Awarded 20 merit points to your post. Remember when you pass this on, don’t just give it to people you agree with, give it to people that can add something to the conversation, right or wrong. People learn more from being wrong than they do from being right.
Thanks. Indeed we wouldn't need a forum if we all agreed about everything. In that spirit, I passed the 10 sMerit on to the person I spend the most time arguing with. He would have been ranked up to Sr. Member next week and is definitely worthy of the title. You are quite the class act (I was the person, who received the 10 merits from TheQuin)! I´m also happy that we all agree that a forum particularly benefits from discussing conflicting viewpoints. Instead of spending the 5 new sMerit that I now have due to your generosity for various good posts, I´d like to dedicate them to the same purpose. If anyone of you fulfills the following three requirements, I´ll give 5 merit to one of your constructive posts: 1. You were close to ranking up before the introduction of the merit system (1-2 activity periods away from a new rank) 2. You are an asset to the community that makes good and constructive posts regularly 3. You don´t exclusively post in the Altcoin subforums and care about Bitcoin I am a match to point 1 and 2. Please check my account and judge by yourself if I am eligible to apply for merits. Not sure if I fulfill requirements stated in point 3. I checked your post history and your an altcoin person. I’m not handling that. There’s a guy in that section that is awarding merit for altcoin supporters. The thread is here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2833111.msg29044855#msg29044855 |
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I would like to be tested QA, anytime you would have time for that definitely, PS: Does not make a big difference for me now raising in rank or not, better let action speak by themselves. I´m here for the long term and want to test my actual understanding Trow me any question.. Thanks for your time  Let’s start with this: Lead me to some of your older posts that you feel good about, when you realized you liked bitcoin and you want to be here because you want to know more. Paste links in the thread. |
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Decentralization comes is a natural benefit to the design of the system. As you pointed out decentralization isn’t required for bitcoin to work. Mining is highly centralized right now. Satoshi was looking for a way to remove the need for a trusted third-party to be involved in financial transactions online. We are currently steering away from that system and I don’t know why everyone is allowing it to happen. Maybe it’s because they just don’t realize what Satoshi was trying to accomplish or they don’t see any other way to make bitcoin successful.
Congrats aleksej996, 20 merit points awarded
Thanks!  This was fun. Never got my knowledge about Bitcoin tested before. Glad you enjoyed it. Fun is a big reason to be here too. |
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I can’t see how anyone could believe you're not participating here. You do love those speculation threads. LOL I used to like speculation too (until I lost a bunch of coin). Awarded 20 merit. |
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No, it’s just that simple. To buy something online you need a way to pay them, right? Before bitcoin you had to involve a bank of some kind (wire transfer, debit card, MasterCard, Visa, etc.). The only method available to keep a bank out of it was to mail cash to someone in an envelope. That is way too slow, inefficient and risky. Bitcoin lets you send money to people around the world without involving a bank. You can debate the reasons or lack of reasons for having a bank out of the picture all day long but you can’t debate that Satoshi wanted to keep third parties out of the financial transactions between individuals.
What you say is right, but you do not fully understand Satoshi's riddle. He endowed the Internet community emissions money. Here lies the secret. I now wanted to ask you why Satoshi remained anonymous? Just inventing a payment system cryptographic evidence instead of trust, you can go down in history, but he chose anonymity. Why? I really can’t debate that with you here. It’s straying too far off topic and away from the reason for this thread. |
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but it always seemed to me that everything was a bit deeper than a payment system based on cryptographic evidence instead of trust, allowing any two interested parties to interact directly with each other without having to use a trusted third party. More precisely, I still think so, that everything is much deeper, just we have not reached this level yet)
No, it’s just that simple. To buy something online you need a way to pay them, right? Before bitcoin you had to involve a bank of some kind (wire transfer, debit card, MasterCard, Visa, etc.). The only method available to keep a bank out of it was to mail cash to someone in an envelope. That is way too slow, inefficient and risky. Bitcoin lets you send money to people around the world without involving a bank. You can debate the reasons or lack of reasons for having a bank out of the picture all day long but you can’t debate that Satoshi wanted to keep third parties out of the financial transactions between individuals. |
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I do see that you’re actively engaged in debates, you’re fairly helpful and fairly knowledgeable. You came really close to the correct answer in a few posts so I only have one question for you. Why did Satoshi create bitcoin? What is the one indisputable thing that bitcoin can do that the mainstream banking establishment can’t do?
but I think he wanted to solve the problem of centralized distribution of money. Of course. It is decentralization that is the main feature of Bitcoin. But there are some people that dispute it, as mining is pretty centralized and some even claim LN will be centralized. I don't think Bitcoin will ever be centralized, but it is not that simple to measure centralization compared to the fixed market supply of Bitcoins. In a way, these two things are very tightly linked, inflation is the biggest problem of centralization we can see today. At least this kind of centralized inflation. I’m going to quote the guy that invented bitcoin. What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. Decentralization comes as a natural benefit to the design of the system. As you pointed out decentralization isn’t required for bitcoin to work. Mining is highly centralized right now. Satoshi was looking for a way to remove the need for a trusted third-party to be involved in financial transactions online. We are currently steering away from that system and I don’t know why everyone is allowing it to happen. Maybe it’s because they just don’t realize what Satoshi was trying to accomplish or they don’t see any other way to make bitcoin successful. Congrats aleksej996, 20 merit points awarded |
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And what about Members almost reaching Full Member ranking position a couple of days after merit feature appears...
I think this is not fair...
At least at the very beggining of merit feature, merit should be given in a racio of next rank position, and not the lowest possible merit number.
I was two days of getting promoted, and now i have to collect a lot of points from "who knows" to upgrade my ranking position....
Look at my post here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg29043109#msg29043109You actually fit into the category I’m talking about, as do many forum members below the rank of Full Member. hello questionauthority, went to the post you mentioned that redirects to this post, it is kind of a loop... and i do not understand what is gonna to happen. What i should expect from bitcointalk devs, about the merit rank? Should i wait months to upgrade my rank when i was only about 48 hrs to be upgraded by the old system??? i feel very sad.... I’m going to quote my linked post and highlight the relevant point because I think you missed it. How is it possible to ever know the leanings of anyone? Could it be used to form cliques? Sure, I guess it could but this forum has a bigger problem to worry about right now. Because of the price rally within the past couple of months, this forum has had a massive amount of new members spamming the forum attempting to gain rank so they can collect a little coin and cash in. They don’t care about cryptocurrency at all and are destroying the forum with useless posts. I’ve said the most ridiculous shit I could think of in a few threads attempting to get some of them to contradict me and reply. All they ever do is post a one liner and move on. Much of the real brain power using this forum moved on long ago because of this issue. It’s not going to be easy but at least the admins are trying something before the forum crumbles down around their feet from the weight of scammers, spammers and bounty hunters.
I’m giving away merit (the link is in my sig line). I haven’t agreed with the opinion of most of the people I have given merit to so far. The only thing I have agreed with is their sincere desire to actively be here and interact with people to increase the quality of discourse. To sum it up, I think your wrong. |
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I needed to use something to limit the number of people visiting this thread because it would be overwhelming for me to review everyone on the forum that wants to rank up.
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. Excellent, you understand the one thing that people still don’t seem get concerning the merit system. It’s a user based system that requires the help of every member of the forum. Self policing is the most difficult thing you can ask people to do because it requires careful forethought and effort. Please do keep an eye on those people that need help. |
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I do see that you’re actively engaged in debates, you’re fairly helpful and fairly knowledgeable. You came really close to the correct answer in a few posts so I only have one question for you. Why did Satoshi create bitcoin? What is the one indisputable thing that bitcoin can do that the mainstream banking establishment can’t do? |
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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. There 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 that 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 hear you and understand, I just don’t see a better way to do it. Many forums solve this problem using “likes” which is way worse. This forum also has a more difficult time weeding out low value posts because it’s a financial forum that allows people to make money with posts. I needed to use something to limit the number of people visiting this thread because it would be overwhelming for me to review everyone on the forum that wants to rank up. There are already people doing it in the alt section so they aren’t missing out. I don’t know enough about altcoins to be able to judge their post quality anyway. I shouldn’t admit this, but that whole section looks like a shit nest of bitching and bickering to me. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I’m helping the group that I see were the most effected by the change in the only way I can. My computer caught on fire using google translate looking at your posts but fortunately I speak a little German so that helped. I’m trying to limit helping people in local sections because so much is lost in translation but I think I can see that you are actively participating and improving the forum by being here. 20 merit points awarded. |
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This would be very nice of you as I need 150 merits to get to Sr. Member and I got 196 activity (should be 210 in few days). I would be happy to apply for these questions  You read the OP so lead me to some of your posts. It’s easier for me if you do because I might miss the ones that you want me to see. |
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I like it. I’ll keep an eye on your progress and contribute merit to you if I see you awarding merit based on one thing. Are they actually discussing something and contributing to the brainpower of the forum or simply posting to gain rank to cash in. |
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Looking ahead, I want to say that I do not take part in your contest, and I do not want that this post would be appreciated by someone, it is written from the heart!!! It's nice to know that there are such people on this forum!
QA You're really cool !!! I am one of those people who believe that people can be judged by their actions. Looking and reading the forum the last two days, and understanding the craziness around merit, and for the sake of assessing fasting, you are ready to give people hope. What would they have earned their appreciation with their minds! You save people the most valuable resource on earth - time! It seems to me that bitcoin is alive, and will live also thanks to people like you. This is a cool thing, I respect you.
King James Bible - Proverbs 19:17
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.
Thank you, that’s very nice. |
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@OP.
i like your idea. if i can help you be sending you some sMerit then let me know how much you think is OK for you.
of if i can't help with something else then let me know too.
or maybe i can copy the idea into the altcoin sub. because i am active in this section.
You setting up your own thread in the altcoin section is actually a good idea. I don’t know if the alt people have anyone helping them yet. |
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I reached 784 activity just today, from 770...so this sucks. I don't want smerit from you guys, this should be fixed by Theymos.
He actually is fixing something you just don’t see it. |
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And what about Members almost reaching Full Member ranking position a couple of days after merit feature appears...
I think this is not fair...
At least at the very beggining of merit feature, merit should be given in a racio of next rank position, and not the lowest possible merit number.
I was two days of getting promoted, and now i have to collect a lot of points from "who knows" to upgrade my ranking position....
Look at my post here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg29043109#msg29043109You actually fit into the category I’m talking about, as do many forum members below the rank of Full Member. |
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This system will promote conservative opinion on this forum and create a kind of a social bubble.
We can see that there were boards created recently that only allow for people with certain rank to participate and now it seems like the ranking system is being centralized by hand picking the sources.
Merit system is a good idea, but the sources seem like a problem here. You need to implement a system to create sources automatically, randomly if nothing else. Otherwise you can easily get into trouble by like-minded individuals being promoted and ones that have new, maybe radical, ideas never getting higher ranks.
We either need to create merit as something that has no effect on anything practical on this forum (similar to the trust system) or generate quite random sources. I am afraid that this forum will become very conservative as the time goes on if we keep adding these centralized features.
Trust me, the word “conservative”, used as either an adjective or a noun, is not ever going to describe anyone using this forum. ROFL I didn't mean to associate it with political affiliation in US, if that is what confused you. I meant it as such that people could be conservative about Bitcoin development as we never know on which side these few sources might be in some future discussion. The problem is that whichever side they might pick in bigger numbers, people with the same opinion will rank faster than the ones that disagree with them. How is it possible to ever know the leanings of anyone? Could it be used to form cliques? Sure, I guess it could but this forum has a bigger problem to worry about right now. Because of the price rally within the past couple of months, this forum has had a massive amount of new members spamming the forum attempting to gain rank so they can collect a little coin and cash in. They don’t care about cryptocurrency at all and are destroying the forum with useless posts. I’ve said the most ridiculous shit I could think of in a few threads attempting to get some of them to contradict me and reply. All they ever do is post a one liner and move on. Much of the real brain power using this forum moved on long ago because of this issue. It’s not going to be easy but at least the admins are trying something before the forum crumbles down around their feet from the weight of scammers, spammers and bounty hunters. I’m giving away merit (the link is in my sig line). I haven’t agreed with the opinion of most of the people I have given merit to so far. The only thing I have agreed with is their sincere desire to actively be here and interact with people to increase the quality of discourse. To sum it up, I think your wrong. |
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This system will promote conservative opinion on this forum and create a kind of a social bubble.
We can see that there were boards created recently that only allow for people with certain rank to participate and now it seems like the ranking system is being centralized by hand picking the sources.
Merit system is a good idea, but the sources seem like a problem here. You need to implement a system to create sources automatically, randomly if nothing else. Otherwise you can easily get into trouble by like-minded individuals being promoted and ones that have new, maybe radical, ideas never getting higher ranks.
We either need to create merit as something that has no effect on anything practical on this forum (similar to the trust system) or generate quite random sources. I am afraid that this forum will become very conservative as the time goes on if we keep adding these centralized features.
Trust me, the word “conservative”, used as either an adjective or a noun, is not ever going to describe anyone using this forum. ROFL |
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Awarded 20 merit points to your post. Remember when you pass this on, don’t just give it to people you agree with, give it to people that can add something to the conversation, right or wrong. People learn more from being wrong than they do from being right.
Thanks. Indeed we wouldn't need a forum if we all agreed about everything. In that spirit, I passed the 10 sMerit on to the person I spend the most time arguing with. He would have been ranked up to Sr. Member next week and is definitely worthy of the title. You are quite the class act (I was the person, who received the 10 merits from TheQuin)! I´m also happy that we all agree that a forum particularly benefits from discussing conflicting viewpoints. Instead of spending the 5 new sMerit that I now have due to your generosity for various good posts, I´d like to dedicate them to the same purpose. If anyone of you fulfills the following three requirements, I´ll give 5 merit to one of your constructive posts: 1. You were close to ranking up before the introduction of the merit system (1-2 activity periods away from a new rank) 2. You are an asset to the community that makes good and constructive posts regularly 3. You don´t exclusively post in the Altcoin subforums and care about Bitcoin TheQuin is right. I randomly clicked into your post history and couldn’t find a single page that didn’t include you trying to help someone. You’re knowledgeable, appreciate bitcoin, helpful to people that need it, not looking for a quick scam (you are also identifying scams and keeping people from harm) and you seem to really want to be here for the right reasons. 20 merit points awarded. I like altcoins because i can exchange these for bitcoins. Merit system may work great for quality as people said. But the Merit distribution could have been a little more fair. Rank is important for the signature bounty only. The users who like blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies can find other bounty solutions like blog articles.
Does that mean you're applying for merit? Yes. It is a honor to be able to raise hero member level in this forum. My activity point will be ok next week i just need too much Merits I’d like to help you but several things are stopping me. First and foremost, I don’t speak Turkish so I can’t understand many of your posts. You spend more time chasing bounties and giveaway money than you spend learning. While I really don’t have anything against altcoins or altcoin people (terrytibbs of Litecoin fame was one of the most respectable members of this forum as far as I’m concerned), I see bitcoin having the greatest ability to change the world into a better place. You spend much of your time chasing altcoin pump & dump schemes. You’ve had conflicts with mods, which means you also can’t be bothered to learn the forum rules. I really don’t want to discourage you. You are the sole determining factor over whether or not you get merit and rank up. To be honest, I think this new system can only lead to abuse in power.. Last time I checked, mods were supposed to handle troll posts in forums and delete them.. Accounts leveling up shouldn't be up to other forum members to decide.
Then who should decide. There are only two options. First one that was continuing till today- you were being ranked based on activity which resulted in so much of spam. Second is manual inspection. But do you think that it is possible to manually check the 10000 or more posts being posted here daily only by moderators. They are already over loaded with work. Thus, this system is very much better. Here the members are helping the forum by meriting quality posts. If some misuse of this system occurs , it can be moderated by the support. That sounds achievable. You and ZenRoy are not yet to the level where I can help you. You both should spend the time between now and attaining Full Member thinking about why you want to be here and learning about bitcoin. You’ll enjoy your time here more if you do. |
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