Sounds good to me, bitmover, you can step up to the plate and handle my merit sponsorship(s) for Round 5. I will pick things back up for Round 6 and at that point you can choose to sponsor however you would like, or bow out.

It's a shame that Round 5 didn't receive the participants needed to get that extra cash sponsorship. Ah well, no harm done I suppose, but that makes me curious what that means for "vlad230 has donated his winnings ($5USD) to future rounds!" Does that simply go into the prize pool for future rounds to not over complicate things or were you thinking about adding that $5 onto a placement this round?

I don't believe I sent the Round 4 merit yet, but I plan to do so either tonight or tomorrow morning and I apologize that it is delayed; I like to do so when I get a good opportunity to read through the recipient's posts before sending them merit. That's hard earned merit, right there! Can't be sending it out all Willy Nilly.

I've just come across this thread : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3260277 , in which a legendary user, klf (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=369702), that claims to have about 200 sMerit to give away is abusing the merit system in my opinion. They have been tagged by DT members for abuses in the past, but I am wondering if there is anything that can be done to shut this down before it does the insignificant amount of potential damage that it may cause? What should be done about those publicly begging for merit and partaking in this abusive scheme?

It seems there are others giving this user negative trust for their actions, but I'm wondering if a fresh DT rating would be helpful and potentially tagging the users involving themselves.

You're probably not getting a lot of attention, because your title doesn't give any indication of what your thread is about. You could mention spam, abuse, prevention, policy, etc. Just saying "weird shit" is not interesting for almost anyone to click on.

You can read more about merit, here : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0 , this is the official announcement thread from the forum owner at the time of it's implementation. Within this thread is every question and discussion about merit that has been thought of as relevant.

Tag refers to a DT (Default Trust) member leaving a negative reputation on your account. The ratings left by DT members are "Trusted" by default and therefore hold a lot of value when considering the standing of your account/reputation. You can read more about the Trust system here : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=211858.0

One last thing, this is not the correct board for all of these questions. I would assume it to be more appropriate for this kind of thread to be posted in the Beginner's & Help board. I also would suggest utilizing the Search function within the navigation pane, as this will save you a lot of time and posts.

Oh wow. I did find some behind the cushions, must've fallen out of my pocket one day while I was sitting there. Thanks for the idea suchmoon!  Well, that means that I can maintain my merit sponsorship for sure! So, forget what I said about no longer being able to sponsor merit. I hate to be back and forth, but things change quickly sometimes. bitmover, you can feel free to step in replacement of my merit sponsorship this round if you would like to. I have no problem with this, and I can pick things up next round; just let me and Joe know so we can proceed accordingly.

I was thinking a similar thing about archives being a slippery slope. Whew, it's almost a relief that you haven't brought something up that makes me seem like a dope. If theymos can access deleted posts, then I would imagine that most staff would have this capability. Would there be any reason you can think of that would make theymos not enable this for the staff? It would seem the only benefits of that would be for the people abusing the system by deleting posts or whatever.

Every forum I've ever been on has a graveyard, so I would imagine this is just something that only staff has access to.

It almost makes me sad that I'm unable to bid on this. I've been with you just about every step of the way while you took questions, discussed the project and were posting updates about the development regularly. I can say honestly, the final product turned out better than I had assumed it would, even after seeing the progress being made. I'm really interested in hearing a review from whoever does end up buying it, because I'd like to hear more about the quality, warmth and the look of it in person. I'm very heavily considering getting a custom project started with you guys, more likely when the market recovers a bit more, though. Good luck with the auction, I hope you get some bites and as always I'll be here lurking. It is also nice to see that you are accepting BTC for the quilt, because there are a lot of "local" businesses that attempt to make their name around the forum and then fail the simple task of accepting BTC.

I'm not really in any rush. I was pretty impatient in the beginning, thinking I wanted a tablet within the week, but now I'm realizing I'll regret an impulse buy. So, the budget is pretty flexible, I'm probably willing to go up to $1,500 for one, but that's only if it really wows me. I'm looking for a combination of product quality, price and specifications; as would seem to be obvious in just about any purchase.


It's always disappointing going the budget route with computer hardware. The SurfaceBook is robbery, 100% agree, but I would love something in that tier of tablet.
You should show me those 2-custom 1080ti/Titan X PC builds for the same price though, because now I might be more interested in that.  

I have some people trying to assist me in PM as well, so we've got a crack team of investigators on the case.

I don't see very much risk in this if you simply create an archive of the post, as seems to usually be the case. Unless moderators/staff are unwilling to perform judgement based upon only an archive, for one reason or another. Even if this were the case, I would think that staff would have access to some kind of "graveyard" "trash" or some extensive "archive" type board. Mostly thinking out loud, but from everything I can gather it would seem that the risk is negligible, unless like usual you have something up your sleeve I haven't considered, in which case..  

It is definitely stupid, and I can't imagine how somebody fails to see this before begging for merit out of desperation. I wish users would just use the forum and have conversations like normal people. You are the king of the ignore Jet Cash, but isn't there limitations on the ignore list? I believe other users have hit a maximum, but I'm unsure if this has been remedied since then. I'm very curious how your strategy would adapt if you can no longer ignore more users.

Thank you everyone for jumping into action. hilariousandco, it's nice to know that I have the option to report posts.

It appears Vod has given this user a negative rating, which is significant as they're a DT member. I've pretty much gotten everything out of this thread that I could have hoped for; some awareness, some action and some information. Unless somebody has anything else to add, I'll be locking this thread in a bit.

Deleting your post was the wrong move in this scenario; it would've been more appropriate to do as you have suggested and simply source the material. You must reference the original author, company or source. We all make mistakes, but were you unaware that plagiarism is frowned upon? I do not wish to go back and forth within Joe's thread, of course Joe has the final say on who participates and places. My opinion has been voiced. Do everyone a favor though, and please stop pressing "Enter"/"Return" after every 5-10 words. It is extremely tough on the eyes and makes your post unpleasant to read.

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Joe I will no longer have enough Merit to send to the participants for Round 5+. I will (most likely) send Round 4 winners their merit once I get a chance to read their posts. Round 5 I do not have the merit to sponsor any merit rewards. I can maintain my cash sponsorship, however, so only my merit sponsorship(s) will be rescinded. Hopefully by Round 6 I will have accumulated enough merit to sponsor merit again.

If we were rating people on their English skills, then you wouldn't be looking so hot, my friend. I would be careful, because you are walking on a slippery slope, or throwing rocks in a glass house; take your pick of analogy.
This forum is not a linguist forum, it is the Bitcoin forum. Bitcoin was meant to overcome language barriers and need no translator. We should embrace other communities, countries and languages as long as we can feasibly do so. There is no benefit to the forum or Bitcoin by centralizing it to exclusively English speakers; this literally defeats one of the main premises on which Bitcoin was created.

There is no sense in entertaining this suggestion as something to be seriously considered. I don't mean to be harsh, but if you had read the original announcement/discussion thread for merit, theymos addresses this directly by explicitly saying they are looking for merit sources that actively spend their time in local boards. The merit system is not meant to centralize or give incentive to discussion around a couple of boards and topics. Nobody should be punished for speaking a different language or for being part of a sub-board community. These local boards are a tremendously wonderful part of our community. There must be a better suggestion that this, else I do not see it being taken seriously any time soon.

Don't play dumb like this isn't a hidden category on your site.
I thought you ranked everyone by Most Activity, Most Trusted, Most Merited and Most Creative
I've been relying on your creativity statistics, c'mon.

It's strange to me that a company is willing to dish you out a portion of their marketing/advertising budget while you have a valid negative trust indicating that you have plagiarized posts. I would think this would be exactly the kind of thing that Joe would find disqualifying. Plus, I wouldn't expect to be around until the end of your project/campaign, because plagiarism is one of the very few things that can earn you a ban around here.

You're also a hypocrite, because pretty recently you also had this to say :


I understand that negative trust users are allowed in this challenge, but certainly a plagiarist should not be allowed. Not that it matters, because you would not place in the challenge. I just don't see a point in wasting anyone's time.

I have done so, and sent it directly and exclusively to you. I didn't want to spam it outwardly to everyone, because it isn't that serious in terms of priority. I appreciate you popping in, because I hadn't even realized you can report PMs; guess I just never noticed, or forgotten.

It sounds like you are too concerned with merit, if you ask me. Big heavy posts are not meant to be more likely to gain you merit. A post shouldn't be any longer than it needs to be in order to fully convey whatever idea you are attempting to get across. Brevity is important, because nobody wants to read a book. If your posts are being deleted at a significant rate, then I would think that you should change your posting habits. This should not discourage you from using the forum completely, unless you are not very interested in being a part of the community, which is fine. I would suggest you use the Search function more, because the thread you created has already been created and is actively being discussed. Stop posting in self-moderated threads, don't break the rules, or post in megathreads and you'll find that your posts don't get deleted very often. There might be a couple here and there, but it really doesn't matter and I don't understand why this is such a concern of yours. You talk about becoming a passive lurker, because you are not earning merit and it has become too much of a concern for you; I would suggest stop worrying about merit, because it honestly doesn't matter, if all you want to do is hangout and post.

User thelma987 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1688750) sent me a PM with the following message



Screenshot : https://gyazo.com/56dfe3a49e3647efcf2911930783a2e8

I am wondering if I can receive the assistance of a DT member, and potentially a staff member. Since it is a PM I am unsure if this would need to be verified, which is where the staff member would come in. I have left this user a negative trust rating, but it would seem insufficient without it being a DT rating. I would ask that DT members review the situation and rate it as they see fit. Sometimes people ask me to review their threads for merit in PM, which isn't that bad, but this is outright abusive, malicious and obnoxious.

What should be my protocol when dealing with these things?

I keep letting this thread get out and hand and it needs to stop. It is constantly delaying the review of posts and it is my own fault. I had a solid system in the beginning and I got a bit lazy, but this will not stand, I swear to you this shall not stand!

Going through reviews now and expect to be done shortly.

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It seems I have caught up pretty well, at least in the reserve posts by compartmentalizing where each person will be reviewed. We're back on track, nothing to see here, folks.

All of your posts read a bit too conversational to me to be deserving of merit. They don't seem to fit quite what I am looking for, and therefore I won't be giving out any merit at this time.


None of your submissions seem to add anything to the discussion they are in. I just don't feel like your posts even meet the bar for being conversational, they seem to just be insubstantial monologue. I can't, in good conscience, give merit to any of these posts.


If we're being honest, sometimes I like to review posts out of order if the submitter was kind enough to only submit a single post. It makes my job easier a lot of the time, but in this case I unfortunately won't be giving merit to your submission. It seems like you are calling people out for a scam, which is good and should continue if it is valid, but it's just not something I know anything about or am willing to merit at this time.


Pretty much exactly what Blue Tyrant has said. I'm happy HCP gave them a merit for pointing that out. This is exactly the kind of post that I am not meriting. There is no amount of effort or information you could throw into that post to make it worth meriting, unless you completed changed the meaning and content entirely to where it is no longer recognizable. I'm a little upset you've received any merit for this post at all


I do not merit for simply Questions and answers, unless they are my questions that I would like answered. I like to leave meriting Q&A up to those involved within it.

I feel like a record when I go through a lot of posts at one time, because it seems to be a pretty common thread for the problems of lower ranking members and their posting habits. I should probably write up a guide for beginner's to take a look at, but I'm not sure if people are truly interested in improving themselves or in being reinforced to believe they are already wonderful. Your posts don't add anything to the discussion I am afraid. They just read boring and conversational.


Formatting is much better this time around; I don't mean to be such a stickler, but it gets out of hand quickly if you don't enforce the rules.

Your first submission is a very interesting post, and in fact is something that I was unaware of. If I find myself ever referencing this thread or if I purchase a nano and bump into your post while setting up such a feature, then I will throw a merit your way. Your next submission has received merit from multiple different users, so I will just leave that the way it is for now.

I have given you a Merit for your blue-chip stock comparison, because I really like that idea. It points out of a lot of things that I hadn't considered, but simply reinforces what I already knew to be true. Very interesting and a discussion I plan to involve myself in ASAP.

Your claiming forks thread is probably helpful to a lot of people, but this kind of information has been beaten like a dead horse if you ask me. I know some people still find this difficult, so I won't give you a hard time about this, but you've already received merit so I'll leave that there.

I am touchy about the subject of ICOs, because of the mindset most of these companies have when entering it, and you have already received merit for this post. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing your posts. I highly recommend future submissions.


There's something weird about your posts. I can't quite place my finger on it, but none of them will be receiving merit from me at this point. They're located in boards such as off-topic, they are already merited, or they are simply something I am not interested in meriting.

Although, I honestly probably would've merited your thread about warning US investors against Venezuelan investment if there was a reference to a source.


I reviewed your posts out of turn, because you have never received a merit point and I wanted to see if there was something out of place. Turns out, you primarily post in megathreads, or have simple conversational posts that go back and forth with no productivity. You won't be receiving any merit from me until you improve your posting habits and put a little more effort/thought into your posts.