Merit & new rank requirements

[numanoid]

Is there a way to track those merits from one user to another rather than checking the threads they posted and people who merited them? Will you be adding a history page to see the merits send/received?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit

This is only my guessing, is theymos' UID the reason why he picked 35 people as Merit sources?
If not, it's just a coincidence...

[bobq]

In general I think this new rules for ranking up are a very good improvement of the system, an improvement which was badly needed. The level of most of the posts lately has become unbarebly low and the issue had to be adressed, and I think this solution should work, or at least help. But of course, personally I cannot really rejoyce of the new system having been implemented right now. I would have ranked up to Hero Member in 5 days, next week. Now it may take me months if not years to get the 250 merit points which I'm missing - even though I usually do my best to make good posts, I have my doubts people will be generous to give away their sMerits. Pity for me, but an overall improvement for our common home.

[bitcoinsforall]

Is there a way to track those merits from one user to another rather than checking the threads they posted and people who merited them? Will you be adding a history page to see the merits send/received?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit

Thanks!

Is there a way to avoid duplication with this system? I accidentally clicked/refreshed twice the merit page.

[quierx16]

I have a question - if I helped 2 months in the topic in pushing transactions, then the new system will not give me anything? (a locked account) and accordingly in the current account, if you continue to help newcomers in pushing their transactions, then there will be no reward? I understand correctly?

in theory you can be the most helpfull person in the forum and still remain a newbie for life  

well, you are right. you don't need to become high rank member if you just want to share or read news or information here unless you are a bounty hunters.
jr.member is doesn't need merit though so your will be rank once.

[A1exander]

• Its economy is based on a trickle-down effect.

This is especially worrisome. It is well known that the trickle-down effect does not work.

[Ghris]

To be honest, I haven't read all the replies on this topic.
But I have one concern I want to share: How to avoid members from selling Merit?

Similar to selling/buying accounts this might be used to get more accounts of a higher rank.

Edit: Hurr durr, there was already a topic in Meta about this concern. Sorry for the unnecessary post.

[l10no]

with this new system, I think there will be certain parties who act very powerful, and as if they want to be worshiped in order to get rewarded from it,
maybe like that system I understand, I still hope there will be a wiser system from this, because I think it will be many of the members who will continue to be in the same rank with a long time, even though they make an amazing post, it is not will take effect before he gets merit.

[Miderian]

I guess I was lucky a little bit. It is a good idea for Merit implementation.
But I'm worried a little bit. A number that is required for leveling up might be to high.
I mean Bitcointalk is not like a Facebook, I love Bitcointalk and hate Facebook, just saying,
But this is not a chat where like button is usual. That will change some things on here.

[TheQuin]

This is especially worrisome. It is well known that the trickle-down effect does not work.

In terms of economics, it is less well known but equally true that trickle-down was not ever advocated but merely a straw man created by the left to discredit the right.

In terms of the merit system, however, I think it has a good chance of being an effective way to distribute the points. The merit sources can't do all the work themselves and scour the whole forum. When they leave points to someone for a good post then that person is also likely to be a reasonable judge of what is deserving.
Can you suggest a better way of doing it?

[Jeremycoin]

For current members, your initial merit score is equal to the minimum required for 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.

I don't agree with this, this is just like giving the "old members" (including me) a head start. I'm not saying that earning merits is a race but giving us a head start also means giving us a free reputation out of nothing. That does not necessarily mean we need to rebuild our reputation from zero, I mean there are so many members that have earned a good reputation on this forum.
So I think the merit points for old members have to be given based on their reputation now and without affecting the rank.
Anyway, I think this is gonna be the end of account farming.

[tambenile]

with this new system, I think there will be certain parties who act very powerful, and as if they want to be rewarded for it, maybe that's the system I understand, I still hope there will be a wiser system than this , because I think it will be a lot of the members who will continue to be on the same rank for a long time, even if they make an amazing post, it will have no effect before he gets merit.

This will turns into a game of powers not for newbies or newcomers anymore

[AgataFox]

The system is good, but not ideal! Perhaps this is due to the fact that system only introduced today.

Newbie and Jr Member did not give any merit so that they could develop the account. In any sphere of life and activity there must be competition. In this case, it turns out that a person of high rank should go into the branch of beginners, re-read topics and give some good several merits. The busy people will not have time for this, and, in general, wishes too.

Another nuance: the forum is like an analog of the labor market for new projects! Many people will be eliminated. From high ranks, someone does not works with the bounty, someone takes only high-paying projects, someone switched to trading. As a result, you can get a crisis in the labor market. After all, bounties give a good increase in investment. And as a result, many projects simply can not collect even softcap, not because they are bad or unpromising, but because advertising in our time is the engine of progress.

Plus there is the issue of fighting multi-accounts! Why should a big boss give merits to a lunfamiliar dude, if he has a farm of accounts and he needs to raise himself !!!

It should be possible to earn merits yourself, even if it's difficult, longer than activity, but it should!

The idea is good unconditionally, you need to do something with a senseless flood on the forum, but we need improvements!!!

[prehisto]

Although I think that this was necessarily to find some kind of solution for increasing post quality.
The initial merit score which was given to each individual is not fair.
For example,me. My account In old system would be ranked up to Sr.Member after one week. But now after Merit I am back as I just become a Full Member regarding Merit.

I would have calculated initial Merit in respect to Activity .

In addition , I am not sure that I understand the Merit system completely.
When I Merit someones post, do I give out my own Merit?
Or  I have some-kind of merit balance which i use only for "voting"?

[ManaMan]

Is there a summury where I can see all my posts which received merit from others? I see that I got 5 merit so far from somebody but it is just pain to scroll through all my posts that I have made in the past to see which one got merit. I think this should be a handy feature as it will allow us to simply have an overview what kind of posting could potentially earn us merits from other users and what type of posts should we continue posting.

with this new system, I think there will be certain parties who act very powerful, and as if they want to be rewarded for it, maybe that's the system I understand, I still hope there will be a wiser system than this , because I think it will be a lot of the members who will continue to be on the same rank for a long time, even if they make an amazing post, it will have no effect before he gets merit.

Yeah I must say you are right to one point, specially seeing your were close to Sr member and basically you got put down to have to post in order to get merits. I seem to need like 100 merits for full member now. There might be time where you will not get merits for long time, so all you can do actually to try to get them is to post more often good quality posts nothing more. In some way it is good by "forcing" people to be more engaged into community if they want to rank up.

[TheQuin]

Is there a summury where I can see all my posts which received merit from others?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit

[Turan100]

So the main purpose of this is

- 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.

Great Idea, but still in some point it will disregarded or doesn't matter. If you know what I mean.

totally agree , it's going to create a new generation of merit farmer , they post Low-quality Posters and they merit themselves with multi-account , is that possible and legal ?

[Lutpin]

For current members, your initial merit score is equal to the minimum required for 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.

I don't agree with this, this is just like giving the "old members" (including me) a head start. I'm not saying that earning merits is a race but giving us a head start also means giving us a free reputation out of nothing. That does not necessarily mean we need to rebuild our reputation from zero, I mean there are so many members that have earned a good reputation on this forum.
So I think the merit points for old members have to be given based on their reputation now and without affecting the rank.

I assume you mean trust when you say reputation.
Trust is trade reputation, merit is post reputation, the dont have to be directly connected (eg I wouldnt trade with QS, but they can write pretty damn good texts).
As merit is a direct requirement for getting ranks, they only way to do this switch is the way it was done right now.
They can't "not give the merit" but let you keep the rank.

Either you gain the merit and keep the rank, or nobody has merit and we all are newbies again.
Then you'll have a problem on how to distribute your initial sMerit to kickstart people gaining merit and rebuilding their previous ranks.

Newbie and Jr Member did not give any merit so that they could develop the account. In any sphere of life and activity there must be competition. In this case, it turns out that a person of high rank should go into the branch of beginners, re-read topics and give some good several merits. The busy people will not have time for this, and, in general, wishes too.

Failed assumption. People do read the B&H section, either because they regularly help out newcommers there and help them getting started or because they moderate the section, eg.

Another nuance: the forum is like an analog of the labor market for new projects! Many people will be eliminated. From high ranks, someone does not works with the bounty, someone takes only high-paying projects, someone switched to trading. As a result, you can get a crisis in the labor market. After all, bounties give a good increase in investment. And as a result, many projects simply can not collect even softcap, not because they are bad or unpromising, but because advertising in our time is the engine of progress.

Bounty campaigns are creating this issue to start with. They are the last instances we should worry about. This forum comes first, always.

[l10no]

For current members, your initial merit score is equal to the minimum required for 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.

I don't agree with this, this is just like giving the "old members" (including me) a head start. I'm not saying that earning merits is a race but giving us a head start also means giving us a free reputation out of nothing. That does not necessarily mean we need to rebuild our reputation from zero, I mean there are so many members that have earned a good reputation on this forum.
So I think the merit points for old members have to be given based on their reputation now and without affecting the rank.
Anyway, I think this is gonna be the end of account farming.

I think your thinking is much wiser than this new rule, just like me, right now I'm almost into senior members
but it will be a long time if I can not get 250 merit, while currently I only have 100 merit, even if I post a useful, maybe going to senior members take a little longer.
maybe this is the fate of new people in the forum

[A1exander]

In terms of the merit system, however, I think it has a good chance of being an effective way to distribute the points. The merit sources can't do all the work themselves and scour the whole forum. When they leave points to someone for a good post then that person is also likely to be a reasonable judge of what is deserving.
Can you suggest a better way of doing it?

Maybe it would be better to regularly allocate a small number of sMerits (not Merits) to everyone, probably proportional to their rank/merit. The current system may lead to rapid depletion of sMerits.

[daddybios]

Sometimes there was a desire to thank the user for a good, high-quality article or for answering the question. Finally, I and everyone have this opportunity.
I think that the new rules will not become an obstacle for honest and decent users. Spammers and flooders should burn in hell.

I wish everyone love, good luck and profit!