You need to get an avatar jackg, so that we can recognise you.

I've got so many sMerits to award that I've started to stuff them under the cat's hat.

Have a look at the FtT project that Dr Gomez used to post on the political board, and see what that earned him. I'm surprised that nobody else has had a go at submitting a post. It must be a lot less effort than making complaining posts that just get you put on ignore.

Yawn - not this tired old stuff again. Another unmerited poster to ignore.

Instead of complaining about a great system that has helped the forum, please try to be constructive, and rebuild the forum into the great resource that it was before the bounty spammers.

I don't recognise most of the members in the first few hundred. Maybe I should look around Bitcoin Talk a bit more. Also, I put nullius on ignore. I thought he was just here for a bit of ego massaging, and not for the benefit of the forum, but obviously I haven't read most of his later posts, so perhaps I misunderstood his motives.

I'm 611, and I'm glad that means nobody recognises me. Does that mean I get a lot more freedom to move around?

I haven't read all the posts in this thread, but has anyone mentioned that the forum has more than one board in a variety of categories. This means that it is a place for education, discussion and help.

I agree that it has evolved,and it may be time for some minor changes. One that I would suggest is the creation of a crypto discussion board in the beginners section. This would allow the mods to restrict the Bitcoin discussion board to Bitcoin. Bitcoin use is changing, and it is becoming a source of wealth rather than a payment vehicle. This means that a whole new class of user is joining the Bitcoin economy, and they won't be interested in scammy temporary ICOs and bounty spamming.

Go for it.

 At the moment I'm looking at the possibility of accepting Bitcoin dust for charitable donations, so I won't be able to do it.

I think it's the avatars that are recognised, rather than the member. Blows you out if you use your avatar for bounty promotion. It means you don't have a unique identity.

I was thinking of starting a "who's avatar is this? " contest, but I think I'll let somebody else do it.

I agree that it isn't fair, bounty spammers get merits instead of bans

So TMAN has been knocked of his spot as the politeness king. Serves him right for not being active here.

Lots of members have more than one account - my Talk Merit account for example. The restrictions are on the way that you use them. For example, these actions will get you into trouble.

- Cross rewarding with merit
- Creating positive trust entries
- Inter-account posting chat to boost promo threads.
- Pretending to give unbiased reviews
- probably some others that I've missed out.

To be safe, you should declare the relationship in your profile, and on the reputation board. You could also use your signature to promote the product.

I missed that typo. I think I've worn out this keyboard, or maybe it's full of crumbs. How do you give a blow job to a notebook keyboard?

I'm starting to think that nobody wants merits on this board. After all, if they earn some merits, then they won't be able to whinge about not having merits to make their bounty spamming quota.

Thanks for the mention, but I don't think I was the first. There are a few Heroes who beat me to it. I think there may be a Senior Member as well.

Well the first article in this project seems to have gone down well, and I'm grateful to Flying Hellfish for pre-checking it.

Now we need a few more articles like this. We also need some good informed discussion in the submitted thread.

Well my objective is not really to award merits, but to provide new members with an incentive to research the Bitcoin and crypto economy.

I'm happy to award merits to anybody who corrects a misconception, or clarifies a point that a previous poster has made.

You have made 806 posts, and you still don't realise what is wrong with your post.

Spend a day reading instead of wasting our (and your) time here.

It isn't a battle. The forum is awash with sMerits to be awarded. I started today with around 180, and I'm having real trouble in awarding them responsibly. I'm having to be proactive to generate good threads. The thread on the Nicaraguan protests should arrive on the political board soon, and I hope this will help Flying Hellfish in his good work to clean up that board. Anyone who has the Politics board on ignore should remove it, and give Flying Hellfish the help he deserves.

You beat me too it. I'm getting jealous as well, as I suspect your ignore list is bigger than mine. You know about these things, can I take pills for that?

ps. I hate that terrible word "gotten" - what's wrong with a nice simple English word like "got"?

The first one is a bounty post, and I don't award those, sorry.

So far these are the ones that are current
https://talkmerit.com/the-source/index.php/plank/today-is-merit-awarding-promotion

I'll probably do something to pull it all together one day. At the moment, it's really just a bit of fun.