What happens if you have a number of posts deleted, and that takes you below the required eligibility threshold. I suspect that will drop your rank. If that happened before the merit requirement, then you will need to gain the relevant merit to re-rank.

Merits aren't just about removing a barrier to promotion. They can help members to determine which of their posts are approved or wanted by other members. If a topic doesn't get any merits or responses, then you should probably drop thst topic imho.

CNN has created a new indicator called "fear and greed". It tracks seven indices, and shows the results on a simple meter.
http://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

Bitcoin prices seem to be influenced by the same sentiments. Would it be possible to create a fear and greed meter for Bitcoin?

I've owned the domain name JetCash.com since 2002, and my intention was to use it to create a system to facilitate payments for domain name registrations for people who could not use the established methods. It has gone through a couple of incarnations, but nothing significant. I decided that Bitcoin was a great payment service, so I used the name when I signed up for the board. I'm currently reviewing the best way to use the name, and I think it will become a review site for a limited number of payment methods.

I put you on ignore because of that dreadful oversized text, and I didn't even start to read it. If you want people to read your posts, then please keep them to a size that can be scanned efficiently.

I really think there are enough Merit threads, and we really ought to move on to the next trendy topic.

The first thing you need to rank up is the ability, and the will, to read the stickies. Then, if you are going to post information, you need to check that it is correct. The second post in this thread by Silent 17 says it all, and some subsequent posts obviously didn't read this, and are posting incorrect information .

I started my own gallery of members begging for merit, and I put these members on ignore. This probably doesn't have much impact on them, as I have no official position on BitcoinTalk, but it's my contribution to the containment of merit abuse. I'm afraid that I am judge and jury in this, and there isn't an appeal process.

http://cryptobounty.com/bitcointalk-beggars/

Thanks HabBear.

I hope I can make a small contribution to restoring the forum to the helpful resource it was when I joined.

I've been enthusiastic about Bitcoin since I first read about it, but I've only made limited use of its potential. Thisyear I need to expand my use, and maybe I'll pick up some of the alts that are waiting for me as a result of the arrival of the parallel chain coins like Bitcoin Cash. The tech boards seem to be much cleaner, and that is great news for me.

I do feel a bit of responsibility as a holder of sMerit, and that has led me into some threads that otherwise I would have skipped. One such is the request for a board for Ukrainian members, and I found the comments interesting, and it gave me a bit of perspective about the use of Bitcoin in that country. I even awarded a merit to a post that I thought was well reasoned, and it persuaded me that there should be such a board. Of course I know nothing about Ukraine and the local use of Bitcoin, so maybe I should have kept my nose out of their thread.

Please don't post in your local language on the English boards. It is likely to cause you to be ignored by members who have sMerit to give away,and if you are ignored, it will restrict you ability to earn Merit.

It is also unwise to capitalise your post. It makes it much harder to speed read, and it will probably mean your post will be skipped over - again, no possibility of merit awards if this happens.

Did you make the payment?
You have made a post, so if you didn't pay,  that answers the question.

There are a lot of members who have received merit. If a member only has the merit based on their current rank, then there is a reason, and it probably indicates that the merit system is starting to work.

The tech boards seem to be a lot cleaner, and that's a great help to me. I guess that means that Merit is starting to have a beneficial impact.

I believe that Bitcoin was created as an experimental project by the Fed, or some other agency of the banking elite. Of course, they would use Windows so that they could check to see what people were doing with their baby.

I haven't got round to claiming any of my alts yet, but I have started to have some sync'ing problems with Bitcoin core. It doesn't seem to be the core software, which seems to be pretty stable. The problems started when Microsoft forced me to upgrade my Windows 10. Sometimes I have difficulties in finding peers with a decent ping rate, and sometimesI get long periods of no or low activity. I use a variety of public WiFi sources, and have done so for over 3 years, and this doesn't seem to affect the sync'ing ( assuming that port 8333 is open). I'll move over to Linux, and see if that improves things.

I think the problem lies in the updated firewall in Windows, it might be worth checking the error log in that.

It sounds as if the Merit system is working.

This gets you onto my ignore list, so no sMerits for you if you do this.

I thought that as a brand new member, he might be cautious about bumping threads, but I take your point. My intention was to encourage a promising looking member to feel comfortable and continue to visit the forum

You might find this site useful. They publish eBooks, and they give away a different one free every day. You can buy the books, but if you want a free one, you'll have to watch the site until the one you want is the free one of the day.

https://www.packtpub.com/packt/offers/free-learning

That's pretty insulting, but I understand why you made the post, you seem to spend all your time in the Alt section. Out here in the real Bitcoin world, that isn't true.

btw - I put you on ignore.