Are Legendary and other higher rank members abusing the Merit System?

[vlad230]

The beginning of the merit system was a bit weird as a lot of people didn't understand exactly what it should be used for (some don't know even today). I bet a lot of people were just playing with them at that point and didn't understand what it's true purpose was.
I even remember someone getting 50 merit for calling the other a "butt hurt idiot" which was simply stupid.

There still are some cases like that and when you see it, you definitely get discouraged.
Take a look at this post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5029917.msg45811067#msg45811067 he essentially said nothing but still got 20 merits. There are a lot of 1-2 line replies (that do not bring any value) that are also rewarded with high amounts of merit.
You can find a lot of those here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=topreplies , it's a bit sad.

For example, I have created a guide to exchanges where I invested a lot of time into, but was not seen as "important" as other discussions here:  [Guide] Best/Top Crypto Exchanges: Fees & more. I think it also has to do with making your posts visible enough to others but I do get discouraged when I put in the time and don't receive merit.

Please keep in mind that merit is not moderated so, you can talk all you want about the abuses and nothing will happen (other that a negative trust maybe).

I think you should focus on making the best posts you can and not worrying about the "this noise" because it isn't really something you or I can control.  

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I know someone may bring this arguement that any individual can give merit according to his/her discretion but the point is Legendary members are not ranking up to any further rank so why dash them that huge number of merits when there are other lower rank members who equally deserve to rank up with some quality post of theirs.

I personally try to avoid meriting Legendary users, not because they don't deserve merit but because they simply don't need them to rank-up. I prefer to award merit to people who actually need it.

[lebrone08]

No offence, but ever since i registered into this forum i have been observing some trend in this forum regarding the rewarding of merit to deserving post. I read that forum members should not beg nor pm other people for merits but rather make quality post and merits would be given.

One thing that i have observed is that Legendary members award themselves high number of merits even to any ordinary reply by his/her colleague makes on a topic. i am not against awarding merits to each other if it is deserving but i am just saying it is quite unfair to reward a fellow Legendary member high number of merits for just an ordinary post when another member can make a whole lot of research and just receive some few number of merits.
Just check out this whole thread and consider critically how the merits are being given out
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0

For these two posts i just don't want to comment about it because it seems to me that, the rules are being broken for some people
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg28856910#msg28856910
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg28856972#msg28856972


I know someone may bring this arguement that any individual can give merit according to his/her discretion but the point is Legendary members are not ranking up to any further rank so why dash them that huge number of merits when there are other lower rank members who equally deserve to rank up with some quality post of theirs.
Let's all have a great week

You are only more than 2 weeks in this forum and here you are complaining already about the merits system that you think someone is abusing their merits. Those example thread that you post was made right after the merit system was introduced. This one could not give you any symphathy or any merits at all

[Jet Cash]

You guys still don't seem to have grasped the purpose of the merit system. Once again, it is NOT a ranking tool - activity is the driving force behind ranking. Merit is a system to encourage quality posting, and it is indepenent of rank. Legendaries need merits in the same way as new members - it is a quality rating of posting activity by the community, and it provides valuable feedback to the poster.

In view of the large number of spammy low value posts, it was determined that a ranking barrier should be created, and this is the merit system. If the community has not indicated approval for a member's posts, then the poster will have to accept restrictions on the benefits of membership. The needs of a member are not relevant, the sole consideration should be his value to the community.