Merit System Upgrade

[QuestionAuthority]

Make an sticky thread either in meta or here for anybody who needs to rank up but doesn't have enough merits, if they haven't received merits, they could request for a review by merit sources, you could then read their posts and give them merits.

Any body who feels like asking for merits is a ridiculous idea, there is no way for merit sources to read all the posts of every body, but if they could see that you are requesting for it, if you deserve it, you will get enough merits to rank up.
If you are Bitcoiner or not, you should be treated the same.

I think there already is a list of threads for people helping others rank up. I placed this thread in the Invites & Accounts section for two reasons.

First, I wanted to give current members that might be tempted to buy merit because they were close to ranking up a place to do it without breaking forum rules. I figured if anyone was going to try and sell merit it would be here.

Second, frustrated members that see accounts for sale (accounts that are at the rank they are trying to reach) can see this thread and realize they don’t have to pay. They can just do it for themselves. Hopefully, this can help reduce the number of people buying accounts that are only here to pollute the forum.

I agree that people are here for different reasons and everyone should be treated the same.  I’m happy to say, I now see there are people helping most of them.

[digaran]

I know there are at least 10 other posts from others suggesting the same thing, with a sticky thread, you know where to go, if you need 20 merits to rank up, you'd post that you'd need 20 merits and a review, a merit source could check that sticky thread to find a member in need of merits to rank up, first thing the source should do is to merit a request by 1 to let others know that he-she is reviewing that member's posts and they should find some other member to review.

After ranking up, you should go back to your posted request and edit your post to say ranked up. even if you are farming accounts, having somebody reading your post history would not be a good thing, that's why having members to post in a thread is a good way to find all the information such as finding which source is responsible for ranking up of which accounts.

[QuestionAuthority]

I know there are at least 10 other posts from others suggesting the same thing, with a sticky thread, you know where to go, if you need 20 merits to rank up, you'd post that you'd need 20 merits and a review, a merit source could check that sticky thread to find a member in need of merits to rank up, first thing the source should do is to merit a request by 1 to let others know that he-she is reviewing that member's posts and they should find some other member to review.

After ranking up, you should go back to your posted request and edit your post to say ranked up. even if you are farming accounts, having somebody reading your post history would not be a good thing, that's why having members to post in a thread is a good way to find all the information such as finding which source is responsible for ranking up of which accounts.

That’s an interesting idea.

[bitart]

Hi QA,
I'm ready for your quesitons
Please feel free to check any of my current posts:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=552813;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2561563.msg26337789#msg26337789
I'm just curious if my post history meets the quality requirements of becoming a legendary (ever).

[QuestionAuthority]

Hi QA,
I'm ready for your quesitons
Please feel free to check any of my current posts:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=552813;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2561563.msg26337789#msg26337789
I'm just curious if my post history meets the quality requirements of becoming a legendary (ever).

Yeah, I see lots of examples of your knowledge and participation going back to early 2015. If anyone wants an example of how you can participate and become involved in conversations look at this persons post history. Thanks for stopping by, you’re exactly the type of forum member I’m trying to help. You’ll be a Legendary Member someday if you keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing all along and increase your activity.

Awarded 20 merit points

[bobq]

This is really an excellent thread and I couldn't stop reading through all of it. We need more and more threads like this and if they'll come I will start to be more optimist about the possibility of the Merit rules to be really effective in the way they were thought.

I can't apply for your merit distibution since nowadays I'm more an altcoin person, and anyway I'd need 250 merits which are unachievable so I've decided I'd stop to care. I became an altcoin person since I've missed the boat of Bitcoin. I've stumbled in Bitcoin in the spring of 2010 and I've got very excited by the project and planned to delve deep into that. What then happened is that I left for a trip and me being twice the age of most of the people in this forum, my memory is not what it had used to be and when I came back I had simply forgotten about Bitcoin. I then tried to jump on the Bitcoin boat in January 2014 - started to study the issue 18 hours a day, bought Bitcoins ATH just before a long bear market (which led me to explore altcoins, which led to new disasters) then I bought a few BTC ASICS which never ROIed (one soon broke while the Swiss company which had produced it had just gone bankrupt), got coins stolen from 4-5 exchanges (Mintpal, Crypsy, Allcrypt, etc) and worse then anything I realized that 90% of whatever was happening in cryptospace were just scams or Pump&dump schemes and so after 6 months I left the whole field broke and in total disgust (otherwise I'd be Legendary by now, BTW, and probably very rich as well). One can spot my idealistic and unfitting early approch to this world by my very first posts on BCT. But I digress.

If fact, the reason of this post is because I have felt the need to comment your following statement:

I believe every time another altcoin is born it dilutes bitcoins user base slightly

In a way I think it is far worse than that. Even though a few altcoins with revolutionary features add real value to the whole sector, and even create an echosystem which as such is more solid than Bitcoin alone, the moltiplication of altcoins with similar features are in a way violating the rule number one of Bitcoin: the finite number of coins which will ever exist. This is especially true for forks like Bitcoin Cash, which de-facto double the quantity of "Bitcoins" in circulation. Of course they are not real Bitcoins, but since someone considers them to be Bitcoins, in a way they are. These clones not only dilute bitcoin's user base, but in fact they create money "out of thin air" - which essentially violates the rule number one (or two) for which Bitcoin was born. Bitcoin Cash's 27 billion USD capitalisation was created out of thin air just by forking a blockchain. Multiply this for all redundant altcoins which continuosly are coming into existence, with the pseudo-capitalization of the whole sector spinning out of control, and you get the picture of the looming disaster.

[Ghotel168]

I don’t have much Merit to give but I’m going to give it up until it’s all gone. I’m not sure if this is the right section for this thread because I’m not really selling anything. It’s about accounts so I’ll just leave it here until someone decides to move it. I don’t know if this is wrong to do. I don’t care if I get negative trust for doing this because I don’t buy anything here, sell anything here, join signature campaigns or post routinely in threads that even show the trust rating. Essentially I don’t make money here so I don’t use trust anyway.

I felt sorry for SOME of the members that posted in the merit thread. They seemed to be fairly articulate, fairly knowledgeable, rational and really trying to be members of this group of dreamers (community).

Here’s how it’s going to work. You’re not just going to beg for merit and I give it. Do not PM me and offer to pay me for merit points. Your money means nothing to me. I have given away more bitcoin than you will likely earn while on this forum (just ask Gleb Gamow if you don’t believe me). I will report you to a mod that will give you negative trust for being a potential scammer. You will ask me to research your post history and direct me to 10-20 posts that you believe show you have a deep desire to learn about, use, and support bitcoin. I will then ask you a couple of questions about how bitcoin works and you will answer them. I don’t care if you take some time to research the answer if you come up with the correct answer. That just means I’ve made you learn more about bitcoin than you knew previously.

Bitcoin does not mean altcoin. I know altcoins are more popular on this forum than bitcoin. I don’t care. I will only help bitcoiners level up. If most of your post history is in altcoin threads I won’t help you. I do not consider Bitcoin Cash to be bitcoin. If you don’t know what the real bitcoin is then you haven’t been here long enough for me to help you. Which leads me to the group I’m willing to help.


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


New members, Newbies, Jr Members and Members don’t need any merit. They don’t have enough post history to judge so I won’t be helping them.

Full members, Sr. Members and Hero Members really got screwed with the merit system. Some of them were really close to leveling up and now have to wait until they’ve impressed the right person to probably get only one merit point from them. The most extreme case of this is Hero Member. They may need hundreds of merit points to level up which could take a very long time to get.

You will be working for 20 merit points. Good luck to all. I will announce when they’re gone and lock the thread.

Let's just hope the work that hard to get points, merit the spirit continues to help the same legendary bitcoiners.One of the forum to the attention of fellow user for the good of the forum how to improve the ranking in the forum. And good luck all

[digaran]

This is really an excellent thread and I couldn't stop reading through all of it. We need more and more threads like this and if they'll come I will start to be more optimist about the possibility of the Merit rules to be really effective in the way they were thought.

I can't apply for your merit distribution since nowadays I'm more an altcoin person, and anyway I'd need 250 merits which are unachievable so I've decided I'd stop to care.

Asking for merits is the same thing as contributing by being a merit source or having a reasonable conversation a.k.a quality post, you should know why it is important to ask for reviews, somebody attempting to cheat by copy-pasting would never ask for a review.

[bitart]

Hi QA,
I'm ready for your quesitons
Please feel free to check any of my current posts:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=552813;sa=showPosts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2561563.msg26337789#msg26337789
I'm just curious if my post history meets the quality requirements of becoming a legendary (ever).

Yeah, I see lots of examples of your knowledge and participation going back to early 2015. If anyone wants an example of how you can participate and become involved in conversations look at this persons post history. Thanks for stopping by, you’re exactly the type of forum member I’m trying to help. You’ll be a Legendary Member someday if you keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing all along and increase your activity.

Awarded 20 merit points

Thanks very much for your kind words (and for the merits too )
And thanks for KWH too!

[QuestionAuthority]

This is really an excellent thread and I couldn't stop reading through all of it. We need more and more threads like this and if they'll come I will start to be more optimist about the possibility of the Merit rules to be really effective in the way they were thought.

I can't apply for your merit distibution since nowadays I'm more an altcoin person, and anyway I'd need 250 merits which are unachievable so I've decided I'd stop to care. I became an altcoin person since I've missed the boat of Bitcoin. I've stumbled in Bitcoin in the spring of 2010 and I've got very excited by the project and planned to delve deep into that. What then happened is that I left for a trip and me being twice the age of most of the people in this forum, my memory is not what it had used to be and when I came back I had simply forgotten about Bitcoin. I then tried to jump on the Bitcoin boat in January 2014 - started to study the issue 18 hours a day, bought Bitcoins ATH just before a long bear market (which led me to explore altcoins, which led to new disasters) then I bought a few BTC ASICS which never ROIed (one soon broke while the Swiss company which had produced it had just gone bankrupt), got coins stolen from 4-5 exchanges (Mintpal, Crypsy, Allcrypt, etc) and worse then anything I realized that 90% of whatever was happening in cryptospace were just scams or Pump&dump schemes and so after 6 months I left the whole field broke and in total disgust (otherwise I'd be Legendary by now, BTW, and probably very rich as well). One can spot my idealistic and unfitting early approch to this world by my very first posts on BCT. But I digress.

If fact, the reason of this post is because I have felt the need to comment your following statement:

I believe every time another altcoin is born it dilutes bitcoins user base slightly

In a way I think it is far worse than that. Even though a few altcoins with revolutionary features add real value to the whole sector, and even create an echosystem which as such is more solid than Bitcoin alone, the moltiplication of altcoins with similar features are in a way violating the rule number one of Bitcoin: the finite number of coins which will ever exist. This is especially true for forks like Bitcoin Cash, which de-facto double the quantity of "Bitcoins" in circulation. Of course they are not real Bitcoins, but since someone considers them to be Bitcoins, in a way they are. These clones not only dilute bitcoin's user base, but in fact they create money "out of thin air" - which essentially violates the rule number one (or two) for which Bitcoin was born. Bitcoin Cash's 27 billion USD capitalisation was created out of thin air just by forking a blockchain. Multiply this for all redundant altcoins which continuosly are coming into existence, with the pseudo-capitalization of the whole sector spinning out of control, and you get the picture of the looming disaster.

Thanks for the kind words. The altcoin people that have stopped by this thread have been very kind and supportive. It almost makes me wish I knew more about altcoins. I did pass along some merit to vlom in his thread to help give him a start helping in the alt section: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2833111.0 All of the altcoiners that stop in here should think about helping him out.

I do agree with your acessment of the altcoin situation. I’ve also always wondered what the effect of all the different altcoins is having on Joe average consumer. Joe might have attempted to learn about bitcoin and give it a try but is now confused by all of the different options and gives up. Or worse yet, buys Bcash thinking he has Bitcoin and finds out he can’t spend it at Microsoft.

[metenjean]

I figured since the forum was called bitcointalk not altcointalk, it should be considered more about bitcoin than altcoins. Merit system is a great idea because it will make people to spam less and didnt post anymore trash topics or topic that has been discussed over and over again. It will surely make things harder for bounty hunters and people seeking to gain profits from forum but it surely worth it because people need to work harder to gain money, its not given to you freely because 1 user got multiple accounts and i really appreciate what you did here. It will be a while to gain another promotion but it makes more interesting to observe and learn more about knowledgeable thread

[youcansee]

Hello sir,
I share my experience with other users so as not to be fooled into a fake airdrop bounty.
and I made it in my local forum
can you take the time to give an assessment?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2838438.msg29115212#msg29115212

Thanks before

I don’t really speak that language so I can’t tell exactly what your saying. You have a local mod that would be better equipped to help you with that assessment. Thanks for trying to help out the members of your local sub.

Thank you sir,,
at least you have responded to this newbie
and good advice from you, I will try it

[youcansee]

Excuse me, Sir
can i ask here?
why if members affected by red trust they are not allowed to follow bounty ?
but if I see there is a bounty manager who is affected by red trust but can still manage a job ?
can you explain to me why it can happen ?
because I'm curious, and I want to know the answer
because asking includes my most effective way of learning in this forum

Thanks before  

[QuestionAuthority]

I figured since the forum was called bitcointalk not altcointalk, it should be considered more about bitcoin than altcoins. Merit system is a great idea because it will make people to spam less and didnt post anymore trash topics or topic that has been discussed over and over again. It will surely make things harder for bounty hunters and people seeking to gain profits from forum but it surely worth it because people need to work harder to gain money, its not given to you freely because 1 user got multiple accounts and i really appreciate what you did here. It will be a while to gain another promotion but it makes more interesting to observe and learn more about knowledgeable thread

You definitely understand my viewpoint but my viewpoint isn’t necessarily the best one or even the correct one.

This forum was originally about bitcoin because in the beginning there was only bitcoin. Theymos (the person that oversees the forum) is very liberal in his viewpoint. He allows people here to have more freedom than probably any other forum on earth. That is a really good way to run a forum for a groundbreaking new technology that will draw people in from all corners of the earth and all walks of life. That liberal view supports open discussion and provides a springboard for innovation, new ways of thinking about the world and our place in it. We need that intellectual freedom to allow cryptocurrency to evolve. Part of that evolution includes altcoins. Debates and arguments that I watched unfold here (is PoW the right system, is SHA-256 the right Algorithm why not Scrypt, why only 21m coins) have led to the development of cryptocurrency variants by the people that were the best and brightest of the bitcoin supporters. Theymos rightly created a section where they could organically grow and feed off of each other just as bitcoin supporters had always been allowed to do.

That liberal viewpoint and accompanying freedom unfortunately had a negative side effect. It allowed unscrupulous people to abuse the system and begin degrading the forum. Slowly, over the years, people began using the forum to make money instead of brainstorm and innovate. New members came here to leach off of the system. Advertisers of altcoin variants, ICOs, gambling sites and others realized they could make money by convincing posters to spread their product all over the forum. The abuse of Theymos liberal generosity has become so bad that he has had to act. But once again, in typical Theymos fashion, he won’t just stifle the open discussions and create a system that crushes the views of the few in favor of the many. The merit system is his attempt to regain control of the forum without overly controlling individual freedom in the process.

I see you're a bounty hunter and are here to make money, but I also see you involved in conversations. More people need to be like you and realize that joining a conversation and participating will help them grow and learn while they are making money.

[QuestionAuthority]

Excuse me, Sir
can i ask here?
why if members affected by red trust they are not allowed to follow bounty ?
but if I see there is a bounty manager who is affected by red trust but can still manage a job ?
can you explain to me why it can happen ?
because I'm curious, and I want to know the answer
because asking includes my most effective way of learning in this forum

Thanks before  

I don’t really do the whole “bounty thing” but I can tell you that trust systems aren’t perfect. The trust system is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a system that allows people to tell others that they trust someone or they don’t trust someone and why. Trust, just like any other system created by humans, can and will be abused.

In order for me to answer you I would need to know how bounty managers get their jobs, I don’t. I would also need to know why negatively rated members are not allowed to participate, again I don’t know. I’m sure you can get your answer from someone in the meta subsection if you start your own topic. Sorry I couldn't help.

[youcansee]

Excuse me, Sir
can i ask here?
why if members affected by red trust they are not allowed to follow bounty ?
but if I see there is a bounty manager who is affected by red trust but can still manage a job ?
can you explain to me why it can happen ?
because I'm curious, and I want to know the answer
because asking includes my most effective way of learning in this forum

Thanks before  

I don’t really do the whole “bounty thing” but I can tell you that trust systems aren’t perfect. The trust system is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a system that allows people to tell others that they trust someone or they don’t trust someone and why. Trust, just like any other system created by humans, can and will be abused.

In order for me to answer you I would need to know how bounty managers get their jobs, I don’t. I would also need to know why negatively rated members are not allowed to participate, again I don’t know. I’m sure you can get your answer from someone in the meta subsection if you start your own topic. Sorry I couldn't help.

but I really appreciate your opinion.
because with a big rank of this, you still want to answer questions from a newbie.
I do not mind your answer, I am always happy if anyone would care about the newbie and give advice to him, so as not to go wrong during the discussion in this forum.

big thanks sirr

[QuestionAuthority]

Excuse me, Sir
can i ask here?
why if members affected by red trust they are not allowed to follow bounty ?
but if I see there is a bounty manager who is affected by red trust but can still manage a job ?
can you explain to me why it can happen ?
because I'm curious, and I want to know the answer
because asking includes my most effective way of learning in this forum

Thanks before  

I don’t really do the whole “bounty thing” but I can tell you that trust systems aren’t perfect. The trust system is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a system that allows people to tell others that they trust someone or they don’t trust someone and why. Trust, just like any other system created by humans, can and will be abused.

In order for me to answer you I would need to know how bounty managers get their jobs, I don’t. I would also need to know why negatively rated members are not allowed to participate, again I don’t know. I’m sure you can get your answer from someone in the meta subsection if you start your own topic. Sorry I couldn't help.

but I really appreciate your opinion.
because with a big rank of this, you still want to answer questions from a newbie.
I do not mind your answer, I am always happy if anyone would care about the newbie and give advice to him, so as not to go wrong during the discussion in this forum.

big thanks sirr

Trust me, my opinion is nothing special. LOL

That mentality is wrong. You’re a very respectful person and I appreciate that but no one here, regardless of rank, is any more important than anyone else. All Legendary means is you’ve been here longer and contributed to discussions. You can still be a scammer, shill, criminal or a complete idiot and be Legendary.

New members are here to learn something and long time members should help them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way.

[reliable]

This is really a very nice initiative QuestionAuthority you have started it. It will help many people who are missing those points to move up the ladder when they think they deserve to get some points and also it is an inspiring for the other fellow members that with spreading of the knowledge whatever they have learnt till now or to imbibe the knowledge during the course of time and start distributing to people who require on this forum or outside this forum.

As coming from the country where it is not considered to be legal yet and coming from the town where electricity is still not full available 24 hours its being a hard journey but I would say the experience has being good so far. Though would have fractional % of knowledge of this gigantic world of cypto currency but wherever and whatever way possible trying to put my point and share the knowledge. Also few posts do belong to Altcoin section as well in case if it still fits the criteria below is the posts link.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1074529;sa=showPosts

[QuestionAuthority]

This is really a very nice initiative QuestionAuthority you have started it. It will help many people who are missing those points to move up the ladder when they think they deserve to get some points and also it is an inspiring for the other fellow members that with spreading of the knowledge whatever they have learnt till now or to imbibe the knowledge during the course of time and start distributing to people who require on this forum or outside this forum.

As coming from the country where it is not considered to be legal yet and coming from the town where electricity is still not full available 24 hours its being a hard journey but I would say the experience has being good so far. Though would have fractional % of knowledge of this gigantic world of cypto currency but wherever and whatever way possible trying to put my point and share the knowledge. Also few posts do belong to Altcoin section as well in case if it still fits the criteria below is the posts link.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1074529;sa=showPosts

You have an interesting history. You are just as likely to visit altcoin threads as bitcoin threads but are more likely to attempt to convince people to buy btc in the altcoin threads. Obviously you support bitcoin.

I know you’re trying to become more fluent in English so I will try to make this easy to understand. Because of one of your posts, I’m going to ask you this question. Why are some bitcoin transactions cheap and get the first confirmation fast and others are expensive and slow to be confirmed?

[Naster]

I really appreciate the idea!
Since I joined the forum in 2015, I've been supporting and believing in Bitcoin as well. Just a look at my profile will let you seeing it
After the fork of BTC last year, I exchanged a few BTC to BCC, but still somehow, I've been more believing in the future of the original Bitcoin (well I read an article yesterday where someone was claiming that BCC is the original Bitcoin - that would be an other topic )
Regarding Alts, I wish really I would have known more about Alts, I still get everyday customers who want to pay me in Alts which I currently just don't support.
And with the very fast evolving technology, there is a high risk that it changes significantly by the time you catch up, not to speak about the speculations around all these Alts.
But as I'm always saying, it's just like religion - You believe and have faith in something or not.
Last year around July, the BTC market was ~ 100 billion and now fit  ~ 172 billion.. Let's see what the future will bring us