I've still got 80 sMerit to give away.

[Jet Cash]

I've been awarding points in ones and twos because I believe that that is the best way to encourage members to make good posts. This logic probably comes from the likes system on another professional forum that I frequent. I've been a member for just over 2 years, and I've received over 5,200 "likes" in that forum. Members can only award one like per post, but there is no limit to the number of likes an individual post can receive. I think this system has helped me to hone my posting, and it encourages me to make posts that members will find useful or amusing.

I've still got 80 sMerits because I don't go out hunting for posts to merit, but I just award them when I find a post that appeals to me. However, it is quite difficult to find these posts. The most promising boards ( the serious discussion ones ) tend to be neglected by most members. I don't visit the Frog Pond very much, as most of the threads seem to be worthless ( in my opinion ) long tail spam fests. I think I have given away too many on the Meta board - there are too many posts about Merit points, and I've just created another one. The beginners board ought to be the place for me to read threads, but that seems to be more about issues other than Bitcoin. Tech support has some interesting threads, but I'm not a power user of Bitcoin, so I'm not sure I'm qualified to make judgements there.

So what's the point of this thread. It's really a plea to turn the Frog Pond into a useful board for Bitcoiners. It wouldn't be too difficult to do. If the mods could lock the long tail spam fest threads so that they slipped away, and the non Bitcoin and newbie threads were moved to the appropiate boards, that would create some breathing space on the first page. There is also something that members could do, please start to make quality posts on the serious discussion boards.

ps. I don't sell sMerit, or give it to people who ask for it, sorry.

[1713860975]

1713860975

[pablito1989]

Just go everywhere and give them to Newbies/Jr.Members that deserve them.
It's pretty hard to rank up now for them.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Just go everywhere and give them to Newbies/Jr.Members that deserve them.
It's pretty hard to rank up now for them.

Key point here

[Alluro]

Just go everywhere and give them to Newbies/Jr.Members that deserve them.
It's pretty hard to rank up now for them.

I think most Newbies and Jr. Members are bounty hunters. They are only want to rank up for signature bounties then hard to choose correct one to give merit. They have to make good posts for earn merit. I think bitcointalk rank up rules will be change more than in future.

[Jet Cash]

Well I've managed to give away 6 sMerit since I started this thread ( big deal ).

and I found some interesting posts as well.

[Emilyearl]

Not trying to say that the merit system is not good but to me I feel it's not a good determinant of ranks, reasons being that:
1. There are people out there whose posts are educating and yet no one is touched to merit their work.
2. Friends could just keep sharing their merits among themselves irrespective of the quality of a post.
3. Sooner or later it will be sold and bought all in the quest to rank up.
This will make people try to rank up by all means and for those quality post makers, they end up being where they're. Just imagine newbies and Jr member's account were not given any merit and this leaves me wondering if the mods have no room for them in this forum or better still, no regards for them at all.

[Jet Cash]

I don't think merit is intended to be a ranking tool. I believe it is a tool to improve the quality of the forum. It is really up to the members to use it to help direct the flow of posts. So far it seems to be used to "reward" ghosts of the past, and to help members of sig campaigns to "rank up" to increase the size of their banners. Because of this abuse, I think that merit points should only be awarded singly, that woud reduce the abuses slightly.

[cmmhbct]

I don't think merit is intended to be a ranking tool. I believe it is a tool to improve the quality of the forum. It is really up to the members to use it to help direct the flow of posts. So far it seems to be used to "reward" ghosts of the past, and to help members of sig campaigns to "rank up" to increase the size of their banners. Because of this abuse, I think that merit points should only be awarded singly, that woud reduce the abuses slightly.

Would you mind explaining more about those words "~ merit points should only be awarded singly ~", please.

As the name of the topic shown, Merit and new rank requirements, for sure the system was created as a ranking tool, stricter than the older ranking system.

~

Another problem which related to designing is as you can see in the Theymos topic, there are bunch of merits' senders behind the topic's tittle. It looks extremely messy. I think Theymos should make it better, such as a drop-down list.

[Jet Cash]

Would you mind explaining more about those words "~ merit points should only be awarded singly ~", please.

As the name of the topic shown, Merit and new rank requirements, for sure the system was created as a ranking tool, stricter than the older ranking system.

Let me take the second point first. The merit system is not a means for ranking members directly. It is more likely to have been created as a barrier to prevent spammers and low value posters gaining rank to pollute the boards with promotional spam.

Now the first point. Awarding 50 points for an indifferent post is not productive for the board, and it centralises control into the hands of the points faucets. This can create conflicts of interest. If it is only possible for a member to award one merit point to a post, then the recognition of good posts is distributed amongst all of the members, and I think that this will reduce the load on the moderators, as posters will try to comply with community values.

[Gotumoot]

I've been awarding points in ones and twos because I believe that that is the best way to encourage members to make good posts. This logic probably comes from the likes system on another professional forum that I frequent. I've been a member for just over 2 years, and I've received over 5,200 "likes" in that forum. Members can only award one like per post, but there is no limit to the number of likes an individual post can receive. I think this system has helped me to hone my posting, and it encourages me to make posts that members will find useful or amusing.

I've still got 80 sMerits because I don't go out hunting for posts to merit, but I just award them when I find a post that appeals to me. However, it is quite difficult to find these posts. The most promising boards ( the serious discussion ones ) tend to be neglected by most members. I don't visit the Frog Pond very much, as most of the threads seem to be worthless ( in my opinion ) long tail spam fests. I think I have given away too many on the Meta board - there are too many posts about Merit points, and I've just created another one. The beginners board ought to be the place for me to read threads, but that seems to be more about issues other than Bitcoin. Tech support has some interesting threads, but I'm not a power user of Bitcoin, so I'm not sure I'm qualified to make judgements there.

So what's the point of this thread. It's really a plea to turn the Frog Pond into a useful board for Bitcoiners. It wouldn't be too difficult to do. If the mods could lock the long tail spam fest threads so that they slipped away, and the non Bitcoin and newbie threads were moved to the appropiate boards, that would create some breathing space on the first page. There is also something that members could do, please start to make quality posts on the serious discussion boards.

ps. I don't sell sMerit, or give it to people who ask for it, sorry.

Give it to the one who needed , mostly the new comers in the forum. This policy improve our industry or our forum to reduce spammers here in our forum. And by the way give you smerit to people that reply or quote an specific or should I say influence other users. To be specific a post that is constructive and helping , goodluck.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Just go everywhere and give them to Newbies/Jr.Members that deserve them.
It's pretty hard to rank up now for them.

Yes, I'm doing the same. All the points I receive I'm giving to the newbies in the Beginners and Help section. Well, you have to read a lot but from time to time you find a good one which deserve a reward for the effort. So basically just browse the Altcoin/bitcoin  discussion and help section and you will find something for sure. And don't forget reporting spam in the meantime

[Jet Cash]

I don't think rank should have anything to do with awarding merit points. The award should be based solely on the post quality and relevance. In fact newbies posting the results of a Google search, without understanding the problem, can clog up a decent thread.

[Praesidium]

I don't think merit is intended to be a ranking tool. I believe it is a tool to improve the quality of the forum.

This is the main point of the merit system, this merit system encouraged us to improve our post quality and become more constructive. Also theymos added this to be requirement of ranking system to burden those who are bounty farmers which they only join bounty yet they only do a one liner post with this they will be forced to improve their post if they want their rank to be promoted or they can choose to leave either.

I don't think rank should have anything to do with awarding merit points. The award should be based solely on the post quality and relevance. In fact newbies posting the results of a Google search, without understanding the problem, can clog up a decent thread.

Well this quite true, not only low rank members should be awarded by merit, we also needed it, however the higher rank members like Hero - Legend helps the newly ones to earn merit so that they will improve their post at the same time they can join any bounties out there.

[Genemind]

It's good to know that some people are willing to give away sMerit. I really think that some people doesn't even care about giving away their sMerit. They might have a reason or not. This beats the new system, because if some people will not just give away merits, some posts that are educating and sensible will just be left out ignored.

[TheBeardedBaby]

I don't think rank should have anything to do with awarding merit points. The award should be based solely on the post quality and relevance. In fact newbies posting the results of a Google search, without understanding the problem, can clog up a decent thread.

Yeah you're right nothing to do with ranking but still I have 1 point to give, its not easy to decide to whom I shall give it, I prefer to give it to someone to whom it will be valuable, like for a newbie, putting effort to learn or trying to help, like this one for example : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2819905
And not discourage them by calling all of them shitposters.
I hope you get my point. Being a newbie doesn't mean being a 100% spammer, I know that the account farming is a big disease here but between all those fake accounts there are real people joining with interest not only to benefit from the bounty campaigns but to learn and be part of the community and contribute with what they can. Keep in mind that people change by the time and even some shitposters are improving not only because of the merit system but because they gain experience and change their point of view.
I apologize for not being word-perfect in English.

[Emilyearl]

I don't think merit is intended to be a ranking tool. I believe it is a tool to improve the quality of the forum. It is really up to the members to use it to help direct the flow of posts. So far it seems to be used to "reward" ghosts of the past, and to help members of sig campaigns to "rank up" to increase the size of their banners. Because of this abuse, I think that merit points should only be awarded singly, that woud reduce the abuses slightly.

It's not about what your thoughts are it's what's at play right this moment. Merits are determinants of ranks now. To achieve a new rank, your merit point has to be same with the rank post count requirements.

[Jet Cash]

It's not about what your thoughts are it's what's at play right this moment. Merits are determinants of ranks now. To achieve a new rank, your merit point has to be same with the rank post count requirements.

Merit doesn't determine rank, activity does that. Merit just blocks promotion for spammers who gained activity by abusing the forum.

[athanz88]

It's not about what your thoughts are it's what's at play right this moment. Merits are determinants of ranks now. To achieve a new rank, your merit point has to be same with the rank post count requirements.

Merit doesn't determine rank, activity does that. Merit just blocks promotion for spammers who gained activity by abusing the forum.

If I may help you to clear the point and say it out loud to other person who read this thread.
I believe that ;

Activity is a tool to determine your level of account's rank

Merit is a tool to determine your level of quality as a person related to forum work and cryptocurrency

So, you can be a higher rank member but as a person you re still a low class rank member, or you can be a lower rank member but you re a high quality person for this forum (in short, you re worthy).
Activity needs merit to fight the spammer, abuser, and account farmer. Merit needs activity to make sure people rank up in a proper time so there is no account which suddenly get into higher rank members just because that account got so many merit in a day.

[Cryptoshops]

Merits will cause nothing but problems for forum users and admins. We have allready seen members being accused of selling merits to other members. When I used to run forums (not crypto forums) I tried the merit sytem out and the emails from users claiming that this person or that person sold merits got so bad I disabled it in the end.
A forum of this size will never stop spammy posts unless there is heavy moderation with admins reviewing every post before it goes live.

[Wheelige]

It's not about what your thoughts are it's what's at play right this moment. Merits are determinants of ranks now. To achieve a new rank, your merit point has to be same with the rank post count requirements.

Merit doesn't determine rank, activity does that. Merit just blocks promotion for spammers who gained activity by abusing the forum.

If I may help you to clear the point and say it out loud to other person who read this thread.
I believe that ;

Activity is a tool to determine your level of account's rank

Merit is a tool to determine your level of quality as a person related to forum work and cryptocurrency

So, you can be a higher rank member but as a person you re still a low class rank member, or you can be a lower rank member but you re a high quality person for this forum (in short, you re worthy).
Activity needs merit to fight the spammer, abuser, and account farmer. Merit needs activity to make sure people rank up in a proper time so there is no account which suddenly get into higher rank members just because that account got so many merit in a day.

While I agree with the merit system and praise the admin/s for their decision to help prevent the stream of low quality posts on the system, it could be seen as a flaw with the activity system. Im not sure if the post/time requirements Ive read before are in place (as in you can only get x amount of activity a week and you need to post x amount of times). Ive seen people ranking up pretty quickly, you can especially see this in ICO organisers accounts who post regularly on their threads. If a person actively participates in the forum for a long period of time then do they not deserve to rank up? If people are only giving out merit for 'outstanding' posts instead of 'beneficial' posts then some people may miss out entirely. There is a lot of politics that enter the frey with a merit system and I hope that the admin/s keep an eye on how it progressing to ensure it is working as they hoped it would.