Merit & new rank requirements

[djangocoin]

To make this system fair as it should be its primary pourpose, we all should start from scratch, with no rank whatsoever.

At present time, it mixes old ranks farmed with old rules with new shiny merit rules.

It's a system that promotes fairness, born in the most unfair way, putting low ranks in an HUGE disadvantage.

I think i agree with you. In the sense that the system is a fair one based on the premise that we all started from scratch (all start from zero).

[Mind Control]

You want to multiply your Merit and you don't care how much sMerit you have? Easily done, if you have been able to spam a lot in the last years:

Account A: 1000 Merit / 500 sMerit
Account B: 0 Merit / 0 sMerit
-->
A sends B 500 sMerit

~snip

You can only send 50 sMerit to a user in a 30 days period.
It's going to take 10 months for that (or multiple accounts).

But since Merit is public it s also easy to trace.

This merit system could also be used to track and hunt down alts.   
Obviously these farmers will abuse the merit system in order for their alts to rank up. Making it easier to track alts and could provide solid proofs.

Except it’s not against the rules to have alts and it’s not against the rules to sell accounts. If they would ban people for doing those two things you would probably have a solution to the problem they are trying to solve with the merit system.

True, but sooner or later the moderators will figure out that some random farmers are abusing the merit system by exchanging merits between their own account. The true purpose of the merit system is to promote quality posting and lessen spamming and shitposting, right? But by abusing the system will just provide solid proof to those having alts that eventually abused bounties as well.

[djangocoin]

what i don't get is why people want to rank up. or why the do want to rank up so desperate.

don't answer me with this: its easy for you, you are a legendary member.... blabla.....

do they just want a higher rank because the possibility the join a signature campaign is higher and the payout is higher too?
or do they think that their post are more important because of their rank?
or do they need the rank to feel better?

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment

Let me flip the question back to you: If being a higher rank is so undesirable or worthless then why make it so hard/time consuming to become one?

[suchmoon]

Except it’s not against the rules to have alts and it’s not against the rules to sell accounts. If they would ban people for doing those two things you would probably have a solution to the problem they are trying to solve with the merit system.

It would be difficult to enforce a ban on alts/sales. The merit system might make having alts less attractive since it's so much harder to rank up now. Baby steps.

[YuTü.Co.in]

We can apply for a "position" as a Merit Source, by gathering 10 posts for evaluation.

Genius! So, instead of mods doing ... I don't know, maybe modding ... they'll now dedicate countless hours reading past posts in assessing if the countless submitters merit being an sM source while still getting paid for their modding prowess from this forum's coffer which, BTW, was first uncovered by me, whereupon theymos verified the practice back in the day, previously such was unknown to the community at large.

In essence, pretend there's a restaurant that has fallen disarray due to subordinates not performing up to par, causing visitors to proclaim to others that the place is a shithole. The owner of the restaurant wants to clean up the place. Thanks to his infinite wisdom, the owner instructs his managers (think: mods) to start cleaning the toilets on a more regular basis, sweep the parking lot every four hours, Windex all the glass three times a day, dust the curtains every day, and make sure the menus are always clean. All that on top of their already busy schedule sans an immediate increase in pay, but the mods' managers' performance will be continually monitored in making sure that the subordinates are in check, thus bettering the environment for patrons to enjoy once again. All the while, the people operating the credit card machine at the cash register and the servers and the cooks are stealing from the restaurant, other employees and patrons - even worst if the managers are in on the act.

Genius!

"Madness!"

[vlom]

what i don't get is why people want to rank up. or why the do want to rank up so desperate.

don't answer me with this: its easy for you, you are a legendary member.... blabla.....

do they just want a higher rank because the possibility the join a signature campaign is higher and the payout is higher too?
or do they think that their post are more important because of their rank?
or do they need the rank to feel better?

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment

Let me flip the question back to you: If being a higher rank is so undesirable or worthless then why make it so hard/time consuming to become one?

i did not say it is worthless. for me it is rather worthless. others will have a different opinion.
and i don't think that it was hard or time consuming. i just levelled up while using the forum.

[QuestionAuthority]

You want to multiply your Merit and you don't care how much sMerit you have? Easily done, if you have been able to spam a lot in the last years:

Account A: 1000 Merit / 500 sMerit
Account B: 0 Merit / 0 sMerit
-->
A sends B 500 sMerit

~snip

You can only send 50 sMerit to a user in a 30 days period.
It's going to take 10 months for that (or multiple accounts).

But since Merit is public it s also easy to trace.

This merit system could also be used to track and hunt down alts.   
Obviously these farmers will abuse the merit system in order for their alts to rank up. Making it easier to track alts and could provide solid proofs.

Except it’s not against the rules to have alts and it’s not against the rules to sell accounts. If they would ban people for doing those two things you would probably have a solution to the problem they are trying to solve with the merit system.

True, but sooner or later the moderators will figure out that some random farmers are abusing the merit system by exchanging merits between their own account. The true purpose of the merit system is to promote quality posting and lessen spamming and shitposting, right? But by abusing the system will just provide solid proof to those having alts that eventually abused bounties as well.

True, it could be useful to highlight that but you must realize that will take a lot of time to research too. You will have the proof you need but this is a private non profit business. The administration doesn’t really need much proof if they want to permanently ban an account. They can do it if they just strongly feel the account is abusing the system. Merit is supposed to free up mods to do other work not overly encumber them with more work.

[QuestionAuthority]

Except it’s not against the rules to have alts and it’s not against the rules to sell accounts. If they would ban people for doing those two things you would probably have a solution to the problem they are trying to solve with the merit system.

It would be difficult to enforce a ban on alts/sales. The merit system might make having alts less attractive since it's so much harder to rank up now. Baby steps.

Yeah, I understand. Even if you do ban them they will simply do it somewhere else so it’s pointless. Let’s hope it works as expected.

[djangocoin]

what i don't get is why people want to rank up. or why the do want to rank up so desperate.

don't answer me with this: its easy for you, you are a legendary member.... blabla.....

do they just want a higher rank because the possibility the join a signature campaign is higher and the payout is higher too?
or do they think that their post are more important because of their rank?
or do they need the rank to feel better?

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment

Let me flip the question back to you: If being a higher rank is so undesirable or worthless then why make it so hard/time consuming to become one?

i did not say it is worthless. for me it is rather worthless. others will have a different opinion.
and i don't think that it was hard or time consuming. i just levelled up while using the forum.

Fair point, but i am quite sure it consumed a lot of time, even if it is productively spent

I suppose hard as in you hear (before merit came in to play) a lot of newbies bemoaning about how hard it is to rank up etc.

[FrueGreads]

We can apply for a "position" as a Merit Source, by gathering 10 posts for evaluation.

What are you trying to say here? That is not a suggestion, my suggestions are at the end of the post.
What you quoted is actually the procedure that needs to be done for someone to try to become a merit source.
You can actually read that in the OP of this thread:

If you want to be a merit source:

 1. Be a somewhat established member.
 2. Collect TEN posts written in the last couple of months that have not received nearly enough merit for how good they are, and post quotes for them all in a new Meta thread.
 3. We will take a look at your history and maybe make you a source.

I am especially eager to have merit sources in sub-communities such as the local sections.

[suchmoon]

what i don't get is why people want to rank up. or why the do want to rank up so desperate.

don't answer me with this: its easy for you, you are a legendary member.... blabla.....

do they just want a higher rank because the possibility the join a signature campaign is higher and the payout is higher too?
or do they think that their post are more important because of their rank?
or do they need the rank to feel better?

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment

Let me flip the question back to you: If being a higher rank is so undesirable or worthless then why make it so hard/time consuming to become one?

Rank is just a carrot to entice shitposters focus on quality rather than quantity. It shouldn't be hard or time consuming for quality posters but we'll need to wait a few months to see how that shakes out.

[Kavallo]

Just like with beggars on the street, I would be willing to give to a beggar that’s creative. I would give this guy $10.

Of course, a creative beggar is providing a service which should be rewarded. However, I'm afraid 10$ would solve only a few micron of that beggar's problem
So should we open a CREATIVE MERIT BEGGING thread?
That would open the way to a whole new ecology of merit-rewarding games and competitions, even though I am afraid that the true spirit of the reform could get *slightly* twisted in the process...

[omorfi]

Merit can be turn into a purchasable commodity in the future. Instead, a method should be developed that forbids sending messages of less than 75 or more characters for quality. This may be a more convenient solution

[Mind Control]

Merit can be turn into a purchasable commodity in the future. Instead, a method should be developed that forbids sending messages of less than 75 or more characters for quality. This may be a more convenient solution

The quality of post does not depend on the length but on the content.

[QuestionAuthority]

Just like with beggars on the street, I would be willing to give to a beggar that’s creative. I would give this guy $10.

Of course, a creative beggar is providing a service which should be rewarded. However, I'm afraid 10$ would solve only a few micron of that beggar's problem
So should we open a CREATIVE MERIT BEGGING thread?
That would open the way to a whole new ecology of merit-rewarding games and competitions, even though I am afraid that the true spirit of the reform could get *slightly* twisted in the process...

That’s probably the most positive thing someone has said in this thread yet. It would be interesting to see an off-topic thread devoted to games and competitions that paid in merit. Creative begging could pull beggars from other sections of the forum and let them go nuts in off-topic without being banned. LOL

[gopaljiverma]

Merit can be turn into a purchasable commodity in the future. Instead, a method should be developed that forbids sending messages of less than 75 or more characters for quality. This may be a more convenient solution

One can post essays of 750 words instead of 75 to bypass this. That is not going to ensure any quality.

[adotrulez]

I have a long list of reasons why i detest this new system:

1. It DOES NOT IN ANY WAY REDUCE SPAMMING, it only changes the game to hustling, begging and trading the so called shit merit
2. I already foresee these so called merits becoming some high value market commodity...i hear people are already buying and selling the damned thing! Well, I for one do not have a dime to give to anyone in the name of trying to rank up.
3. What happens to true lovers of the community like me who have been ranking up through honest and detailed as well as informative posts all this while? Suddenly that motivation has gone out the window.
4. It has officially killed the ability of anyone to genuinely rank up cos even if one deserves to be 'merited', no one is willing to give them out freely.

In summary, MERIT SUCKS AND THIS DECISION SHOULD BE REVERSED TO PRESERVE THIS COMMUNITY from going into half communism, half capitalism mode.

There!! I just posted a very long non spammy write up but thanks to the new system, it doesn't count for dust!  

[b3llsf1l3s]

I came here to see what in the hell was this new merit thing, to find that there is already a +50 pages thread about it hilarious...

Why you people care so much about "ranking"? AFAIK it's only useful for scamming noobs. (I'm genuinely asking)

Are you serious or what ? Many airdrops and bounties depends on of your rank profile in this forum, do you know that?
Honestly I'm still a bit confused about that, there were obviously too much scams and a solution had to be found, but honestly this way is really hard for common users, we'll see how this innovation will work.

some noobs just feel they have been scammed, just after 1 week they register and make a lot of new account to be sell
and now with this new system they feel, all of their hardwork are for nothing, spamming on the threads, now its become nothing because their rank were stuck.

[Deena]

The quality of post does not depend on the length but on the content.

Wrong. It depends in reality upon subjective sympathy, mainly that of the chosen few with super merit powers. Just like the trust system.

[stompix]

Merit can be turn into a purchasable commodity in the future. Instead, a method should be developed that forbids sending messages of less than 75 or more characters for quality. This may be a more convenient solution

No!

Having a limit of 75 characters in my opinion is not such a good idea because it can be simply abused by anybody that might just type a long phrase with little meaning just to bypass this filter

194 characters.

That filter can easily be abused.

32 characters.

See what I did here?