Merit & new rank requirements

[TheQuin]

There are some merit sources who routinely give out 20 merits for meh posts, and I'm sure shitposters know this and follow this particular one I'm thinking of around the forum, wherever he goes, hoping they'll get some of his overly-generous merit grants.

From what I know of him he checks out their entire post history and if he decides that they are here for the right reasons and they have made enough deserving posts he will drop 20 on a single post. The post maybe meh, but I don't see him dishing them out to shitposters.

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[Texacha]

Go ahead and show me a few newbies' posts with high quality, and I'll share a few merits with them. Keyword: high quality

In order to talk about this, we should define "High quality". It's hard to write anything that is not some old story, written hundreds of times. Even talking about projects has no lot of sense, since even sh*ttiest projects have lot of shillers and if you criticize them, you are stoned to death immediately.

I was admin of one forum and mod on few forums (none of them doesn't have anything with crypto) and all I wanted from people is to be decent normal person. IMO that's enough for someone to have right on avatar and signature.

[LoyceV]

I think this merit system is not really fair enough to new users, it's very hard to get merit for your post nowadays

This is true!

even if what you posted is of high quality.

This is not true

If you add those two together, you'll end up with: "For most users, it's very hard to make high quality posts".

Merit holders may also be using the opportunity to open new accounts for themselves and be giving themselves merit to build the new account

Unfortunately, this is true
But those accounts risk getting red trust, and in the long run they'll run out of sMerit to give to their alts.

[MagicSmoker]

...
I was admin of one forum and mod on few forums (none of them doesn't have anything with crypto) and all I wanted from people is to be decent normal person. IMO that's enough for someone to have right on avatar and signature.

I thought the avatar and signature restrictions were overly-restrictive at first, but this forum is unusual - perhaps unique, even - in that you can get paid quite a bit for using either/both as advertising space. Once I noticed just how many of the newbies and jr. members were shilling some shitcoin or another in their sig while barely being able to spell bitcoin, I actually started thinking the current restrictions aren't enough. Honestly, this forum has a problem with spam, bots and shitposting that is truly like nothing else I have seen in 28 years of using the internet (since I first arrived at GaTech in 1990; obviously no WWW back then - it was all FTP and USENET, baby!).

[leetlezee]

I thought the avatar and signature restrictions were overly-restrictive at first, but this forum is unusual - perhaps unique, even - in that you can get paid quite a bit for using either/both as advertising space. Once I noticed just how many of the newbies and jr. members were shilling some shitcoin or another in their sig while barely being able to spell bitcoin, I actually started thinking the current restrictions aren't enough. Honestly, this forum has a problem with spam, bots and shitposting that is truly like nothing else I have seen in 28 years of using the internet (since I first arrived at GaTech in 1990; obviously no WWW back then - it was all FTP and USENET, baby!).

I actually agree. If you could not have a signature or avatar until you get enough merits to be a member, you won't have three million newbies and juniors spamming every thread on BCT with one-sentence replies. Along of course with all the oddly off-topic replies and shilling by newbie and junior bots.

But then you would also need to crack down on merit abuse, where people create multiple accounts and merit themselves, or when people sell merit.

And finally, although the number these is not as great, but dealing with members prior to the merit system rolling in who automatically received more merit than the quality of their posts deserved. I see plenty of Sr and Hero members who post lots of crappy content.

[Alerter]

Is there any statistics on merit-based rank changes? I'm pretty sure that less than 5% of full members got their rank because of merit. I see many users with 200+ activity and 0 to 5 merit. This system is nonsence, administrators could just stop assigning new ranks to anyone registered after certain date with virtually the same result.

[Speculatoross]

Is there any statistics on merit-based rank changes? I'm pretty sure that less than 5% of full members got their rank because of merit.

Take a look at this post

And btw, proud of being on that list  

[DdmrDdmr]

Is there any statistics on merit-based rank changes? I'm pretty sure that less than 5% of full members got their rank because of merit. I see many users with 200+ activity and 0 to 5 merit. This system is nonsence, administrators could just stop assigning new ranks to anyone registered after certain date with virtually the same result.

Ranked-up members can be seen here on the  Merit Dashboard. Simply go into the "Ranked-Up" Tab and you’ll see all forum users profile names that have required merit to rank-up and achieved it.

In total, 2.439 people have managed it, making it to the following ranks:
    1 from Hero to Legendary
  11 from Sr. Member to Hero Member
  49 from Full Member to Sr. Member
   5 from Member to Sr. Member
  63 from Member to Full Member
    1 from Jr. Member or less to Sr Member
  35 from Jr. Member or less to Full Member (me included)
  2.274 from Jr. Member or less to Member

Not a large amount at all really, but the difficulty is at all levels really (Hero to Legendary looks like a steep path that only felines have been able to tackle so far).

In addition, check the tab called "Ranking-up Pipeline" to see how many users are how far from ranking up to their next level in terms of activity and/or merit.

[TheQuin]

(Hero to Legendary looks like a steep path that only felines have been able to tackle so far).

That isn't really surprising when you consider that with the Legendary randomiser just to get the activity takes between 9 and 18 months. It will interesting to see how many have made it after that time has elapsed.


@cryptofarid10 wrong thread, report it here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1926895

[Speculatoross]

In total, 2.439 people have managed it, making it to the following ranks:
    1 from Hero to Legendary
  11 from Sr. Member to Hero Member
  49 from Full Member to Sr. Member
   5 from Member to Sr. Member
  63 from Member to Full Member
    1 from Jr. Member or less to Sr Member
  35 from Jr. Member or less to Full Member (me included)
  2.274 from Jr. Member or less to Member

So, considering 10 merit pretty easy to get with a small effort... things changed from “everyone will rank up, just be active and wait” to “only 165 people managed to rank up in six months”

Cool 

Did someone actually noticed this?
Meaning, less spam and bs posting just for sig around?

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>
That isn't really surprising when you consider that with the Legendary randomiser just to get the activity takes between 9 and 18 months. It will interesting to see how many have made it after that time has elapsed.
<...>

What I meant to get at is that most complaints come from lower ranked members, but I wanted to emphasize that merit is difficult at all levels, and even more so considering that the top ranks require an enormous amount of Merits.
For example, the Hero Rank for example has currently 1.060 forum members which have received at least 1 sMerit. I don’t know what fraction of active Hero members that represents (I guess Vod could fill up in here), but out of the merited heroes, just looking at the merit side:

-   90 are waiting to be named Legendary, having and initial merit of 1.000 (Hero exceptions theymos mentioned once as having received an airdrop of 1K merit if I’m not mistaken). These are in the randomizer queue you mention.
-   1, Jet Cash, has formally made it to Legendary having been awarded >= 500 additional Merits (not in the 1.060 sum since he is now a Legendary).
-   3 more are virtually there (Last of the V8s, TMAN, hilariousetc), having been awarded >= 500 additional Merits, but lack the formal Legendary rank title (also in the randomizer queue therefore).
-   2 are nearly there, with over 900 merits in all (awarded over 400 merits): BTCforJoe & HCP.
-   3 are close, with over 800 merits in all (awarded over 300 merits): marlboroza, romanornr and Hhampuz.
-   4 have over 700 merits in all (awarded over 200 merits): tonych, sabotag3x, poptop and TryNinja.
-   17 have over 600 merits in all (awarded over 100 merits).
-   941 have under 600 merits in all (awarded under 100 merits).

In summary, 88,77% of Heroes that have received at least 1 sMerit require at least 400 sMerits more to rank-up to Legendary (just looking at Merits here, not activity). In the same period of time, only one Hero has made it to Legendary formality, and three more virtually...

<..>
Did someone actually noticed this?
Meaning, less spam and bs posting just for sig around?

It doesn't seem to act as a spam deterrent, just as a ranking-up barrier. So long as campaigns do not all include awarded Merits as a requirement, spam will be as it is I'd say.

[toheed2x]

Wow you got lots of merit for posting a useful article on bitcointalk thanks for explaining it my question is who can gives merit only legendary members ? I got the main point how we can get the merit impressive!

I always thinking over 900 posts I still Jr Member that's the reason behind it 

Hope I made some useful posts to get merit at-least 100   

[toheed2x]

In total, 2.439 people have managed it, making it to the following ranks:
    1 from Hero to Legendary
  11 from Sr. Member to Hero Member
  49 from Full Member to Sr. Member
   5 from Member to Sr. Member
  63 from Member to Full Member
    1 from Jr. Member or less to Sr Member
  35 from Jr. Member or less to Full Member (me included)
  2.274 from Jr. Member or less to Member

So, considering 10 merit pretty easy to get with a small effort... things changed from “everyone will rank up, just be active and wait” to “only 165 people managed to rank up in six months”

Cool 

Did someone actually noticed this?
Meaning, less spam and bs posting just for sig around?

Not that easy for me to get 10 merit I am a member since Jan 2018 and still get 0 merit 

My posts maybe useless junk 

[jenia2]

I think this merit system is not really fair enough to new users, it's very hard to get merit for your post nowadays even if what you posted is of high quality. Merit holders may also be using the opportunity to open new accounts for themselves and be giving themselves merit to build the new account

Go ahead and show me a few newbies' posts with high quality, and I'll share a few merits with them. Keyword: high quality

let us play a different game, I will show you a few of your own posts that have keyword: poor quality and will show you why you should have atleast than amount reduced from your merit. deal?

[TheQuin]

-   90 are waiting to be named Legendary, having and initial merit of 1.000 (Hero exceptions theymos mentioned once as having received an airdrop of 1K merit if I’m not mistaken). These are in the randomizer queue you mention.
-   1, Jet Cash, has formally made it to Legendary having been awarded >= 500 additional Merits (not in the 1.060 sum since he is now a Legendary).
-   3 more are virtually there (Last of the V8s, TMAN, hilariousetc), having been awarded >= 500 additional Merits, but lack the formal Legendary rank title (also in the randomizer queue therefore).
-   2 are nearly there, with over 900 merits in all (awarded over 400 merits): BTCforJoe & HCP.
-   3 are close, with over 800 merits in all (awarded over 300 merits): marlboroza, romanornr and Hhampuz.
-   4 have over 700 merits in all (awarded over 200 merits): tonych, sabotag3x, poptop and TryNinja.
-   17 have over 600 merits in all (awarded over 100 merits).
-   941 have under 600 merits in all (awarded under 100 merits).

Thanks, that's a great breakdown of the data but just to be awkward I don't fit into any of those categories as I'm one of the few to rank up from Sr. So I guess I'm included in the '17 have over 600 merits in all (awarded over 100 merits)' group.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>my question is who can gives merit only legendary members ? <…>

Ok, this question has been answered multiple times, but I guess we can refresh the answer here by just quoting myself from another thread:

Hi guys, new here. After reading thru all the necessary threads for newbies, it is still unclear as to who can award merits. Is it only after u reach a certain rank? or is it only specific people are allowed?

A quick summary to answer your question:

1. Users with a rank of Member or above before the 24th of January 2018 received an initial and onetime only airdrop of smerit (spendable merit).

The amount received in terms of global forum aggregate was around 600k as theymos disclosed.

The quantity the above users received in the airdrop is based on the following formula also disclosed by theymos:

Code:

yearActivity = activity in the last ~year, max 378
freeMerit = the merit (not sMerit) you started with
modifier =
  0.1 if member
  0.2 if full member
  0.25 if sr member
  0.35 if hero
  0.4 if legendary

return (yearActivity/378) * modifier * freeMerit

So if you were a member you would have received during the initial airdrop 1 smerit at most, a full member would receive 20 at most and so on.

2. There are also 80 users that act as official merit sources and may award up to 18500 smerits per month between them. These sources are not public and do it voluntarily, being users of a certain status and degree of respect. Their monthly smerit does renew each month (with certain rules) and constitutes the only renewing smerit in the system.

3.Every time any user receives merit, he gets half that amount of smerits to send to others at his discretion. Halves are not allowed, so the basic idea is that for every cumulative of 2 that you receive you get 1 smerit to send. Sent smerit is not renewed (do not confuse smerit with merit; your merit counter never decreases).

Theses are the basis to merit generation. The ethical side to sending merit vouches for you to send them to posts that you find are contributive to the forum (helping others, knowledgeable, good point of view even if you don’t agree, etc.). Merit abuse may be pursued  (I.e. Ill use of smerit, which is a whole other another chapter).

Merit: this counter never decreases and is increased with every smerit you receive.
SMerit: this counter increases with every 2 cumulative smerits you receive (you get half) and decreases every time you send smerit to a post.

What has changes since the original post being quoted is that there are now really 84 merit sources, distributing a potential total of 19500 sMerit per 30 days.

If you want to really learn about it, I's suggest taking a look at Link:  BitcoinTalk Merit Dashboard.  Specifically, on the "From/To Ranks" tab you can see which ranks send sMerit to which other ranks, filtering by date interval if you want to concentrate say for example in the last month only (by default, all history of merit transactions is displayed).

<...>
Thanks, that's a great breakdown of the data but just to be awkward I don't fit into any of those categories as I'm one of the few to rank up from Sr. So I guess I'm included in the '17 have over 600 merits in all (awarded over 100 merits)' group.

Yes, you’re one of the 12 cases on the list that is now a Hero, on the way from Legendary, but started off from Sr. Member really.
The cases are: TheQuin, gawlea, HairyMaclairy, mstfprcn, zonefloor, alex bond, saulzaents, ATMcoin, identifyuser, Tukang Becak, bob123.
Your specific case has the most merit of the set, and are as you say in the '17 have over 600 merits in all (awarded over 100 merits)' group. To be more specific, all the cases above mentioned to start at Sr. Member rank have been awarded over 250 Merits (thus Heroes from Sr. Members), being your case in the above 400 sMerits range (402 specifically).

[suchmoon]

This is a great info for all users, this makes me feel excited to post much more creative and heartful content.
😉

May I ask if does MERIT have other use aside from ranking up and requirements for us to go up?

Yes, it does. Merit requires you to read before posting.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>
May I ask if does MERIT have other use aside from ranking up and requirements for us to go up?

Formally, the core use from a member’s point of view is for ranking-up. Some campaign managers are also using it to set an entry-level earned merit minimum for the campaigns they manage. Alas, it is not a general practice (yet, if ever).

ALT non-official possible uses are:
-   Frustration and anger enhancers, if no smerits are awarded.
-   Ego petting, if some smerits are awarded.
-   Ego jerking, if many smerits are awarded (we’re all above 18 here I guess…).
-   Getting potentially red-tagged if being clumsy and deciding to move on to merit abuse.
-   Getting potentially banned, if the above leads to help prove ALTs involved in breaking the rules.
-   Helping one to keep their current rank and not progress in the scale, if posts do not sync on the same protocol to merit awarders.
-   Substitute for brain-trainers.
-   Etc.

The list could go on and on…

[fonship]

<...>
May I ask if does MERIT have other use aside from ranking up and requirements for us to go up?

Formally, the core use from a member’s point of view is for ranking-up. Some campaign managers are also using it to set an entry-level earned merit minimum for the campaigns they manage. Alas, it is not a general practice (yet, if ever).

ALT non-official possible uses are:
-   Frustration and anger enhancers, if no smerits are awarded.
-   Ego petting, if some smerits are awarded.
-   Ego jerking, if many smerits are awarded (we’re all above 18 here I guess…).
-   Getting potentially red-tagged if being clumsy and deciding to move on to merit abuse.
-   Getting potentially banned, if the above leads to help prove ALTs involved in breaking the rules.
-   Helping one to keep their current rank and not progress in the scale, if posts do not sync on the same protocol to merit awarders.
-   Substitute for brain-trainers.
-   Etc.

The list could go on and on…

@DdmrDdmr hey I can see you have a huge number of merits, how you got that. I have been very good in terms of posting, still i did not manage to get these many merits. Now since months, I don't have smerits also go give it to someone I want. Obviously, you would have done the right things and I have not. Could you advise how to get merits, is it any special area in this form gets you more merit, because i am mostly active on coin announcement threads. I am here more than 1 year before you, still we are on the same rank, does that seem right to you?

This whole merit system was to stop scams, but it also pushed good actors in some way. I am about to each activity count required for hero, however, I am not even sn member.
I am stuck at full member and i do not see any hope to go forward this way.

especially this bear market will also eliminate any chances of getting merits as there are less active people now.

[TheQuin]

@DdmrDdmr hey I can see you have a huge number of merits, how you got that.

Have a look at the posts he received Merit for and you'll work it out.

This whole merit system was to stop scams

It had nothing to do with that at all. The system was designed to stop people from automatically ranking up just by posting anything. Gaining rank is now something that has to be earned by making a valuable contribution to the forum. The people polluting the forum by posting repetitive pointless posts in spam megathreads are going to be stuck on the same rank forever.