The STeX-Up referral link can be used, yes, but it is/was not the same as the partner program as I recall.
You could also write to info@stex.exchange Telegram is one of their main info channels as there you can interact way better than on Twitter or Facebook.

If this would be the way people actually behave, then this system might work, might. Here is another example (and I saw many more):

I did an infographic yesterday night, for the German local forum. It took me about 1h+ to make it.
I posted it in the main Merit-thread and said to OP that he could add it to his own post. I got 6 Merit


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818999.msg29007624#msg29007624


A Legendary posted this and got 23 Merit:


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg28856972#msg28856972

The post literally says nothing else than "use the middle mouse button".
Now tell me, why is this "advice" 4x more valuable than me working for an hour+ ? Why did this even get Merited in the first place? (no offence)

What should I learn from this?
Sure, there are many members with a higher rank that try to help and try to be fair but as long as those other things happen, people will feel bad. I certainly do.

There was indeed a special referral program, STeX team called it 'strategic partner program', maybe it still exists. You should contact them in the Telegram channel. There certainly is a way to give you separate reports.


The program is call STeX-Up and it's 10% commission: https://stex.exchange/stexup

This I can understand indeed, I thought myself a couple of times that for this to work, this forum would need a lot more mods who have an eye on all subsections and that this would consume a lot of time. I get that for people who want to help (and are in the position to do so due to their rank) this could be also stressful as they try their best to be fair.

So thanks for your reply, it made me think. Maybe I try to do a similar thing you are doing. I don't have that much sMerit, yet, but I'll have an eye on those who maybe get overlook in the local forum. You also gave me a small kickstart, so I'll think of something. Maybe I apply for a Merit-Source. Thanks again, keep up what you're doing.

This is cute and disgusting at the same time. Hop hop, lil' fella, off you go. Such generosity...
I like the way your handling things +1

Nice idea, I guess. I kind of understand why you are restricting the contest to Bitcoin as it is what you prefer and what is (was) the real purpose of this forum. What irritates me a bit is that fact that if someone didn't join 1-2 years ago, there really is no way around altcoins. It's like saying 'You need to support Apple because they invented and introduced the first mainstream smartphone and because of that I only help people who are interested in Apple.' If someone wants to buy a smartphone nowadays, wouldn't it be foolish of him not to research the market and have a look at all major companies that build smartphones?

If someone comes to me and askes about bitcoin, then I'll explain it to him to the best of my knowledge. But almost always they don't stop there. One of the next questions - in almost all cases - is: What is Ethereum and Litecoin.. and I heard of Ripple. So, what now? Shouldn't I answer him his question and explain the differences? You can't avoid altcoins. They are here and they'll stay. I know what you mean, I also see it as a form of dilution. But this effect is counteracted by the number of people entering crypto. So maybe the market cap of bitcoin is lesser percentage-wise but not absolute and that is what matters, I think.

What I mean is, you can't say Crypto without mentioning (and explaining) altcoins and people who are new don't stick with only Bitcoin, assuming this is wishfull thinking.

Back to my question. I try to learn as much as I can and I try to also pass on my knowledge, my experiences and that what I've learned from my mistakes.
I'm doing this in the local German forum, e.g., in the help section. Mainly by answering peoples questions who are new in crypto, easing their FOMO and telling them to relax (while guiding them to sources):
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2261645.msg22921955#msg22921955
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2333206.msg23785787#msg23785787
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2281423.msg23253445#msg23253445
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2266969.msg23224153#msg23224153
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2403253.msg24739987#msg24739987
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2241585.msg22923205#msg22923205
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2233101.msg22954324#msg22954324
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2239026.msg22949831#msg22949831
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2262582.msg22944721#msg22944721
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1764218.msg23270734#msg23270734
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2262582.msg23001486#msg23001486
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2223204.msg22925854#msg22925854
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2222496.msg22948584#msg22948584
...

It's in no particular order and I'm doing this as time permits.
As I said, I understand the purpose of your thread but I hope that you also understand, this is a perfect example that proves that the fear of many lower ranking members is warranted. You need to find people who have sMerit and please them. All that this post tells me is: you're helping the wrong way, stop that.

What I don't get is this: You yourself are saying that the system is flawed and that people got screwed. Hell, I feel screwed and it's disheartening what happened, at least for me. The new system favours an elite circle. Yet you're doing the same thing by setting those requirements. Why is that?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not intending to be rude, I'm just disappointed by all of this...

I get what you're saying but that's the problem 'merits should be awarded for posts with accurate, helpful information'. If you implement a system then sure, you think of a way it should be used. And then there is the way it is used.
To answer your question: Yes, there are THAT many people in sig campaigns and there is a lot of money involved. This can't be argued away and as long as it is like this, you need to take this into account.

Don't hate on me if I quote mayself from a couple of pages before:

Please, have a look and decide for yourself. And as I said, I'm not jealous, this member did everything right. But it shows how the merit system is used in contrast to how it should be used.

Good idea, I appreciate the time you're investing.
I picked a couple of links from my history, I wonder how you decide. I'm still curious about this merit system because it's so subjective to evaluate a post.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2509409.msg28277898#msg28277898
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2403253.msg24739987#msg24739987
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2395393.msg24498455#msg24498455
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2266969.msg23224153#msg23224153
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2223204.msg22925854#msg22925854
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2222496.msg22948584#msg22948584

Well, I'm no farmer but my face is still stinging and if I look closely enough, I see the traces of the hand as a slightly reddish tint on my cheek, Sr. Member was almost in reach 

And I highly doubt that this was the sole purpose. But I'm also a realist, moping about things you can't change is pointless, so I adapt.

Yea, it is bad, but thanks for the nice words

I'm not saying that the post doesn't warrant merit but 61 is just ludicrous. I'm pretty sure that this is all just this post, not the thread because you can sum up the merit points listed and they equal the total merit points of that member and it's just noise and sugarcoating. I'm not jealous if that's what you think, I'm just pointing out that this system is flawed. Truth is, I applaud this member, he/she did everything right and made the best out of this new situation.

There you go, I'm also not stingy

Even if my grammar is horrible in this post, it's what I think. I mean, there is absolutely no reason to make the rank dependant on merit. Merit could've been an extra indicator for an account, like trust. Something like 'post quality' with a second ranking system. That way everybody could have started at 0 Merit. That would've been fair and everybody would've been equal. To assume that a Hero or Legendary Member always creates valuable posts is just nonsense. But that is basically what the conversion did.

Let's assume an average user posts 100 posts with 30% low-quality, 60% medium-quality and 10% high-quality posts, then he maybe gets merit for 15% of his posts. Now you need to take into account that the actual number of merit points highly depends on where he posts (how many are reading the post) and whose opinion he shares. This means at leas 7 merit per valuable post is needed.
The best example is this post https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2828014.0 where many gave merit points. But ask yourself, is this a valuable post? It took time to make it, sure, but what makes it valuable. It purely reflects an opinion. It doesn't discriminate or list pros and cons, there is no contrast. It tells the supporters of this new system what they want to hear and of course, they merited it, ridiculously high if I might add.
There are hundreds of posts in this forum that have more value than this post, I wonder if all of them get 61+ merit.

The same post, advocating for the exact opposite or a different solution, wouldn't have gotten nearly the same amount of merit. Because even if there was an equal amount of people who don't support the system, they wouldn't have used said system.

So now it's basically finding topics that Hero/Legendary Members support or like because they are the ones who have the most merit to give and the more you have of something, the easier it is for you to part with a small amount of it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against a system that improves the posting quality, I'm merely hinting at some of the flaws this implementation has  

Verlink es ruhig, der Hinweis mit den Merit war mehr als Spaß gemeint
Ich sehe das Ganze hier sportlich und hoffe einfach, dass man auch so bei reger Beteiligung nur durch Activity wirklich limitiert ist. Ich gebe dem System erst mal ein wenig Zeit. Und sollte der Thread hier explodieren und dir danach sein mir ein paar sMerit weiterzureichen, feel free  

Hey zusammen,
da ich persönlich ein Freund von übersichltichen Dingen bin, habe ich eine Infografik für den deutschen Bereich erstellt, mit der man alles auf einen Blick hat und die man direkt verlinken kann. Ich hoffe das hilft einigen, die das neue System noch nicht ganz verstanden haben und/oder komplett neu hier sind. OP kann sie gerne auch in den post übernehmen (auch wenn mir dadurch ggf. Merit entgeht   )

Ok, simple question: Can you guarantee that people who (subjectively) deserve merit will get it and can you hinder people from buying/trading merits?
That's what I meant by people who don't exploit vs. cheater. I'd think that there are more people who don't try to exploit than people who cheat but any way you look at it, you punish those who make a few valuable posts every time nobody recognizes them. Those who buy just buy >> gap gets wider.

I'm not blaming you personally, sorry if it came across that way. In fact, I'm not blaming anyone here, I'm just asking because it doesn't make sense for me.
What's bothering me though is that you say that merit doesn't equal value or money, it does. Denying it doesn't change the fact that your BCT rank has a value that you can sell. The higher the rank, the more it is worth. So ranking up is valuable and merit is needed in order to rank up. Therefore merit = value.

So, rank isn't just a bonus for good posting, higher rank means real money. Maybe you don't like it but it's a fact. A way to reduce shitposting would've been to disable signatures and avatars (not that I'd prefer that). As long as rank has value, people will try to rank up.

Just because you don't attribute value to it doesn't mean that it isn't done by others  
What really bothers me is that those kinds of systems almost always punish those people who don't try to exploit them in the first place. Those who did will find new ways to cheat and that way the gap gets even bigger.

Well, it wouldn't have been that unfair if the activity would have been translated into merit points: Needed activity from one rank to the next equals 100%. You get the minimum merit for the rank you've got plus #% of merits needed for the next rank equal to the percentage in the old activity calculation for a rank-up.

The way you handled it you punish those who were just shy of a rank-up and let's face it, merit = value/money
That is why I asked for a reason. Or is it capriciousness?

Has someone an answer for this, please? Is there a good reason for this? OP only says that you get the minimum. Why? If a new commodity is created, why isn't it exchanged in a fair way?

I immediately clicked on your link and looked for the signatures and found none I didn't even imagine a bounty campaign where everybody uses a different signature...

 


There is a referral program called STeX-Up (if that is what you're looking for
The referral links ETH addresses, so if the ETH addresses change, it won't work (that's why we need an account system), but it will give you a kickback if the ETH address is later used on the exchange.

Well, while I appreciate the effort of improving the quality, I wonder if those changes are based on research or the pious wish that this will work. It doesn't matter how you call it, every form of ranking systems that are based on user-rating incentivizes trading and any kind of cheating whether by paying people making it a requirement in an airdrop etc.
Making it a commodity is a joke, sorry. It reeks of greed, an elite making their accounts even more valuable.

Another question: Why is the initial merit score equal to the minimum required to your rank? Why not proportionally to the actual activity?
Hope this will work, but I doubt it. Newbies will be disregarded and won't get merit, while known members will give themselves merit back and forth...

Does someone know why there is no signature campaign running? If I recall correctly STeX never had one. At least the STeX team members could wear one while posting here in BCT. Maybe we have someone in the community who is talented and who can make us one