I have seen countless of threads about how bad the new merit system is, especially for beginners. Although it does have it's problems, I think it will be a very good thing for newcomers. Since other threads are mostly criticism, I thought I would share my different point of view on the benefits of the system for newbies. Some of the following has been pointed out by others already, but usually it was by Hero and Legendary members who have been accused of not being objective. I am a Jr. member so I think I am pretty objective about this. So why do I think the system is actually a good thing for newcomers?
1. They will learn quicker. Although I joined only recently, I am a long time reader here. I used to go to the Bitcoin board and just randomly pick a few threads that looked interesting. In most cases there was a good discussion which taught me new things. Lately however, it's almost impossible to find good threads anymore. Even if there is a good discussion it's usually ruined by tons of meaningless posts. Merit will encourage people to make helpful and meaningful posts which will help beginners set their first steps in this world.
2. They will become better posters. Before the merit system, there was no incentive for new members to try and make good posts. Even if they tried, their posts usually got buried under all the spam. There are always exceptions but usually the skills required to write a good post come with experience. When people will actually try to improve the quality of their posts, they will eventually improve their overall expression skills which are quite important for many other things in life.
3. It will be easier for them to integrate into the community. When there is less spam there are more discussions. Having a good discussion with someone makes you want to discuss with him more. This creates friendships and respect among the members of the forum. New members will be able to join good discussions and acquire friends. This will surely make the forum a warmer place for them.
4. They will be able to earn more from bounty campaigns. At first it looks exactly the opposite. Low ranked members who participated in bounties will have harder time to do so now. While this is true at the beginning, in the long run they will actually benefit from this. Instead of sharing the rewards with spammers and account farmers, once they advance in ranks they will enjoy larger shares of the prize. Before the change, it still took time and effort to go up in ranks. Now, instead of creating armies of accounts to get better shares, people will be focused on posting good quality posts. Atleast in my opinion this takes much less effort.
I would also like to answer some of the popular arguments I have seen raised by criticizers:
Newbies are affected of all. They are not yet knowledgeable enough to have quality posts thus have low chance of being given merit points.
Nobody said newbies will have to post quality posts from the very beginning. Of course they will make bad posts, and this is totally fine as they are newbies. It takes 2 months before merit stops you from advancing in ranks. This is enough time to be able to make atleast a few good posts. Only 10 merit points are needed to become a member.
I'm almost sure that high ranks will not often try to like posts of newbie, but will pour glasses on each other
I understand where the concern comes from but I think it's kind of a chicken and egg situation. Higher ranked members post better posts in average. That's why it might seem like only high ranks are getting merits. I'm pretty sure most people give merit based on the quality of the post not the rank of the poster.
So, now my rank depends on others?? Some one else needs to give me merit if they think my post is merit worthy??? What happen if a post is good but no one gives merit???
Is this concept really that revolutionary? Employees are promoted based on the opinions of their bosses. CEO's are appointed based on the opinions of the managing board. Presidents are elected based on the opinions of the people. That's how most things work in life.
While good posts might be missed and receive no merit, if you continue posting good posts you'll get merit eventually. If you don't, your posts are probably not as good as you think they are.
"Rich people maintain rich, poor people will be poor forever."
I really don't see why high ranked members won't give merit to lower ranks, but if that will be the case I'm sure the system will be modified.
Are you sure after this system come out, spam post won't appear?
No this won't eliminate spam entirely but it will definitely reduce it dramatically. Antibiotics does not always work, does that mean people should stop taking it.
A group of people, friends, teammates, they can spam merit score to each other's post.
Unless they have a source among them they will quickly run out of merits. Also it will be pretty easy to detect such collusion as everyone can see who you give your merit points to.
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.
While such members definitely exist they are not the majority. Most Legendary members have posted quite many good posts in the past. It would not be fair for them if their contribution to the forum was simply ignored. Anyway by your argument no problem will ever be fixed as there will always be people who abused the system before the issue was fixed.
Admin and moderators may not be able to prevent selling of merits especially outside this forum.
They may not be able to prevent it, but it's not going to be easy. Suspicious activity will be spotted pretty easily and people can be banned or lose trust.
Overall, I think most criticizers pretty much ignore all the advantages of this system and choose to focus on the negative aspects of it. Of course it's not fair for everyone. It has disadvantages and people will be able to manipulate it. However, spamming will be less incentivized, and cheating the system will be much harder now. If you have any thoughts I would love to discuss them here.
