. so go ahead and enjoy. Thank you friend.

---

I would like to thank everyone who has been willing to answer my question. and it is very useful for me. and I've got the conclusion from all the answers, friends.
that is, everything is almost focused on making quality, fun and many posts that are useful for individuals and communities. and I will evaluate or improve the quality of my posts. or my response. not only meant to pursue merit but indeed every post on this forum should be of quality. because any that are not qualified or spam will definitely be deleted and will only annoy all readers.
For example, this morning I was told by one of my friends on this forum about my writing which quoted a topic in full without any adjustments that made reading uncomfortable. and I myself after the review is not good in view.
and there are many conclusions that I may not be able to write one by one and this is very valuable for me to increase my insight. and also for other beginners.
and every person or beginner who reads this will surely have their own different conclusions. but let's respect the differences and unite in the similarities that we are on the same forum which indicates we have almost the same goal.

thank you very much everyone. all your feedback is very valuable.

I will lock this topic on the advice of my friends so that there will be no spam that will appear in the future. because also all the answers I need it's more than enough.