Merit & new rank requirements

[Xhipantjo]

In addition to activity, everyone now has a merit score, and you need both a certain activity level and a certain merit score in order to reach higher member ranks. The required scores are:

Rank	Required activity	Required merit
Brand new	0	0
Newbie	1	0
Jr Member	30	0
Member	60	10
Full Member	120	100
Sr. Member	240	250
Hero Member	480	500
Legendary	Random in the range 775-1030	1000

You get merit points when someone sends you some for one of your posts. Additionally, when someone sends you merit points, half of those points can be sent by you to other people.

Certain users are designated as "merit sources". They can create new merit out of nothing, up to a limited number per month (which differs per source). I will not be posting a definitive list of merit sources (so that people don't bug them too much), though you'll soon figure out who they are if you pay attention.

There is currently no such thing as a "demerit". I'm hoping that the positive merits alone will be fine. I could add demerits pretty easily later on if necessary, though.

I'm hoping that this system will increase post quality by:
 - Forcing people to post high-quality stuff in order to rank up. If you just post garbage, you will never get even 1 merit point, and you will therefore never be able to put links in your signature, etc.
 - Highlighting good posts with the "Merited by" line.

While we will not be directly moderating this, I encourage people to give merit to posts that are objectively high-quality, not just posts that you agree with.

Do not beg for merit excessively.

Useful infographics

Forum users have helpfully created some infographics to explain the merit system:
paxmao's infographic
ibminer's infographic
8Habits's infographic
JetSet11's infographic
zentdex's infographic
alia_armelle's infographic

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 by other people that have not received nearly enough merit for how good they are, and post quotes for them all in a new Meta thread. The point of this is to demonstrate your ability to give out merit usefully.
 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.

Trivia:

For current members, your initial merit score is equal to the minimum required to your rank. Of that, a certain amount (less than the usual half) is spendable. The spendable amount was calculated based on your current rank and the number of activity points you earned in the last year. A Legendary member who hasn't posted in the last year would still be Legendary, but would not have any spendable merit.

If someone sends you 1 merit, the 0.5 sMerit is not wasted; it is just not shown until you get another merit point.

There are stats here, and you can find someone's merit summary by clicking the "merit" link on their profile.

a very useful science. this is like a stream of water that can not be stopped.

[1695478557]

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[1695478557]

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[fxstrike]

If these users don't need anything else and just want to hang out in the alt sections they can still do that without merits. Nobody is getting banned for not having merits.

But I have a feeling that they do need something else... am I right?

Generally others takes ranks as measure of how trustable the person is, its impact their ability to conduct certain trades at marketplace and also in their general interaction with other as higher rank members which usually regarded higher rank member as more trustable and more likely to not doing something that breach the forum rules.

I see that whenever low rank member open a topic he will be bombarded with abusive response, get ignored and in some cases get red trust from higher rank member no matter how good his suggestion is, but when high ranking member open a topic which already opened by others and suggest something that totally useless and impractical, I see that everyone just agreeing to it just because they see it is posted by high ranking member. When low rank members disagree, they get bashed.

So there is reason in part of lower rank members to want to rank up.

Why don't just remove ranking system and merit system all together if its serve no purpose and will not prevent anyone from posting or whatever, since with or without rank and merit everyone still can post anything they want its just the same as don't have it at all. It will free up resources and also probably make the software more faster and responsive without all that rank and merit complexity & logic

[Devawnm367]

Im working on my grammar, I have been using my tablet and not the pc. So im usually missin a couple of punctuation marks, That and im a country boy from Arkansas so any ideas on what i could do to gain more attention? Ore possibly where i can find information to better myself please and thanks yall!!!

[LoveKamil]

Hello everyone! I wanted to clarify, now stance not will depend on number of posts? only on the number of merits.

[nydiacaskey01]

Hello everyone! I wanted to clarify, now stance not will depend on number of posts? only on the number of merits.

Here's the answer to your query

In addition to activity, everyone now has a merit score, and you need both a certain activity level and a certain merit score in order to reach higher member ranks.

So that means Merits is NOT the only requirement to rank-up. That will be Post's, Activity AND Merits. You need to have quality post's that will take the attention of people with enough sMerits to give away or those sMerits source. So regardless of how many post's you made, if you don't get Merits, you dont rank up.

[libert19]

Im working on my grammar, I have been using my tablet and not the pc. So im usually missin a couple of punctuation marks, That and im a country boy from Arkansas so any ideas on what i could do to gain more attention? Ore possibly where i can find information to better myself please and thanks yall!!!

Don't put over effort in grammar rather just add something valuable in whatever being discussed 

[Jericka D Ranillo]

Thanks for info, seems the new way is so hard. I read many oroblem about getting merit but i try my best to earn it

[bitcoinpapa]

I now understand how merits works in this forum. I will try my best in provide useful information and giving good ideas to gain trust from my loyal reader so as to gain good merits. Thanks for the guild.

[teejaymuna]

Wow! As if getting activity growth wasn't hard enough, getting merits is even more tough. This thread has been helpful though. At least I have a clearer insight on what to do. Let's see how much merit I can rake in. Blessings to the sources here and the rest

[zigfridkr]

Im working on my grammar, I have been using my tablet and not the pc. So im usually missin a couple of punctuation marks, That and im a country boy from Arkansas so any ideas on what i could do to gain more attention? Ore possibly where i can find information to better myself please and thanks yall!!!

Don't put over effort in grammar rather just add something valuable in whatever being discussed 

Most of the members who do not have good English think that it is almost impossible for them to get merits here. But in my opinion, they also have good chances provided they take are of :

1) Content quality: If you are compensating bad grammar with superb content here, you can still expect good number of merits. I am sure that senior members here do consider the effort being made by a remember while making a useful post.

2) Posting images of videos: In case your English is very bad, you might not be able to even frame sentences. In such a case, you can try posting images and videos related to the forum rules and can get some merits.

[suchmoon]

If these users don't need anything else and just want to hang out in the alt sections they can still do that without merits. Nobody is getting banned for not having merits.

But I have a feeling that they do need something else... am I right?

Generally others takes ranks as measure of how trustable the person is, its impact their ability to conduct certain trades at marketplace and also in their general interaction with other as higher rank members which usually regarded higher rank member as more trustable and more likely to not doing something that breach the forum rules.

I see that whenever low rank member open a topic he will be bombarded with abusive response, get ignored and in some cases get red trust from higher rank member no matter how good his suggestion is, but when high ranking member open a topic which already opened by others and suggest something that totally useless and impractical, I see that everyone just agreeing to it just because they see it is posted by high ranking member. When low rank members disagree, they get bashed.

So there is reason in part of lower rank members to want to rank up.

Why don't just remove ranking system and merit system all together if its serve no purpose and will not prevent anyone from posting or whatever, since with or without rank and merit everyone still can post anything they want its just the same as don't have it at all. It will free up resources and also probably make the software more faster and responsive without all that rank and merit complexity & logic

If someone takes rank as an indication of trustworthiness in a trade - they're are asking to be scammed.

I don't know if someone can get red trust for merely posting as newbie. Sounds like trust abuse. Do you have examples?

I've seen newbies being ridiculed for posting as established members, i.e. for being obvious sockpuppets. Nothing wrong with that. If you have examples of newbies being discriminated against for just being newbies and not because they're ignorant assholes - please share. That hasn't been my experience. I see many new members fitting in just fine.

And yes, I'd be fine with getting rid of the ranks if all ads in posts, avatars, and signatures are banned too. Or avatars/signatures removed completely.

[Mame]

I now understand how merits works in this forum. I will try my best in provide useful information and giving good ideas to gain trust from my loyal reader so as to gain good merits. Thanks for the guild.

I think at the start of reading this merit thread you will understand it already because it was clearly explained. Now merit is a big help to clean this forum by spammer and account farmers and i think in a few months there will be another feature will launch because some of the account farmers already know how to cheat this merit system.

[Buzhuzima]

i am new in this forum. and what is it that makes the rank increase so desperately needed? I am here only to monitor some ico that I may be able to follow

[Jet Cash]

i am new in this forum. and what is it that makes the rank increase so desperately needed? I am here only to monitor some ico that I may be able to follow

The ability to promote scam coins and dodgy bounty programmes through improved signatures. You get higher rates for higher ranks.

It's because of this that many believe that signature campaigns should be banned.

[CasinoExpert]

It really has nothing to do with the length of a post. I actually find long posts annoying and prefer people to be able to get their point across concisely.

[coinsontheroad]

It really has nothing to do with the length of a post. I actually find long posts annoying and prefer people to be able to get their point across concisely.

Agreed. I don't like to mull through the overly wordy posts. Forget about character length. If you can add value or educate someone with one word, it's a post deserving of merit.

[MagicSmoker]

i am new in this forum. and what is it that makes the rank increase so desperately needed? I am here only to monitor some ico that I may be able to follow

The ability to promote scam coins and dodgy bounty programmes through improved signatures. You get higher rates for higher ranks.

It's because of this that many believe that signature campaigns should be banned.

Hey now, you're enjoying one of the benefits of a higher rank that I sorely miss: an avatar. Otherwise, I have near-zero interest in bounties, airdrops, sig campaigns and other assorted forms of panhandling/slave labor*.



* - e.g., one campaign by a /reputable/ campaign manager paid 0.00125 BTC for 25 posts in a 1 week period. At 5 minutes per post that works out to around $5/hr.

[TryNinja]

What about low ranked users ?

What about them?

It is only possible to win Merits creating usefull post ?

You can only get merit if someone merits your post. By making useful posts, you increase the chances of that happening.

And if so as a Newbie i have 0 sMerit points right ?

That should be obvious. Otherwise, I could create 50 accounts and just keep meriting myself.

[wiser]

I'm generally happy with systems that help make this forum a better place by limiting spam posting, scamming, etc. I've been around for a while so am not in a position to have to earn my way up by collecting merits.

I am a bit concerned about the limited ways there are to get s-merits. It seems the merit sources and the folks who collect a lot of merit points would be the merit whales on this forum, and that over time, people wanting to rank up will post with those whales in mind, rather than simply focusing on quality. Also, there is a certain aspect of this that depends on your ability to promote yourself, not just write quality posts. I don't know if there is a way to kind of equalize that. I think it's great to reward high quality posts, but the ability to write those posts and promote them so that the right forum members may notice them are two different skill sets.

[JayJuanGee]

I'm going to attempt to respond to the immediately below post, and also I have attached a post of yours from another thread, which is related. 

I'm generally happy with systems that help make this forum a better place by limiting spam posting, scamming, etc. I've been around for a while so am not in a position to have to earn my way up by collecting merits.

I am a bit concerned about the limited ways there are to get s-merits. It seems the merit sources and the folks who collect a lot of merit points would be the merit whales on this forum, and that over time, people wanting to rank up will post with those whales in mind, rather than simply focusing on quality.

Yes... limited ways is to either receive from another member or to be designated as a merit source.  You may be correct that the merit system and the posting on the thread could devolve into a kind of "sucking up" to the sources, and maybe that is partially by design rather than a fluke.  Of course, theymos owns the forum so he could tweak the system to the extent that he believes it is needed, but we also know that members who are receiving merits are also going to be generating .5 smerits to go out to others.  So if you do the math for the halfening of the smerits that originate with the designated merit sources, then 100 smerits becomes nearly 200 smerits by the time you continue to half it down to nothing.. even though the original 100 smerits started with the sources.

Also, there is a certain aspect of this that depends on your ability to promote yourself, not just write quality posts.

Sure, that might become irritating, because some folks might be seeking merits directly but others are more subtle about it, and in any event some of the forum dynamics change.. .. and you are not really limited in your posts in any kind of meaningful way because it is likely true that some folks are going to merit you for taking an opposing position... as long as you back it up or say it with creativity and/or humor.. and bring some value... so perhaps the benefits of improving post quality will outweigh some of the disadvantages.. and might take months to figure out some of the dynamics and tweak and perhaps years to figure out if the system is causing malignments of incentives.

I don't know if there is a way to kind of equalize that.

The merit system was introduced to address a forum spamming, troll and shit posting problem, so maybe if the new system helps with its targeted objective(s) then some of the other side effects might be considered less important? perhaps?

I think it's great to reward high quality posts, but the ability to write those posts and promote them so that the right forum members may notice them are two different skill sets.

There might be a bit of a puzzle there to figure out which threads have more generous merit givers, but if you are participating in threads that you find interesting and you contribute interesting ideas, then wouldn't logic follow that you are more likely to receive merits because you are truly enjoying what you read and what you post?


From the other thread:

I was wondering if/when spendable merit got replenished. I have spent some of mine but haven't noticed any more added. Is there a good thread that explains the whole merit system? I tried to search for it, but didn't turn up anything--this thread was the closest.

There are a lot of merit threads, but this one is where theymos introduced merits, and I suppose is the main starting point merit thread.

Regarding replenishing of spendable merits, the basic answer is that you only get more spendable merits by receiving merits from other members (at a rate of half a smerit for every merit received from another member) - unless you happen to have been designated as a merit source.   So far, theymos has only designated 80 merit sources, and you can see that here.

Theymos did state a plan to increase members who are designated as merit sources, such as 100s of merit source designees in the future, yet it remains unclear what kind of specific merit source target number he has in mind or the exact timeline for such, but I would think likely under 1,000 merit source designees in the coming year or so based on what he has already stated on the topic, but that is largely inferential speculation on my part.

OK, so what I'm hearing is that for now at least, once you spend the smerit, it's gone forever.

Maybe theymos will change this in the future, but for now, it seems that there is going to be no replenishing of smerits except for designated merit sources.  Of course, theymos could do an airdrop or very vastly expand the number of merit sources, but I doubt that he is going to take any revolutionary steps until some time passes to see how some of the merit system is playing out with his already designated merit sources and how they are distributing merits and also with spending the initial distribution of merits.

I'm not expecting to get much in the way of merit from others mainly because the people I mostly interact with here were all here before the merit system got implemented and we're just not used to it yet. You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks...

Yep.. dynamics are going to change, yet many of the old dogs are still going to have an initial distribution of merits that they can give out.  And, yep dynamics are changing, so ranking up is not going to be the same, but lucky for you and for some of the others (legendary) we have already ranked up to legendary... but it is also possible that a new rank could be created (a bit of further speculation coming out of my brain and also based on discussions in other threads/posts that I had seen).

I'll enjoy giving it out, and then when it's gone I won't worry about it too much.

Thanks for the link to the original merit thread. I'll take a peek there too.

Perhaps you can budget some of your smerits, and if you remain active in the forum you are likely to earn more smerits as time passes.