Merit & new rank requirements

[yefi]

Agree 100% with this.  A new window, or maybe just code in a little box next to the post where you can type the Merit you want to give and then hit Give or something.

I'll also vote for some sort of CSS dropdown box. I guess you'd have to use XHR for fetching and verifying smerit, which theymos may not want however.

[Zackgeno96]

Many users must be crying at the moment, specially those who are into the account farming; I hope this system will be helpful to keep this forum clean. I am not sure, but is there any possibility to abuse this merit system by the merit sources for their personal gain ? I mean, what if someone is ready to sell the merits ? I know, it will never happen but still have some doubts.

[JayJuanGee]

With this new function, i think that only member that are already member rank or higher before today get Merit point because it's free one time Merit point. and the other with lower rank will never get enough Merit point to up level.

From where I stand I'm equally likely to merit a noob or a legendary... as long as the post is worth it.

What will happen if use all the sMerit I have? Do I get more?

0.5 for each merit you get.

yeah a new function and you got 1000 Merit point without doing anything. cool

Don’t feel bad, Bruce Wagner has 250 merit, cablepair has 500 merit, cypherdoc has 1000 merit, MagicalTux (aka Mark Karpeles) has 500 merit, Inaba (aka EclipseMC, Butterfly Labs, his trust rating is the worst I’ve ever seen -9999: -15 / +4p) has 1000 merit.

I don’t think it matters what your merit is unless you want to jump ranks and be able to make signature money. This might help the mods out by cutting down on the meaningless posts aimed only at post count. Hopefully “merit” will succeed where “activity” failed miserably. It will be interesting to see how Merit is gamed. I can definitely see account sales increasing now.

It seems to be hard to get merits from others. I think it is simply because users should keep merits for themselves in order to be ranked up. Quite hard to get rewarded merits, I guess.

You seem to have a misunderstanding because if you give merits to others, you are giving from your spendable pool, and such spending does not take away from your actual merits that are shown on your page.

[Lauda]

Can we ask for merits for an exchange of service?
Like, '5 merits for making signature designs'
Or will it be against the rules just like trust farming?

No. If you do that you will be neg. rated, and possibly banned.

[lemipawa]

Since this Merit system is still new, It will be a good idea for Theymos to come up with a clear Do's and Dont's in giving Merits. It's better for us to have a clear guideline as to when to give and when NOT to give. I think its easy for us to assume when to give, but for when NOT to give merit is something that needs to have a clear guideline so we don't just assume.

[tambenile]

No offense but i have few questions for all people in here:
1. How many people are willing to give your sMerit to a stanger high quality poster( He's a newbie, a junior member or a member not Hero or Legendary ones)? And How much ? 1 or 2 ?
2. And what's gonna happen when high rank member ( who doesn't need those sMerits for ranking up ) abuses this sMerit system for another extra income or adulates higher rank member for trusted feedbacks ?

[Anon11073]

Yeah, a great attempt.
More constructive writing will increase.

[btcformula]

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.

The forum ranking system is a bit complicated now... It'd be nice if someone made an infographic explaining activity and merit.

If you want to be a merit source:

Collect TEN posts that have not received nearly enough merit for how good they are, and post quotes for them all in a new Meta thread.

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.

 Now I can send 4 merits, so what will happen when I spend all 4 merit.

[orions.belt19]

Many users must be crying at the moment, specially those who are into the account farming; I hope this system will be helpful to keep this forum clean. I am not sure, but is there any possibility to abuse this merit system by the merit sources for their personal gain ? I mean, what if someone is ready to sell the merits ? I know, it will never happen but still have some doubts.

It may actually happen, especially for those who are desperate enough or has been innovative enough to find ways of earning money. If people have been selling accounts, then in the future there may be a black market for merit points.

[Ravi_MHW]

According to my mind this is a good idea.because this system is very reasonable to everyone .new people who join to bitcointalk who don't know the system what happens here.so they can up their rank by activity.. All are need to wait now for up their ranks. So no more scams .

[Lutpin]

Since this Merit system is still new, It will be a good idea for Theymos to come up with a clear Do's and Dont's in giving Merits. It's better for us to have a clear guideline as to when to give and when NOT to give. I think its easy for us to assume when to give, but for when NOT to give merit is something that needs to have a clear guideline so we don't just assume.

Is this clear enough?

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.

1. How many people are willing to give your merits to a stanger high quality poster( He's a newbie, a junior member or a member not Hero or Legendary ones)? And How much ? 1 or 2 ?

You dont give your merit. You give sMerit which you yourself can never use.
Read the dummie tl;dr in the first reply if you cant understand the OP or are too lazy to read a long post.

Now I can send 4 merits, so what will happen when I spend all 4 merit.

You dont spend merit, you spend sMerit. If you gain new merit, you will also gain new sMerit for spending.
If your posts are crap and you dont get any Merit for them, you also wont get any sMerit to reward posts yourself.

[yourcatsofat]

So, the main question is why did not you give merits based on activity?

[tambenile]

1. How many people are willing to give your merits to a stanger high quality poster( He's a newbie, a junior member or a member not Hero or Legendary ones)? And How much ? 1 or 2 ?

You dont give your merit. You give sMerit which you yourself can never use.
Read the dummie tl;dr in the first reply if you cant understand the OP or are too lazy to read a long post.
[/quote]

Yeah i fixed it , thank you Lutpin.

So, the main question is why did not you give merits based on activity?

Yes i do think this is a brilliant ideal.

[arallmuus]

So, the main question is why did not you give merits based on activity?

Because being active in the forum doesnt mean that you dont shitpost here. This is pretty much better than the old system


Just a question here, I got 20 smerit as starter . I guess this is the same for every Hero member currently? or probably random ?

Edit : is there a link for this?

[MairaObergh]

I guess a thread that I wrote in was deleted, which sent me back to a Full Member, right before this new merit thing. And I guess that even though I'm at 240 now, I won't be able to go back to Sr. Member.

[levyashin]

Do merits regenerate through time?

Or only merit sources can make them?

The smerits we have at the beginning won't regenerate after it is over? Only we will get 1/2 from merits we received right?

[krishnaverma]

So, the main question is why did not you give merits based on activity?

Because it will not stop spam posts. Activity can be gained by just making  posts daily one on average. Merit is to ensure that people make quality posts.

Now I can send 4 merits, so what will happen when I spend all 4 merit.

You cannot send anymore. When you receive more merits in future, you will get half of those as sendable merits which you can again send to other members.

[Lutpin]

Just a question here, I got 20 smerit as starter . I guess this is the same for every Hero member currently? or probably random ?

No, it isn't.

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.

Do merits regenerate through time?

No, merits can only be gained from other users, through high quality posts.

Or only merit sources can make them?

No, merit sources generate "source merit" which is a special form of sMerit. They do not generate merit for themselves.

The smerits we have at the beginning won't regenerate after it is over? Only we will get 1/2 from merits we received right?

That's correct, that is your free pack of sMerit, use them wisely.

[CoolWave]

The forum ranking system is a bit complicated now... It'd be nice if someone made an infographic explaining activity and merit.

According to me it is more "difficult" than complicated to achieve a higher rank . The one I was expecting was "TRUST" system which is consistently abused by "MORONS" of bitcointalk . I seriously hate the trust system you have developed . It should rather be based upon common people and not some "morons" who are authorised to just abuse anyone's trust .

[suvo05]

over the rules about merit, what I'm worried about is the illegal system of buying and selling of merit and also the existence of a group that give each other merit among members in the group
I hope it will not happen

Yes! I am scared of this too. Everyone from member can sell Merits now. There will be a dark market I think. The same history as the selling of accounts.

No system can be made totally fair, may be their will be a illegal market of buying and selling of merit, but if a user get too many merit on a useless post then everyone can detect it.
And to level up the user also needed the required activity also(which is still unchanged). So the Merit score is the extra protection to resist a spammer to rank up.