We need a merit system for local boards

[erikoy]

That would mean a new user who doesn't speak English can't post anywhere, and thus can't earn Merit either.

Indeed and that would be a real trouble for newbies. LOL. Actually I have thought of this so this could be a another problem if OP's demand will be granted.

local boards will limit only to higher ranks or to those who are qualified to post in the local boards and the newbies with great and brilliant minds will be limited to this.

Struggle is real for the newbies in their local board and that is not how the admin would want to happen. Administrator are more considerate than to what I expected. Probably, the problem will not be addressed or resolve by creating sub merit system for their local boards. It is in their local board has the problem and not the forum itself.

[S_Therapist]

Last time I looked I had trouble sending one merit there. A merit source for there would be unemployed.

Isn't the merit system introduced to reduce spam and increase quality? Having merit source on particular board will definitely increase that quality of that board, IMO. The current posts may be not enough qualitative, but if someone starts to encourage sending sMerits on good posts, others will also think of posting something constructive, helpful.

[xtraelv]

Isn't the merit system introduced to reduce spam and increase quality? Having merit source on particular board will definitely increase that quality of that board, IMO. The current posts may be not enough qualitative, but if someone starts to encourage sending sMerits on good posts, others will also think of posting something constructive, helpful.

There are plenty of people that go there that have merits available and that speak the language. Including some of the merit sources.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>There's a more obvious explanation:<...>
Short summary in English: we Dutch speakers easily join threads in other languages (mainly English), so we don't have to stick to the Dutch board<…>

That too is a factor, since there are countries who’s population has way better command of English than others. For example, there is an abysmal difference between Mediterranean countries (lower) and north European countries in general (much higher).

Last time I checked in September (see Analysis - Ranked-up Users – Section/Subsection profile (& Local Boards)), I counted only 2 people who has managed to rank-up at least one level (>=Member) under the Merit System in the Dutch board, purely receiving all the required sMerit on the local board. An additional 5 that had done so receiving the required sMerit both on the local Dutch board, and other general English boards. Of course I do not have a reference to those that post and get merited solely on the English sections of the forum.

[xtraelv]

Last time I checked in September (see Analysis - Ranked-up Users – Section/Subsection profile (& Local Boards)), I counted only 2 people who has managed to rank-up at least one level (>=Member) under the Merit System in the Dutch board, purely receiving all the required sMerit on the local board. An additional 5 that had done so receiving the required sMerit both on the local Dutch board, and other general English boards. Of course I do not have a reference to those that post and get merited solely on the English sections of the forum.

I just had a look and found most Dutch local board users that had received merits received them on the German board and Main board.

Most Dutch people have learned English, German and French in addition to Dutch.  Spanish and Italian is relatively common too.

[PolinaCryptoN]

I haven't been much around the last couple of months and all of a sudden a Merit system has been integrated. I think it works fine. If I compare the quality of posts in main boards, now it's much more helpfull than it used to be.

But it looks like the spam moved to the local boards. If I take a look at the Dutch boards, lots of s****y projects are posted there. I also see a lot of spam and discussions that, in my opinion, don't belong on Bitcointalk. Also I see a lot of bounty hunters over there, posting things you can't take serious.

Can we do something about this and introduce a Merit system for local boards only? So that it is also needed to post quality on those local boards and prevent people from posting spam and worthless content?

Or is this just a problem for the local Dutch board?

I think it should be a problem with local boards individually. I haven't seen the same problem on my board, however, it's less active than others. Anyways, it's a pretty good idea. In my opinion admins should really think about it.

[mu_enrico]

I think it's not necessary to introduce local merit since it would add more confusion and complexity. In my opinion, problems related to the local board should be addressed internally, I mean with more engagement, such as more discussions, reports, and stuff. If a local board looks neglected then it's a signal that the board should be merged or refreshed or something serious has to be done.

In my local board, after the merit system introduced, spam posts were more contained and significantly reduced.

Month	Topics	+Topics	Posts	+Posts
Aug	10,612	N/A	941,443	N/A
Sept	10,875	263	965,461	24,018
Oct	11,279	404	985,052	19,591

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4932482.0

Sept-Oct shows that users created 53.6% more topics and 18.43% fewer posts. Perhaps, users desperately create more threads to get some merits and at the same time decreasing spam posts. I expect both thread and post count would continue to decrease at the next "table" update.

This improvement not only because of the merit system but also because of the community participation as a whole. We have more patrollers, educators, and "good trollers" in the last two or three months.

[Direwolve735]

I'd always assumed that the vast majority of spamming/shitposting occurred in the English sections because most signature campaigns only pay for posts in English--and I don't visit any of the local boards so I'd have no way of knowing about any spam problems there.

Many campaigns allow and even encourage posts on local boards, but they also require a report with the translation of these comments into English. Therefore, a huge number of bounty hunters are spamming in these branches. At the same time moderation usually isn`t so responsible and tough there, so spam has every reason for extension. In addition, there is a widespread opinion that the English branches have stricter rules and requirements, whereas in local boards everything isn`t so severe. In the English branches the "elite" of the forum is concentrated, which keeps order (in addition to the main moderators). Therefore, participants apply much more efforts to write quality posts, whereas in local branches comments are usually written for quantity.

[Infinixhot1996]

I think it should be a problem with local boards individually. I haven't seen the same problem on my board, however, it's less active than others. Anyways, it's a pretty good idea. In my opinion admins should really think about it.

Spam happens to be on all boards of the forum,be it the normal board or the local boards..
And I am kinda lost with the OP's suggestions,are we to introduce a specific merit system that differs from the normal one on his local board??

That's asking theymos for too much and I doubt if it'll ever be implemented,you can help keep your board clean by reporting spam to the moderators on sight