Bitcoin Forum

Have this thing across on your mind that merit sources and top merit earners are the ones trying out to monopolize signature campaigns on this forum and milking it out as much as they could?

Ex.
New accounts that had been created alone had been flooded out by lots of merits and turns out that they are really that familiar with this forum. Reaching out Senior accounts and even hero member ranking won't really be a problem.

Merit sources are focusing with those accounts or even those top merit rankers in the forum. Merit distribution isn't really that fair and I'm assuming that they are building their own sockpuppets to solo out and milk out signature campaigns that requires accounts that have lots of merit counts.

They do really have the advantage and this what make this system sucks.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/07/25/QmcZd.jpeg
source (https://imgflip.com/i/12expm)

When making such a big accusation or complaint, it would be great if you showed us examples/proof where merit sources have flooded their "sockpuppet" accounts with merits, and they are now milking the hell out of signature campaigns.

As far as I recall, at the beginning of the merit system, there were a couple of merit sources that abused the positions and got removed.

What I am seeing right now is just an assumption with no single proof.
Becoming a hero or Legendary member is not so hard. Even when you don't try so hard. Just be an active and helpful member in the community, you will get there.

I guess you are one of those users, who after gets frustrated with no merit just decided to speak up.
 Now my question is why you have decided to create a new account and not using you real account.maybe we would have seen at least a reason why you haven't received merits from merit sources.

I do hope you have good prove about this, if not I think you should lock this thread and try learning how to create good post just so you earn merits. As far as I'm concerned, merit sources, gives merits to quality posting and most of the senior members on this forum show more of such post than lower ranked member.

 If you had time to read some post made by junior members then You would see how good they are and why they should be awarded merits. I suggest you start learning and stop complaining about the merit system mate.

Complaining about Merit sources and also the one that earn much of them , but dont having the Balls to write that with your real Account !
Come again with your real Account but i guess you are afraid maybe that this will be not going well out for you.
Contribute good and maybe with some quality posts to the Forum and help others and you also getting maybe some Merits.
But please dont be lazy and just complain about it.

Just as I see you, obviously you are not new to this forum talking about merit, it seems your guts are very weak friend.

If you want to point out the problems you find with merit sources in this forum, you can show the evidence and use your real account, that will make your opinion more weighty and not look like nonsense.

I think that your original account seems difficult to get merit from other users in this forum, which makes you jealous of those who get merit from their contributions in the forum.
 
Show your real self. LOL

I don't see what the problem is with the OP using an alt account to say this. Alts are explicitly allowed on this forum and originally the idea was that you could use them to say controversial things that you don't want to say with your main account, so I think it's fine for the OP to create an alt.

I don't agree with what he says though. The merit system is not perfect but it is very good and it improved the forum a lot compared to the ranking system when I registered in summer 2017. With it, if you are a good poster you will get merits, and if you don't get merits then your contribution to the forum is not good enough.


Your assumption is incorrect, and I don't deny that there may be some isolated cases, but as things stand, it is better for them to concentrate on a single account that will end up paying them a lot, in some cases with custom deals, than to have several, because the time they have is limited and the quality inevitably suffers if you have several accounts.

Look at the requirements to enter the Green Zone of the campaigns managed by Royse777 for example.


So, it's not just about merits, it's much more than that.

You're wrong about merit sources and I recommend you to not promote any lies because the merit sources in our forum are performing their duty very well, and they also know very well that which user deserves a merit and which doesn't. The merits are often given to those users who make well informative posts, and they posts somehow reflect their helpful nature, and if a user doesn't gets a merit then that means the user isn't trying to help others but is only after grabbing merits, and we call such users as "merit fishers," because they try their best to get merits even though they do not deserve to get any of merit because of their poor positing habits.

And, when it comes to new accounts getting merits then you must have to look their post history because a useful post from a newbie is more appreciated by our merit sources because they want such newbies to rank faster. They only give merits to those newbies because they know that such users can be helpful for the forum, and they can produce more constructive and reading worthy posts after they are appreciated with merits.
Instead of blaming our merits sources you should better try to make good and helpful posts, and I'm quite sure that you'll see that merits will flow toward your good posts like to the ones that you have seen on this forum.

this would probably be taken a lot more seriously if you could provide detailed evidence supporting the claim you are making against merit sources and top merit earners.

so you are mad because newly created accounts are getting more attention than you by contributing and creating discussions happening in the forum? also, a newly created account does not mean that the person using it is completely clueless about this forum.

I mean, merit sources are chosen by theymos and he know every users' IP addresses, I don't think he never check the connection between the merit sources and the top accounts merited by them. AFAIK there were alt accounts tried to ruin DT system by using all the accounts to trust each other, so they met the requirements to be included become DT1 members and theymos was the one who catch it.

Moreover there are some detective in this forum used to catch cheater or scammer, so I don't think you need to worry too much. Yet, you can beat them by improving your post as we have so many merit sources.

Don't use a broad brush. I don't do it. Only some do it.

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Well I have seen a lot of 3500 merit plus people feeding accounts.

So yeah the op is part right. If you do a statistical breakdown you can see it is happening with new members getting  a lot of merits to make rank pretty quickly.

Members under a year and say 300 posts with 100 or 200 merits would be the sock puppets.  I see at least 3 or 4 in the wo thread.

Of course he is a newbie and not an OG. wink wink

Then try to be a merit source too or try to be one of the top merit earners. I am saying you should try to post like them and become like them.

You can also bring proof that you know what you are saying. Without prrof you are saying rubbish.

Having alt is not against on this forum. If you like you can have alts too but have quality posts and rank on if you post something quality.

Merit source are focusing on the accounts that post good.

I believe this is your alt, but you account is not posting anything good is the reason you have this believe.

People with a lot of sMerits care about merit monopolization A LOT more than you think — heck I don't even spend a single braincell in thinking about it. Don't excuse lack of post quality for "mEriT mOnOpOLiZaTiOn".

Seriously, stop it with this crap.

There is a merit source in every local board i think (i know not in every board but i must say most of the local boards have there own merit source). And that merit source, give merits to anyone he/she wanted. Because its his there right. And if you really think merit abusing is happening and you have observed it then you should provide some proves because i at least understand that this is not your main account.

You have made another account just to start this topic. So, if the account is new then why do you afraid to share the proofs too. I think you afraid if you would made this account from your real id then those merit source might not give you merits if they are giving you few. Well, i am not accusing but if you have solid proof then you can share those even from your main id nothing to afraid of. Merits are not everything.

Merit sources are chosen after an application where they have to meet some criteria.


The application is not a formality and I know plenty of good forum contributors which applied for this position without receiving it. So those which are merit sources have to do a really good job in order to be elected.

Furthermore, merit spending is not moderated. Each user may send his merits to whoever he wants and in whatever amount he wants (being limited by the 50 merits / month to a unique user limit and by the limit of the amount of his sMerits). So far I only witnessed one case (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5237561.0) where a merit source was accused of abusing his powers and that user was demoted from merit source position. So actions are taken in case of abuses.

OP, if you can point the finger to someone directly, do it so and bring proof for your statement.

Other than that, since it was only one case of a merit source demoted for abusing his power, I am certain that merit sources are doing their job just fine. (There were other cases of demoted merit sources, but not for abuses. This happened when the user became inactive or did not use the sMerits received for being a merit source.)

If he has any real proofs, he'll get many merits for sharing them. Doesn't matter from this account of from any other account will he publish any proofs. But he doesn't have any, only frustration about not getting merits.

I'm not following all merit sources, but those several ones I see spend merits widely and for really many different people. So if there were any proofs, I'm sure they'd give merits for good investigation about possible abuser. There is no risk if to have proof. But he has no.

Phill forgot this is outside of WO, and multiple posts in a row are not allowed here  :D
Never mind.

It's obvious that OP is frustrated with the merit sources because his main account didn't get attention from merit sources where he can get some merits. @OP, I believe you have an account that did not get the attention of merit sources, and maybe you have written many posts that deserve merits. FYI, a few merit sources review users' posts based on their application, and if their posts are worth merit, they are getting merits. Why don't you submit your good posts to them for review instead of complaining about shit?

Creating a new account just to post this? Oh gosh! That shows how fearful you are for not posting with your main account. Those who stand for the truth don't disguise speaking out. This issue of merits circulation among high-ranking members has been addressed before (can't find the thread now) with many convincing reasons that are very obvious but only if you pay attention and observe. The merit sources are carefully selected having met up some requirements specify to qualify one to be a merit source. If you observe, you will notice that these high-rank members offer reasonable and informative contributions to conversations, and with this, they are likely to receive more merits.

Talking about the milking signature campaign is absolutely off point driven by jealousy. Some of these high rank members failed to reach the weekly post quota which is a prove that they're not chasing the money while some are not in the campaign but post beyond the weekly post quota required in a signature campaign. The majority of the signature campaign is more interested in gambling posts which majority of posts there are not merit-worthy but you will see these high ranks moving from one board to another offering the best idea that they can. Let's be fair enough and stop criticizing them. They deserve the merit they're earning.

Do away with this mindset and start improving your post and see merits flooding your profile. Take a look at this profile https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3486361 and tell me what you see. Within one year and a month with over 2k merits, What does that tell you? You can be like that also if you can do better other than criticism. I challenge you to bring out a post from your main account that's merit worthy but not merited and I will contribute my quota to show you that there's no bias in merit sharing. We also have numerous thread reviewing posts that are merit worthy but you pretend not to see those threads because you don't have any. Cmon mate!

I guess that merit sources can be spotted with the help of Coin-1's topic  [LOG]The ranked up members - Congratulations! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4850225.0). They are mentioned within post #2 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4850225.msg43733594#msg43733594):


The data should be relevant for June 30th, 2023. However, I am not sure if that is the complete list of all merit sources.

In any case, since OP created a new account only for opening this thread as his very first post on the forum (at least under the new account), perhaps he can also come up with some names or substantial evidence. Unless he created the thread only for some more drama.

My guess is that, following the OP's statements, merit sources should have at least 36 hours per day.
Giving merits to numerous users and at the same time developing your own alternative accounts and participating in signature companies—don't you think it's a huge job? Given that you can keep track of all regularly merited accounts that may be with your version of alternative accounts, their posts should also be of appropriate quality. Have you thought about it?
Giving an unfounded accusation without evidence from a new account is an indicator of cowardice and self-doubt.
Shame on you, OP!

 I would say the op is looking for a certain form of applause. It would have been gotten if he had provided at least a little proof to back his accusations. Although he has a point, but laying it out there like he's got some kind of grudge against the merit sources, (probably because they must have sidelined his main account) makes it look like he's talking gibberish.
 What amazes me is how a newbie with zero activities and this is his first post is able to notice these things if he's not a coward who can't use his main account to call the merit sources out.

The only applause he's going to get is from the same group of people who thinks that highranks are being selfish with merits; and they'll all not-receive merits happily altogether because complaining ain't going to do crap.

In my honest opinion, and please note that this is just my personal perspective, I find these claims to be total BS, without any substantial evidence to back them up. Can you show at least one example where you think this happened?

Moreover, there are several topics where you have the option to report posts that you believe haven't received sufficient attention or haven't been appropriately recognized with merits. You can even report them here, and I'm sure that at least some merit sources will take a look and evaluate them.

I still don't know if what you're saying is true, from what I understood from all you saying OP is that merit sources do have alt account that they're flourishing their other accounts with merits, and they're leaving their job on this Forum to server other members but to serve themselves... That's one hell of an accusation you know OP?
And with this accusation of yours (that's what I'll call it) when you have a rank that will qualify you to join a campaign do you think they'd accept you in any campaign after falsely accused campaign managers? I doubt you have a chance. OP I feel grudges are written all over this post... That's no way to go about business.

I am not a high-rank member. But I have enough merits for the next rank. I participate in my local language thread, and I want to share what I feel when I am there. I am a full member, and even a Full member rank is a high-rank account in a small thread where many newbie accounts are chilling. I used to give merits to good posts, whether a newbie account or a legendary one. But since the ChatGPT craze started, you never know if the content is original. So, before I merit a post from a newbie rank account, I wait and want to see his motive. If I see a couple of good posts from the same person that seems original, I can consider myself dumping a single merit. For a new person, you must somewhat prove yourself by spending time and showing effort. I believe most people think this way.

If you are a new member and want to get merit for your first good posts, that will not happen. You have to spend time and be familiar with the forum and engage with them. If people can recognize you by seeing your name and you write good content, you will start getting merits. I had to spend five months to earn my first ten merits. I earned another 100 merits in the next 45 days. I have earned another 150 merits in the next 90 days. My post quality dropped for the last 90 days because I joined the signature campaign and focused on the post count. Most recognized legendary members earn more than 50 merits each 30 days, even if they don't write extraordinary things. Because they are well known and recognized by the community, and they are unlikely to copy-paste and use AI to write.

In comparison, a newbie did not prove himself yet. He might copy-paste, or he might use AI to write contests. He may get banned for violating forum rules. Most banned accounts are newbies because they are unfamiliar with the forum and know less about the forum rules. No one wants to merit someone who might get banned. So, if you are a newbie and think the community ignores you, it's not like that. People keep watching your posts, which will be evaluated at some point. Spend your time and show some effort that you are here to stay and that you write good content.

Most Importantly - "Learn Bitcoin"

Yeap, it was really hard at the beginning. I now looked at the history and see that it took 17 days to get my first merit. Next was three months after the first one. And I thought I will never get not only legendary rank but was not sure if I ever get a member rank with 10 merits. And it took 6 months to become a member. And I knew very few about sources at that time...

And even if main part of merits I got were from merit sources there is a big enough amount got from users who have smerits only earned for their own merits. Share smerits you get with others and there will be up to 1 additional merit for each given by source. I'm not a source and was very surprised to see my name in the list of 50 Most generous recent merit senders for 30 days (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=topsend). It's what we all can do.

If you see posts are long, you can check them with AI detection tools

https://contentdetector.ai/
https://writer.com/ai-content-detector/
https://contentatscale.ai/ai-content-detector/
https://x.writefull.com/gpt-detector
https://hivemoderation.com/ai-generated-content-detection
https://paraphrasingtool.ai/ai-content-detector/
https://writer.com/ai-content-detector/
https://copyleaks.com/ai-content-detector
https://sapling.ai/ai-content-detector

I am aware of these tools. A post does not have to be long to be written by AI. Some users use AI for every post they write. For example, check this user (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5456516.msg62584820#msg62584820). He is using AI to write short responses as well. It's not about detecting AI posts only. These days people do copy-paste in some creative way. Let's say someone finds a good article in Chinese, translates it to English and then posts it. Sometimes new users do not know about the rules. Sometimes they do it even knowing the rules. Someone can't check every post they are meriting if it was AI-generated or is a copy-paste, so If someone says that this does not look good, I don't want to spend my time checking it. You have nothing to say. Meriting posts is everyone's personal thing. You have to convince them to merit your post. Now the question is how can I convince them? Well, you don't have to ask them. You have to spend time on the forum, engage with everyone, and show effort. That's what I was talking about in my previous post.

I guess not only you and me, but every user had to spend time to earn merits at the beginning. There might be some extraordinary people like PowerGlove, n0nce and some others who are skilled in technology and can help members with their skills. It's not hard for them to earn a good number of merits in a single day. But when it comes to an average Joe, you must prove yourself, buddy.

If you do not have evidence towards a specific member, then it is likely that you will get some replies, then people will continue to post, some may put you in them ignore list, and your chances of obtaining merits will decrease.


I have been a merit source Member since 2018.  8) 8)

My mind is too clear to have such suspicions so far - but something is always possible especially since you are never banned from having alt. You are only prohibited from cheating campaign with your alt - you are also prohibited from sending merit to your alt, but you are free to have any alt to join different campaign regardless of whether you are the merit source or anyone else.

I think you have a good argument here - but unfortunately you don't really have the guts to talk to your main account. Next time try to be bold even if you talk about something a bit controversial.

As long as you have good knowledge and don't cheat the campaign - then what's the problem with having alt?

I found some good merit source like LoyceV and some other highly reputable users have alt and join different campaign, it doesn't matter to me because they don't cheat anyone with their alt including at campaign. But has it bothered you - or perhaps has taken away your chances of joining the campaign? Honestly - I'd want to know why.

Another day and another accusation of merit sources being scummy douchebags who have destroyed the world (of Bitcointalk), and abuse the system to the maximum. Here is something you might be interested in knowing. Many didn't ask to become merit sources; the admin choose them. They were and are obviously doing something right. Or maybe the admin is also a damn abuser? Hmm, it's a pickle.

Those that deserve merits, get them. It's that simple. It's difficult for quality posters to remain under the spotlight for long periods of time because someone will eventually notice them and merits will start going their way. Unless, of course, you are posting in the worst subs and discussions of Bitcointalk where no one with any self-respect goes.

So, if you are lacking merits, improve your posting habits and do the same what those who earn them do. If you can't do that or don't want to, that's probably the reason you aren't getting any or in the amounts you think you should.

Have you discovered that most campaign managers are not merit sources, they also got employed by organizations to work for them because they've got a good profile a punt like you could never achieve.

Someone like you will not be so bold enough to use your main account to post this garbage, this alone shows you're a crab awaiting to be roasted if you dare, maybe you've been kicked out of a signature campaign due to your low quality efforts in making posts, you're busy beating around the bush instead of developing yourself for learning.


When siting such silly idea of yours next time, always have some examples to present as evidence and stop being envious of what you can't achieve.


Why not try apply for merit source if you really think a change is needed and make the difference, someone like you will be the least to be given such opportunity on the forum because your orientation is not well properly positioned.

If only you'd spend this much time writing something useful about Bitcoin, you wouldn't have to worry about Merit.

OP must have discovered the countless (https://bpip.org/smerit.aspx?from=LoyceV&to=LoyceMobile) Merits I've sent to my alt account ::)

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Serious answer: I applied to be a Merit source years ago, so that I can reward good posts in a positive way, instead of only reporting bad posts. I do both to improve the forum. If OP doesn't appreciate that, that's on him (and I couldn't care less).

LOL - that's why I asked him instead of complaining about merit and some merit source. Had he said that some spammers sig had rewarded their own alt with merit - then it would have been much more appreciated, but with some proof.

But to be honest - I have no idea what his motives were. Merit has made many users fall in love if they really wanted to get it just to be able to join the signature campaign. We've noticed this madness time and time again - they go to great lengths to get as much merit as possible even with the quality of posts that even beginners can make.

Now that I think about it: Last Friday, I had sent 42770 out of 1560799 sMerits (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3078328.msg62594344#msg62594344). That's 2.74%.
LoyceMobile has received 548 Merit (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1903546). Chances are, if it wouldn't have been my own account, I would have sent it 2.74% more Merit too. So one could argue LoyceMobile received 15 Merit less, just because it's my alt account!
Being my alt account is the worst for receiving Merit.

I hope the OP will take this advise because complaining doesn't do him any good. He should be focusing on improving his post quality and he's start receiving merits like others do then he won't have time to complain of merit sources favoring others over him because from what I see that's the main reason behind this posts but the OP forgets merits aren't been awarded to low quality posts because the merit sources know they can be questioned and their integrity been doubted. People didn't get to top merited position because they faked their way there, immediately you start receiving lots of merits you can't hide so if you're a sock puppet account, you'll be discovered.

You can't get to top merited position by just been average or posting rubbish and receiving support from merit sources. If you're receiving merits it means you're doing something right. Quality contributions doesn't hide and if you want to receive merit you have to start contributing constructively to the forum. There's a lot of merit in the forum but there's not much quality contents to attract the merits. Most posts people call quality today won't have received any merit when the forum was more strict and we have to crack our brains to be exceptional.

i couldn't agree more, i have seen few cases like these and its obvious the frustration of OP making him do such acts. I hope he will get patience once his anger will cool down but i suggest to op that you and everyone should not decide or make decisions when you are in frustration.

And decisions based on frustration, has no place in crypto sphere. Because if you are someone having good experience (huge) in crypto then you must know that patience is the key. If someone is abusing merits then they will be caught and will be dealt but making such lame excuses will only hurt you.

I would have appreciated if OP didn't hide behind a brand-new account and had the courage to post from his main account. That way it would be easier to see what is going on, and what could be the reason behind the creation of this thread. All we can do now is guess, but no one really cares, and the thread will soon be forgotten and added to the countless other baseless accusation threads.   

If OP has the quality to post properly but somehow isn't receiving merits, post in the Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5093271.0) thread and someone will take a look.

To increase his motivation, it may be necessary to tell him about how many merit have been circulating since the merit system was introduced. DdmrDdmr has updated the latest data on 21/07/2023, it is as quoted below:


There are 46,234 users who have received merit, maybe one of them is the alt account from him. So I don't think the OP has anything to complain about, it won't change anything about what he thinks is right.

I would be okay even if the OP would be active inside his own thread. So far, it seems that he only started the topic to create some drama and abandoned it. I also don't like those hiding behind alternative accounts but, since this is allowed, there is nothing that can be done here. However, if you have some guts, you should come up, at least, to support your ideas, bring some arguments to the discussion, try to prove your statements -- or anything similar. There is no point in making an accusation, throw some bad words and disappear. Even the effort for doing this (I mean the effort needed to create that new account) is useless.

Furthermore, as far as I see, absolutely nobody supported OP's ideas. What does this mean for him? That all which wrote here are hand in hand with merit sources?

In any case, let's wait a bit more. Perhaps OP will decide to come here and be present inside his own thread.

some are that way. but many of us never applied and just logged in one day and were informed we were now merit sources.

I am also more than certain that, even in such cases (which I also heard of), theymos made a thorough analysis for each such user. I have no doubts that theymos would choose a merit source based on nothing. So, most likely, each such user had a good history of meriting posts from various boards, spotting quality posts and good forum contributors. theymos is a rational person, as far as I observed, and does nothing on a rush or not by analyzing thoroughly his decision and potentially outcomes.

So I believe that those selected to be merit sources without a formal application also fully deserve their position.

It's obvious that the OP's account was just created for this kind of thread in order not to give a bad name to his or her main account, as this is obviously an alt account.
But allowing oneself to think about this kind of thing will only end up drawing the person back, as they will believe that nothing could possibly be achieved by them since they don't have any merit source to back them up with some merit, without realizing that some merit could just be earned by just dropping a few quality posts without them knowing.
 
@Cantsay and mk4 Was this meme created for this thread, or do you already have them in your gallery? Those images really made my day.😂

Maybe OP just wanted to see the community's reaction to it. He might add further words to back his claims if he gets any support. Since almost nobody supported it, he decided not to add anything.

Many members can support him (Not about the sockpuppet claim) about not meriting new accounts. But I don't think people will say anything here since it will show their bad face and might get ignored by others. Most people who think like OP is not aware of Meta board well. I believe most of them are under the Full Member rank. I feel like the Full member rank is not an expert, not a newbie type of rank. There was a time when I thought newbies do not get merits because of their rank. This is true, and I explained here why it's kind of true (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5460947.msg62599531#msg62599531). At the same time, there is no point in raising the finger toward merit sources.

I think the OP's aim of opening this topic has been achieved but we don't seem to get it. I feel he only wants to create something that's not useful that's getting all high ranked members and also the merit sources of this Forum to come here and say things that not suppose to be like defending themselves over nothing or maybe his trying to know one or two merit source in this forum not that they offended him is just to gather you all in one room and you play to his tune... Because to me it's absurd and he's not even saying shit to back up his claims. OP I see you and I hope you're using your other account to reply too. Funny human.

It was obvious right from the start of the thread that the Op will never return back to the thread, if he had the intention of returning he won't have created a new account just to post this thread on the forum.

As for creating this thread to know some merit source, I don't really think that's the reason. If you're observant enough and if you have stayed in the forum for sometime it will be very easy for you to spot those that are merit sources and if you use bpip.org to view the amount of merit sent by that profile you'll be able to note if that account is a merit source or not.

The only reason the must have triggered Op into creating this thread was probably his main account was stuck in a certain amount of merit for a long time and even after making several post he never got any single merit and that why he became butt-hurt.

You are right, this is exactly the same thought i had in mind when i first read the op, it is not possible for a newbie to just sign up and create such a thread as their first post, if i should guess, my guess would be that the real user who created this thread is either of a full member rank or senior member, if only the forum had a feature allowing users to view each other's ip addresss, maybe it would have been possible to find out who this user is if he or she is not using a VPN service.

Who or how does knowing who and who is a merit source help any user in the first place? finding out who a merit source is to either beg them for merit or attack them through pm or dm will only get such user sectioned with a temp or perma ban if the harassed user reports the case, so i see no way knowing who a merit source is benefits anyone including op, i very much go with your assumption of the op being stuck as a particular number of earned merit, that indeed can really annoying but still, is not enough to create a post as this.

Maybe he thinks he has a chance to purchase some merits from some of them. Lol he should try and see how that goes. But I don't think he wanted to learn who the merit sources are. It's really an easy thing to find if you want to.

To answer your question about what benefit one could have from knowing who the merit sources are. It's a long shot, but a user could check in which subs the merit source distributes most of their merits. They could then adapt and adjust their posting habits accordingly. But genuine members wouldn't need to do that as they can collect members wherever they post. 

Advantage over what?  Getting into signature campaigns?

Has it crossed your mind that most merit sources have been members here for years and have had to demonstrate to Theymos through their merit source applications that 1) they want to help the forum by volunteering to keep the merit system running, 2) they know which posts are merit-worthy and which are crap, 3) they've been here long enough to prove that they're not likely to abuse the system?

As far as sources receiving the most merits, that's not necessarily a negative (though I'd like to see more merits going to lower-ranked members).  If a source like fillipone or LoyceV, for example, is one of the top merit earners they've simply gotten more sMerits to hand out--which they will eventually if they run out of source sMerits.

This is a non-issue that I've never heard brought up before.  It reeks of jealousy, OP.

...and the OP was so ambivalent about the whole thing that they had to create an alt to write this senseless wall of crap.. he's simply a Milquetoast. He' better suck his mum's cunt if he says otherwise.
What do merit sources got to do with campaigns and milking - milking the shit outta your dumb brains..huh??? no, haven't you also realized that you're ENTITLED to earning merits?? And that merit sources selloff 'em merits to everyone that has much more than you do?.... that's exactly why you ain't got the guts to come out and speak. I'll even listen more when you're being real...
Maybe you weren't informed that campaign managers scout for quality posters? ... Why don't you employ AIs to help you develop your writing skills, maybe that'll give you every single merit in here,.. don't worry, I'll tell the spam busters not to report your account 🙂.  ...yeahhh.. mhan,for the fact that you ain't onymous,.. I'm just wishing you got your ass whopped for this shit, seriously..

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

It's one of the few posts where all the forum members agree that they are against @OP's idea.
Merit sources were chosen in a central way, their efforts are voluntary and they are not allowed to sell merit points so they have a kind of independence and the whole system is transparent and monitored which prevents obvious abuse and no merit source has been reported that sold a his merits.

You can hate a member or put you in them ignore list, this can be for 10, 20 or even 50, but If most of the merit sources do not want to see your posts, then the problem is with you.

We are all know that merit source is not a paid job here in our community which means they volunteered or they've choosen by the admin so we can not force them that they will give us merits because they have their own way to give. And yes mate you are right once all merit source don't want to see OP's post then the problem is on the Op he must increase his style of posting and increase his  thoughts.

Op's perception on Merit Sources is very vague and for the OP to create this account to attack merit sources because he is a shit poster who could not get Merit from his posts as other users did and that is why he is coming to thread this thread to accused them. And instead of the OP to study how things are working in the forum and learn how to post quality posts, he is here using Alt-account to create trash here.

I have not heard that a Merit Source is bias in his dealing with the public when giving merits so therefore, op you can channel your accusation to another location and not to Merit Sources.

Bump....

How people been recently kicked on campaign due to lack of merits?
Aren't you being suspicious about those 100+ merit earners with those new names?

Those are alt accounts raised up by those top merit sources or earners which they are farming out signature campaign in non obvious manner. :)

Great story. Now prove it.
Don't get me wrong: it probably happens. But there's no point in saying it without showing who exactly.

That guy is only sharing what his little mind is able to comprehend. I also want the OP to show us some proofs of his claims because saying is easy than proving and if he can't prove his claims then he should stop promoting such things.

@OP, the merit sources are doing great job on this forum and it's because of them the new accounts that contribute good information are getting some merits. They try to help all those members whose contribution is helpful for the other members of the forum.

If you can't contribute good information then you should not make false accusations against others. Try to make some good posts and you'll see that how generous are the merit sources of the forum.

Any claims without sufficient proofs would really be considered trolling and there's no way that he could provide such information because if he had then he would definitely be presenting it to the community. Merit sources of this forum does make a great job on giving merits and it would of course will really be that depending whether your post is relevant and contributive or
simply a shit one. You wont really be getting any merits if you dont contribute something useful here in the community.

It is difficult for a single merit source to make his alt account legendary, you have a limit of 50 per month meaning you will need about 20 months to rise to the rank of legendary, and it is impossible to see a strange influx of merits this way without noticing. Therefore, even a Merit source needs to generate several high-quality replies if he wants to cheat or create a large farm of accounts that can be easily detected.

Only late merit sources had to make applications and wait for approvals from theymos.

When merit system was kicked off, there are merit sources and they got that directly from theymos. Maybe with or without invitation or agreement, I don't know exactly but perhaps theymos did sent invitations and wait for agreements before assigning merit source to a user.

Maybe first 35 merit sources are mostly forum admins and staffs.

I agree with you the merit sources can't send more than 50 merits to a single account per month and I don't think that merit sources have that much free time to rank up alt accounts to legendary rank. I also agree with you that without high-quality threads or replies even the merit sources won't be able to send that high number of merits to a single account, and it will be much difficult and noticeable if a merit source tries to send 50 merits to a new account each month for 20 consecutive months.

The claims by the @OP are 100% fake and I'm pretty sure that he won't be able to prove his so-called claims that he made against the merit sources. The merit sources are doing their job in the best way possible and I can say that they are fair with all those members who create high-quality threads or replies. We can't stop people like OP from making of such claims because our forum is the best example of freedom of speech, and that's why whatever they say we will listen to their words and we're okay to reply to them as many time as possible to prove them wrong.

I'm pretty sure that anyone who makes such claims is someone who is unable to gain merits because of his/her low-quality posts or not giving proper time to the forum for some other reasons. There are members who didn't made very high quality posts but were consistent in their efforts and tried their best to be active on forum and contribute whatever they could, and even such members also ranked up only because of the generosity and kind nature of the merit sources who support all those members who contribute something to the forum.

You are correct. But you show a solid knowledge of the forum with deep understanding of games being played. Thus you are likely an alt of an experienced forum member.

Still the post is very true so here is a merit.

What needs to be done and I think the only thing that can be done would be for one of these accused "merit sources that monopolize the campaigns" to get caught red-handed and that they are really sending merits to their alt-accounts to create an account farm so they can maximize what they earn in the forum. But either they're really innocent in all of these accusations which is the likely thing or that they're real slick about this that there's no hope of them getting caught anytime soon. As you've said, proof is what needs to be laid down by OP but given how difficult that would be to do, we can all just speculate, allege and accuse and those things don't mean shit so speculate, allege and accuse to your heart's content.