Merit & new rank requirements

[jimmywh]

I was poor and I will be poor. this site was my hope. I'm crying . Merit killed me.

This forum isn't a sweatshop - churning out lackluster crap should not be rewarded. If you do nothing but pollute this forum with spam, you shouldn't get paid for doing so. Otherwise, if you happen to contribute good content to the site, you'll do fine.

I think this post sums it up just great. After pages of merit drought, a moderator posts something in other words that has been said by many others, only difference being that merits rain down on him. The merit system as it is now accommodates seniority and forgets the newer members. This is by no means MrPreps fault - it is the people being hypnotized by his magic emblem.

[1713995702]

1713995702

[Mitchell]

I think this post sums it up just great. After pages of merit drought, a moderator posts something in other words that has been said by many others, only difference being that merits rain down on him. The merit system as it is now accommodates seniority and forgets the newer members. This is by no means MrPreps fault - it is the people being hypnotized by his magic emblem.

Yes, you make a good point. It get's hard to follow a thread with over 40 pages.

[Vitacplus]

Ok, so sMerit points will be used up eventually and not refreshed. This stops people from giving merit for new posts that they think should be merited, they have to wait until they gain some merit to credit someone's post for merit.

Scenario:
Peter asked a question in a forum, he has received 3 quality replies from 3 different person. Each of the comment has helped him. However since he can only give 1 merit points, the other 2 contributors are not rewarded. This scenario only affects Peter and may not be helpful to other people, so why would other people notice and give merit to the contributors?

What if someone thinks that a post has added value to him/her but another party doesnt think it's "good enough"?

How to justify a post is deemed worthy of merits when everyone has a different opinion?

Personally i feel that "RANK" != "Influencer". Currently all aged account has a very high rank because of the number of posts that they have made till date... this new merit system is suddenly implemented to ranking based on "influence" that are deemed worthy. It is not a level playing field since aged old accounts that have high ranks are "out of the game".

I would suggest each thread to also have a nominated pool of merits to be earned so that participants can work towards one common goal/topic to earn their merits.

The cryptocurrency community will grow even larger 3 months from now, the forum will face more spammers as the numbers will always continue to grow.

The sMerit points is like a "halving" system, you are only going to be more reserved in giving merits since the rate of accumulating merits is typically lesser overtime.

I have another question: what does posts with the highest merit even mean since earlier posts are receiving higher merit points as the ability of giving merits by members are higher?

[codemanX]

I'm not concerned by this measure, because already being Legendary, but what is its serious interest? There are people who make great posts, who were not far to upgrade to the next rank and hope to be able to earn more during the next bountys.
And in a half second, without warning anyone, you destroyed their hope or at least postponed them by several weeks.

It's totally useless as a system. Please admin, change the rules.

I totally agree with that, I’m sadly affected! I would like to give you one Merit for your post but I only have 5 pieces left and I think someone else will need them rather than you as a Legendary.  

[Helsing]

I'm afraid that this merit system can give opposite effect.
I like this idea and know why it was done but in my opinion because of this system there won't be any new members because they will never be able to rank up if they won't be able then it's pointles for them to even try.
If there won't be any fresh blood in this forum then only old members will stay so it means forum won't prosper and if something stays in the same place it really goes back.
If new projects won't be able to advertise properly they will find new places to do it and in the end you will loose everything (it's not 1st time I see something like that).

I'm full member so it doesn't affect me as bad as most of the ppl but I see bad future and this unfortunately affect me as hell, so please change this stupid system when there is still time.

[adekogbe]

This new system of things introduced to Bitcointalk is something I think has been long overdue and a sigh of relief will be breathe into this community.
There are users who just post garbage and spam in order to get activities, and I think the moderators do well by cracking down on them but the new merit system will ensure that the abuse of this forum will reduce and more important contents will be encouraged.
My personal opinion on merits.

[AdolfinWolf]

Ok, so sMerit points will be used up eventually and not refreshed. This stops people from giving merit for new posts that they think should be merited, they have to wait until they gain some merit to credit someone's post for merit.

Scenario:
Peter asked a question in a forum, he has received 3 quality replies from 3 different person. Each of the comment has helped him. However since he can only give 1 merit points, the other 2 contributors are not rewarded. This scenario only affects Peter and may not be helpful to other people, so why would other people notice and give merit to the contributors?

What if someone thinks that a post has added value to him/her but another party doesnt think it's "good enough"?

How to justify a post is deemed worthy of merits when everyone has a different opinion?

Personally i feel that "RANK" != "Influencer". Currently all aged account has a very high rank because of the number of posts that they have made till date... this new merit system is suddenly implemented to ranking based on "influence" that are deemed worthy. It is not a level playing field since aged old accounts that have high ranks are "out of the game".

I would suggest each thread to also have a nominated pool of merits to be earned so that participants can work towards one common goal/topic to earn their merits.

The cryptocurrency community will grow even larger 3 months from now, the forum will face more spammers as the numbers will always continue to grow.

The sMerit points is like a "halving" system, you are only going to be more reserved in giving merits since the rate of accumulating merits is typically lesser overtime.

I have another question: what does posts with the highest merit even mean since earlier posts are receiving higher merit points as the ability of giving merits by members are higher?

There are certain users ( probably most of the current people in DT1/DT2 + some other OG's) which are merit sources -- meaning that they get a certain amount of sMerit each month/week without doing anything for it. Thus the sMerit points will never be used up.

Also, the amount of sMerit you first received is depending on the amount of activity you gained the last year or so, which means that old/aged accounts will most likely have a lot less sMerit.

[dogebearman]

What I don't like about how this was implemented is that people like me who have 210 activity for example and were only 30 activity away from getting the next rank, are now pulled back to 100 Merit while a person who just reached a new rank is not getting pulled back like that. Why not make it fair and distribute Merit based on the exact activity score?

[wklt2002]

I'm quite satisfied with the new system. It will force the shitposters to upgrade their posting quality. But, it will probably take a while for the new system to find it's place. People are new to the system now so they won't give anyone merit soon, and the only place you see merit being given is in the meta, but after a while when everyone is used to it, it will become more common to receive merit (I hope). If that doesn't happen it will become impossible to get a higher rank, which doesn't really matter but it will spark quite some controversy.

[undeadbitcoiner]

I don't agree with this system.

You are creating the definition of "Rich people maintain rich, poor people will be poor forever."

Example: if you was in bitcointalk forum a few years ago, you posted a lot of under-quality posts and you earned Legendary Rank, so it is unfair with new people joining this forum now.

And a lot of projects need bitcointalk rank level such as bitsend airdrop (need Legendary rank), so it is much harder if this new system running.

If you are trying creating a block and keep your high rank level people safety, you are successful. Congrat to devs.

And I lose my faith in this forum. I will still read and post in this forum but not in supporting anymore.

If a new forum created and quality much better than you, I will go a new place.

However, there is already some new forums with high quality already exist such as Steemit.

Good luck with your Merit score and congratulation to those who reached Legendary rank one more time (by now, they are get the most benefit of all thing in this crypto-world).

I understand your Frustration but please respect them who are giving this forum a long important time of there life,
I saw you are asking rank and airdrop, Of course Legendary, Hero should get benefit on those because they really put there time here, and ranking depends on a lot of thing, Post, Time and now merit I believe this system is very good because this will stop garbage posts which happens a lot in this forum just to get Post and Time in the forum to get rank, I believe this system will control that and you don't need to worry about your Merit point, Your this post is already a quality post and Quality Question and argument so you supposed to get some merit on such post, Don't worry doing such post will gain some merit to you in the mean time your post count and time will help you gain new level.

I request each and everyone please don't blame Legendary, Hero members one day you all will be there and you will know what you spend to be there, Your most valuable time helping other and trying to be together combining each and everyone.

[theymos]

I added stats pages:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats
And per-user summary pages like:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=35

[styca]

I'm quite satisfied with the new system. It will force the shitposters to upgrade their posting quality. But, it will probably take a while for the new system to find it's place. People are new to the system now so they won't give anyone merit soon, but after a while when everyone is used to it, it will become more common to receive merit (I hope). If that doesn't happen it will become impossible to get a higher rank, which doesn't really matter but it will spark quite some controversy.

It will definitely take some time, and it's a new system, so it might need some fine-tuning. One thing it does need is merit sources spread across all of the different boards. I'm thinking particularly of the local language boards which might turn into merit deserts - doesn't affect me as I'm one of those lazy people who only speaks English But hopefully this is all in hand - "with great power comes great responsibility" - those lucky few merit source people now have a duty to patrol the darkest corners of the forum and bestow merit upon those who are most deserving

[cryptocrusher]

I'm quite satisfied with the new system. It will force the shitposters to upgrade their posting quality. But, it will probably take a while for the new system to find it's place. People are new to the system now so they won't give anyone merit soon, and the only place you see merit being given is in the meta, but after a while when everyone is used to it, it will become more common to receive merit (I hope). If that doesn't happen it will become impossible to get a higher rank, which doesn't really matter but it will spark quite some controversy.

In fact increasing rank matters quite significantly, there has to be a balance between rank coming easily to anyone who posts anything and then ranks being almost unattainable or too hard to achieve. It is no secret that many users participate in bounty campaigns and earn a small income from that. Beforehand we were incentivized to help others and contribute to the forum firstly to receive this payment but also to increase our ranks and how much we can earn in the future. Let's face it, there are not too many selfless acts in the world, let alone in cryptocurrency where a lot of people are just out to get rich and couldn't care about helping others. The old system worked well in that it fostered some sense of community whereas the new system looks as though it could limit that. In short, saying rank doesn't matter is not at all correct, even if people are using the forum as intended, for as long as there is a monetary value attached to their rank then rank will be important.

[EcuaMobi]

Peter asked a question in a forum, he has received 3 quality replies from 3 different person. Each of the comment has helped him. However since he can only give 1 merit points, the other 2 contributors are not rewarded. This scenario only affects Peter and may not be helpful to other people, so why would other people notice and give merit to the contributors?

Peter should/can grant his sMerit point to the most useful post, or the first one, or to whomever he sees fit.
Anyone else can grant merits if they think the post was constructive. It's not a requirement they are 'affected'

What if someone thinks that a post has added value to him/her but another party doesnt think it's "good enough"?

How to justify a post is deemed worthy of merits when everyone has a different opinion?

Everyone will grant merits based on their own opinion. Of course it will be different. But a post with just the word "interesting" or "reserved" or "I'm in" shouldn't be considered worthy of merits by anyone.
On the other hand, a post with unique information, well written, with arguments that make sense, will be considered constructive by several people (if not all because everyone has a different opinion) even if they already knew the information or if they don't agree

Personally i feel that "RANK" != "Influencer". Currently all aged account has a very high rank because of the number of posts that they have made till date... this new merit system is suddenly implemented to ranking based on "influence" that are deemed worthy. It is not a level playing field since aged old accounts that have high ranks are "out of the game".

As I've said before, old members have already posted hundreds or thousands of posts and they would have earned a lot of merit points.
It's impossible to know how many exactly so this rounding is as good as possible without having to check everyone, which would be impossible.
I do think there should be a way to report old users with poor posts and take a lot (all?) of their merit and sMerit points.

I have another question: what does posts with the highest merit even mean since earlier posts are receiving higher merit points as the ability of giving merits by members are higher?

I'm not sure I fully understand you. I do think good old posts should be granted merit points. And I also think high ranked members must make an effort to read posts made by new members and reward them if their posts are high quality. I normally didn't read the Newbies section but I'll try and do it once in a while now

[Roboabhishek]

I already don't like the way clicking on +merit takes you away from the thread.  Can you please have it open in a new window?

Yes just faced it, Try to Keep pressing Ctrl before clicking "+Merit " It will pop the window in another tab.

I also have a question. Do we get Merit after getting a new rank or we have to earn Merits from other users? If that's the case then even if I reach 1200 activity I will not have Legendary rank unless i have required merits for that, Is that correct?

[lhvleao]

The point I see is that it doesn't matter how good and helpful your post is, just a few users will have smerit to reward you. In general the new users are the ones that need more help, and they won't have a way to say 'thank you' and helping you improving

I know that the forum team is trying to overpass those account's market, but the way I see it the one thing that is suppose to happen is that there will be a new market (merit market) besides the already existing ones

IMO, you just should come back to the old model. I know it's not perfect, but it's well fair to daily users and much better than this new system

[Mitchell]

I added stats pages:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats

These statistics might be a good way to find people giving merit to their alt's. Thanks for adding it, Theymos.

[asapjoshyy]

The point I see is that it doesn't matter how good and helpful your post is, just a few users will have smerit to reward you. In general the new users are the ones that need more help, and they won't have a way to say 'thank you' and helping you improving

I know that the forum team is trying to overpass those account's market, but the way I see it the one thing that is suppose to happen is that there will be a new market (merit market) besides the already existing ones

IMO, you just should come back to the old model. I know it's not perfect, but it's well fair to daily users and much better than this new system

thats what i was saying previously... most people on the forum who need help are lower ranks and cannot even merit you for the help... but they were saying merit mods would come around and give you merit for helping... imo getting a couple merit for  helping a dozen people isnt amazing, i guess well see how this plays out , its a step in the right direction but its tough for people close to ranking up for sure

[styca]

I think we should all just let it settle down, and see what happens. It's very early days at the moment, and many of our worries may turn out to be unfounded. Let's see how it goes. If problems appear, then they will become quite obvious over time, and are more likely be addressed when they are supported by hard evidence.

[tambenile]

I have an ideal for this merit system, just cross over my minds. How about we reset everyone's merits in this forum back to 0 ? The current activities will be kept as usual but everybody in this forum have to be contributing to get back their ranks? Cause it seems unfair when there are TONS of Legendaries and Hero Members that contributing nothing to this forum still get the fucking high-rank position member before this was implemented. Just an ideal, not native english speaker but i do know how to speak english.
P/S: If this ideal was performing , i truely believe that everyone in this forum will work as best as they can to contribute good posts/ideals and that would made this forum become such as a fucking wow-shit forum.
For all of you, who was legendary and hero that this system is cool , brilliant , bla bla bla ,... Will you accept to reset your merit point back to 0 ? Reset everthing for a better place?