An Alternative to Merit

[Insanerman]

As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit, I will have no option than to slide on.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.

Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.

Merits are already enough. Implementing like just for those who doesn't have sendable merits would just simply eradicate the idea of meriting. Why? Merit already boosts someone's confidence when he/she receives one (a rewarding-like feeling for your efforts), and "Likes" on the other hand tends to give you the same feeling and worse is some can be boastful about it (if calculated on one's profile). It is not that necessary to implement a "liking" system for a forum that already has a better one.

[UserU]

I guess I would ask if there are many posts that deserve merit that have little to no merit? If so, the number of sMerit that sources have should be evaluated or the number of sources should be evaluated. I don’t think adding a “plus 1” would add much value. In addition to the potential for abuse I mentioned above.

I'm pretty sure there is, that's why we see those Merit GA threads from time to time. Some get drowned among the repetitive replies, and then the local boards though since the exposure is lower.

About the +1, I feel it's more of a complementary feature. Think of it as a reaction. Let's say you post a thread on Bitcoin Lightning Network Satosheeesh v69 (just for discussion sake) detailing its new features and how-to.

People visit your thread and get intrigued. Since the "Like" reaction is pretty much one-click and "free", they'd be more inclined to react positively. So perhaps like 6 hours later, you revisit it to see 35 likes and 7 Merits thrown in.

If the substance is good, it's pretty easy to distinguish it among the rest. Sure, we might see some sockpuppets liking their own posts but all it takes is just several seconds to scan and we can tell if they're BS or not.

Automating notifications to merit sources may also be a good idea as was suggested above by Welsh. Sources could set their own criteria as to who they are willing to receive notifications from. 

Without setting up Telegram/ PM/ smart watches, notifications would likely be seen in the Epochtalk ʷᵉ ᵐⁱᵍʰᵗ ˢᵉᵉ ⁱᵗ, ʷᵉ ᵐⁱᵍʰᵗ ⁿᵒᵗ. ʰᵒᵖᵉᶠᵘˡˡʸ ᵇⁱᵗᶜᵒⁱⁿ ʷᵒᵘˡᵈ ˢᵗⁱˡˡ ᵇᵉ ʳᵉˡᵉᵛᵃⁿᵗ ᵇʸ ᵗʰᵉⁿ

[Quickseller]

Automating notifications to merit sources may also be a good idea as was suggested above by Welsh. Sources could set their own criteria as to who they are willing to receive notifications from. 

Without setting up Telegram/ PM/ smart watches, notifications would likely be seen in the Epochtalk ʷᵉ ᵐⁱᵍʰᵗ ˢᵉᵉ ⁱᵗ, ʷᵉ ᵐⁱᵍʰᵗ ⁿᵒᵗ. ʰᵒᵖᵉᶠᵘˡˡʸ ᵇⁱᵗᶜᵒⁱⁿ ʷᵒᵘˡᵈ ˢᵗⁱˡˡ ᵇᵉ ʳᵉˡᵉᵛᵃⁿᵗ ᵇʸ ᵗʰᵉⁿ

Moderators get notifications of reports via a queue that is very similar to PMs. I don't think many people use this, but it is also possible to get a popup window when you receive a PM. Either of these could be implemented for merit sources.

[UserU]

Moderators get notifications of reports via a queue that is very similar to PMs. I don't think many people use this, but it is also possible to get a popup window when you receive a PM. Either of these could be implemented for merit sources.

If I remembered correctly, you can actually do that but I'm fine with PMs within the same window. Less clutter

[FIFA worldcup]

As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit, I will have no option than to slide on.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.

Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.

The only drawback of having both the merit and the like button is that most people will like the post without given the merit (as merits are rare and precious).
I personally don't like this idea. Again it can be treated in number of different ways like you press the like (shown publicly) and other people may give them merits thinking that the person who liked the post didn't have smerit to spend.

[GeorgeJohn]

Merits are already enough. Implementing like just for those who doesn't have sendable merits would just simply eradicate the idea of meriting. Why? Merit already boosts someone's confidence when he/she receives one (a rewarding-like feeling for your efforts), and "Likes" on the other hand tends to give you the same feeling and worse is some can be boastful about it (if calculated on one's profile). It is not that necessary to implement a "liking" system for a forum that already has a better one.

Your right mate,Merits system is like the man power of the community and implementing another law is not really obtainable in order to favuor those who don't have sendable merit is not encouragable, because i understand that it's because of adoption of merit system that is making the community to be competitive and also interactive in terms of discovery, so given alternative to merit will make it lose it's potentiality or regards from my perspective, the existing policy is highly adorable because any amount of merit earned determine the amount of user sendable merit.

[KingsDen]

The only drawback of having both the merit and the like button is that most people will like the post without given the merit (as merits are rare and precious).
I personally don't like this idea. Again it can be treated in number of different ways like you press the like (shown publicly) and other people may give them merits thinking that the person who liked the post didn't have smerit to spend.

Your first submission about the purported draw back. I don't see it as a draw back, if you continue giving likes and bank merit, where will you use the merit later? Still in the forum.

About the different way you suggested to treat it, you cannot achieve it without first adopting the like system alongside the merit system.

[UserU]

The only drawback of having both the merit and the like button is that most people will like the post without given the merit (as merits are rare and precious).
I personally don't like this idea. Again it can be treated in number of different ways like you press the like (shown publicly) and other people may give them merits thinking that the person who liked the post didn't have smerit to spend.

Some might think that way, but if you've been to Reddit, there are both karma system and awards. Karma is basically the upvotes/ downvotes you get from others while awards are mainly paid gifts or customized Merits.

Therefore Reddit's awards are harder to earn than Bitcointalk's Merit but good contributions/ posts are often awarded with them. Just like Merit and likes.

[KingsDen]

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