Actually we need a sticky to check for members who shouldn't be given merit to stop them from ranking up.

It isn't true that most members are aginst the merit system, As far as I can see it has made quite a difference to the quality of some of the boards,

Those who want a sig spamming job forum seem to be against it. Those who want a Bitcoin talk forum seem to be for it. If the  sig spammers continue to whinge because they can't pollute the forum as much, then they are likely to get their sigs pruned as I understand it. 

If you  don't have the skills for a job, then you should try a different job. You wouldn't sell yourself as a motor mechanic if you don't know about cars.

If you are determined to post on English language boards, then there are a lot of sites on the Internet that will teach you the skills. It would be better to start there, as they have the tools and experience to guide you through the learning process.

If that was aimed at me - the whitespace is generated by the forum software. I don'r even have a newline after the full stop.

It looks as if you were beggining for merit in the PM, that will be the reason for the red trust.

Thanks for the replies guys, and I'm starting to think that the problem is with the Windows firewall. Hence my move to Ubuntu.

I tend to use public WiFi, but it doen't look as if this is the problem.

I agree with the OP, and I suggested that the threads be merged. The easiest way to deal with members who constantly post repeated comments is to add them to ignore. I can understand the point about it being a community, but if you are at a party, and somebody keeps repeating comments without adding to the discussion, you either smack him, or move to another group.

Thank you for helping to recover this forum, and bring it back to the great resource it was a few years ago.

I can understand your problems, and your difficulty in finding reasonable posts to reward. I received some sMerit to give away, and I have had a real struggle to find posts that I felt were deserving of merit. As I only had a few sMerits ( around 80 ), I decided that I would not be able to award them to "average" posts. It takes a lot of time wading through all the threads, and semi-literate replies, and stupid great infographics that get quoted several times make things even harder. I've found that it is much easier if I put bad posters ( by my standards ) on ignore. This had made things a lot more manageable, and I have found some interesting threads and posts whilst I am looking through the boards.

I would like to make a plea to posters. Please think of the readers who scan threads quickly, and who don't have the time to wade through great strings of repeated text. There is no need to quote a 5,000 word post, just copy a relevant line and snip the rest. Please don't quote large images, readers are likely to quit the thread rather than scroll through a load of repeated content. Don't post in capitals - it slows down reading quite a lot, and may result in you being put on ignore. Formatting with massive headings and a couple of screens worth of indifferent text is also likely to get you ignored.

Just remember, the guys who are speed reading are likely to be your best customers.

The merit system seems to be working well. The reason that many posts aren't getting merit is that they don't deserve it. In fact many are so bad that I've been putting the posters on ignore.

You don't have to have a great deal of knowledge to earn merit. Asking a sensible and well reasoned question can earn merit, but not if it's been asked a hundred times before, and you couldn't be bothered to read the threads.

I don't understand why you consider this to be theft. Exchanges have always had a difference between buying and selling prices ( the spread ). Banks do it with fiat transactions, and they often charge an additional commission on the trrade.

I've been disconnecting peers with a ping rate in 5 figures, but I'm not sure that these peers are my problem.

When I look at the histogram in Debug>Network I've got long gaps with no activity. This started with the last forced upgade of Windows ( which I didn't want). It's pushed me into re-activating my old Ubuntu node, and I'll switch over to that.

Hugeblack seems to keep giving him merit.

Oh dear! I must be posting too much to get such a mention.
I can confirm that he has greater technical knowledge than me, I'm more interested in Bitcoin's place in the new emerging world economy, and it's potential as a source of wealth.

Why post that infographic which just bulks up the thread, and slows down reading for serious members. Text would have been more than sufficient.

I put you on ignore in case you do it again.

Well this is his merit history
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=1169572

and it looks as if most of his posts are deleted or closed. Anyway I put him on ignore, so thanks for alerting us to him.

Yep - not reading the rules and posting rubbish.

Begging or buying merit doesn't help either.

It seems to be in a bear trend at the moment, and it seems to be testing resistance levels around $8,000 and $12,000. I believe it will continue to drift lower for a while, and then pick itself up in April or May.

I'm fairly new to modern chartist theory, so please don't consider my post to be an informed opinion.

I think this would be a nice idea. Thanks isn't the same as merit or activity, it's more of a personal message to the poster.

It isn't worth putting much effort into adding it to the forum, but if it is easy, then I think it would be a useful addition.

Why have you bumped this thread? The board is cluttered enough as it is, and you haven't contributed anything.

Another one to ignore.

It gives me the motivation to put you on ignore, so no merit from me ever, and your alt/friend