Understanding MERIT- what you NEED to know!

[Retty]

Can i firstly just say, this post is not an attempt by me to fish for merit. Infact, it could be counter-intuitive to award merit for this post, so use your own judgement here, and do as you see fit.

If you are a newbie here, you might find this helpful to clearly understand about how and why you would be awarded Merit for your participation on this forum. This is only my opinion by the way, i am not saying that i am the King of Merit by any stretch of the imagination. I just think a LOT of people here are lost when it comes it comes to this topic. Also i haven't been here for long, so if i post something that isn't factually correct then please let me know and i will edit the post accordingly.

There are a 2 main things i will cover here, one is why the merit system is VITALLY important to the site, secondly its how to go about gaining merit from your fellow members.

Merit on Bitcointalk

Since the inception of the Merit System, we have seen hundreds, perhaps thousands of posts about "how its unfair to newbies" or "you can't find something to talk about" or other generic excuses that people use when they are struggling to gain merit points. There's usually a fairly straightforward answer: your posts simply aren't meritable. You have no idea how many of these posts i have looked through, same old excuses, same old story. The common denominator over ALL of these posts is effort, though i will do another post on that at a later date.

What we need to understand here is, the Merit system has been put in place to protect the site. It's not about excluding you, or making you feel unwelcome, or discrimination. It's here because it NEEDS to be here to protect the integrity of the website.

I've recently made a few posts in the META section, to give an opinion from a newbie perspective, and if any of you have had a look in there you'd understand whats going on. We as a community are being swamped by people who are here for strictly financial gain only, they have no interest in contributing to the site whatsoever, no interest in learning anything about bitcoin or crypto, and are here solely for an income source. Now if people tell their friend they are making a good few bucks from here, and they tell their friend, and they tell theirs- you get the picture! You end up bogged down with masses of people who could potentially ruin this place for everybody.
If you want proof of this you just have to look at the Altcoin-announcement section where the bounties are. COUNTLESS pages of people participating there- yet the very same people can't be bothered to at least TRY and make a decent post or something worthwhile.

Eventually, because of this behaviour, it will end up diluting the quality of the website, diluting the quality of the bounties/airdrops etc, and above all- diluting the user experience on here as visitors grow tired of seeing the same old "please sir" "great project" posts every single day!

The Merit system is here to attempt to ELIMINATE the parasites among us (as a lot of bounties require higher ranks), and REWARD the people who contribute. That's all it is, its really not that difficult to see is it? You can argue all you like, but this is the simple reality.

So if you are here for the right reasons- great! There's plenty of help to get you going.

Gaining Merit from fellow members

If you've been here a while and you are scratching your head thinking its an impossible task to gain merit, first thing i would advise you to do is take a really good look at what you've posted since you've been here. Hand on heart- is the quality there? Is there anything useful there?

Then ask the question: Would YOU merit your own posts based on what you've just read? I expect the penny will drop when you realise what i am saying is true. Not good enough really is it?

Now not to go into too much detail here, but above all, what you should be doing is having a look at members who have a lot of merit and READ their posts! Understand why people give them praise for their posts. As soon as you see what others are getting merit for you will understand! There is one guy in particular called 1miau, have a look at his posts- outstanding! He has over 50 merit and is a NEWBIE! Learn from people like him.

Why make 20 crap posts when you could make a few GREAT posts? Put the effort in and reap the reward. You won't always get merited for it, i have made a few posts that i thought would be absolutely nailed on for merit and never got a sniff.   But don't let it get you down, just write some more.

Be consistent with your quality and it will get recognized eventually.

I am in a position now where i can give merit out, and when i see something worthy i'll give it- no hesitation. So just bear that in mind.

Ultimately, what we are trying to do here as a community is to increase the overall content quality and user experience. We can all play our part, but you have to put the effort in.

Anyway, thanks for reading, I'm thinking of writing a post with regard to how i compose my posts if anyone is interested, if so let me know and i will make it when i get some free time.

Thanks again.  

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[ljtronics1]

I see so many full member and hero and legendary member spamming as well. They had high ranks just meant they've been here long enough, doesnt mean they contributed alot. I see new member getting treated as second class citizen all the way from simple sarcasm to insulting from old member. I think merit system is good, but could be done better.

[HabBear]

Can i firstly just say, this post is not an attempt by me to fish for merit. Infact, it could be counter-intuitive to award merit for this post, so use your own judgement here, and do as you see fit.

Hahaha, my own judgement here is telling me that if you have to say "I'm not looking for merit" but don't really declare "i'm giving away merit!" that you're probably just looking for merit.

Either way, you're not offering any new information.

Then ask the question: Would YOU merit your own posts based on what you've just read?

Would YOU merit your own post on this thread?

[Retty]

Can i firstly just say, this post is not an attempt by me to fish for merit. Infact, it could be counter-intuitive to award merit for this post, so use your own judgement here, and do as you see fit.

Hahaha, my own judgement here is telling me that if you have to say "I'm not looking for merit" but don't really declare "i'm giving away merit!" that you're probably just looking for merit.

Either way, you're not offering any new information.

Then ask the question: Would YOU merit your own posts based on what you've just read?

Would YOU merit your own post on this thread?

Hey HabBear, this is the problem that we-as newbies- face on here. I'm not being a wanker here but i am always open to debate.

Now you have to remember where i've posted this post, in the Newbies and Beginners section! So am i offering something new? Yes, yes i am. Not to everyone, but to some. I have no doubt that they might get some use from this post.

You're entitled to your opinion of course you are, as you have probably seen a million posts like this. I on the other hand- again, as a newbie-have not. I've seen very few decent posts at all. So in an attempt at improving overall quality i think its absolutely on topic and relevant, but that is just my opinion. If the seniors don't want this sort of thing then just say so, its fine honestly, i'll close my mouth and move on.

I'm only posting what seems to have worked for me thus far, but if its not what's required here then i'm not sure what is. Before you make assumptions though, if i could point you to my last post, i had some awesome replies from people who felt happy, motivated and keen to learn. If that's not what is needed round here then i really don't know what is.

I'm all for feedback, but i think you've got the wrong end of the stick here.

[seoincorporation]

If you've been here a while and you are scratching your head thinking its an impossible task to gain merit, first thing i would advise you to do is take a really good look at what you've posted since you've been here. Hand on heart- is the quality there? Is there anything useful there?


Be consistent with your quality and it will get recognized eventually.

The real problem with that is that many users consider "quality posts" authentical s**ts. Just search for beggers claiming to contribute to the forum by saying they are making good posts, and when you enter into their posting activity you just see the common spamming.

I am in a position now where i can give merit out, and when i see something worthy i'll give it- no hesitation. So just bear that in mind.

Careful there. If you say you have merits you can be attacked by zombies-beggers... And it sounds as if you are talking about yourself from a powerful position.

Ultimately, what we are trying to do here as a community is to increase the overall content quality and user experience. We can all play our part, but you have to put the effort in.

The problem maybe is about the concept of "quality", for what is good for one can be a S**t for another one. Nevertheless, I believe there is a common concept of quality, and maybe the first is about originality and compromise, effort, hard work, and contribution.
Besides, the spamming activity is not in crescendo, on the contrary, is growing up each day. I think we need stronger policies.

Anyway, good post. I think this is always useful to point-out the matter in the beginners and board section, and, as you are a good example, who knows, maybe someone will listen to you.

[1miau]

Hey, thank you for mentioning me
But I think I had a good portion of luck so far, especially in the German section…

Why make 20 crap posts when you could make a few GREAT posts? Put the effort in and reap the reward. You won't always get merited for it, i have made a few posts that i thought would be absolutely nailed on for merit and never got a sniff.   But don't let it get you down, just write some more.

That’s somehow true: the time you waste for 20 low quality posts you can use to create 1 good post and that would solve the merit problem for many people here…
Maybe we’ll reach the time when some Jr. Members have 2000 comments and 500 activity but still no Merit and realize, if they had done only 100 good comments it would be very likely that they already could be a Member. Who knows…

Either way, you're not offering any new information.

If every bounty participant has to read OP then much would have been achieved possibly. I have been not so long time around here, maybe this is the reason I’m not bored of another post about Merit and the Merit system in general, but I think it’s a really good one.

The problem maybe is about the concept of "quality", for what is good for one can be a S**t for another one. Nevertheless, I believe there is a common concept of quality, and maybe the first is about originality and compromise, effort, hard work, and contribution.
Besides, the spamming activity is not in crescendo, on the contrary, is growing up each day. I think we need stronger policies.

Anyway, good post. I think this is always useful to point-out the matter in the beginners and board section, and, as you are a good example, who knows, maybe someone will listen to you.

I agree, this combination should be printed in bold letters, if new members write their posts by paying attention to just a few of these points the result would be less spam and repetitive posts.
Personally, I want to add a little bit more: be creative! Bring up new topics that have never been created before and would arouse the interest of many members. The question should be: what would be interesting for you as a reader?
And if you don’t have any ideas for an own topic, do not start a new one, this is not a good idea. Better look where you can help in existing topics and contribute to the discussion. If everyone starts a new topic like reporting another Merit abuser or something else, this isn’t helpful and generates a huge amount of new spam. To make use of the search function can be a good move too and add your comment to an existing one.

In addition I think it's important to honor the effort if someone is trying to improve the posting quality. Finally you'll earn the rewards if you try it. 

[BQ]

I see so many full member and hero and legendary member spamming as well. They had high ranks just meant they've been here long enough, doesnt mean they contributed alot. I see new member getting treated as second class citizen all the way from simple sarcasm to insulting from old member. I think merit system is good, but could be done better.

if people post stupid shit then old or new members might insult them, surely that would apply to old members posting stupid stuff aswell, why not?
it's probably more related to old members in general having a better idea how to behave on the forum, and therefore they don't post stupid stuff as much.

and second class citizens is hardly a point to complain about. everyone here is an individual, old members aren't tied up into some collaborative network to oppress newbies,
it seems like there's just such a huge influx of new accounts from people who can't even speak english and I guess that influences older member's subconciously to not be as positive to them.
People who has been here for a good while and seen the forum go from probably a rather serious/technical forum to all this spam in every thread, they might be a bit annoyed with every post being made a 100th time and such.
 
if a newbie or old member makes a good post, that should be the same in the sense of reception. although I do imagine the avatar adds a bit of value when judging the content of a post,
I usually assume people with avatars know what they're talking about 

(I'm new too but I'm not complaining and I don't know how the forum was before, just guessing)

[tranthidung]

If the OP creator (or someone else) want to know what is merit, how to improve themselves to earn merits in BTT forum, it is perfect place to start:
Talk Merit Website (by Jet Cash and Talk Merit)

Furthermore, there are several helpful topics:
TMAN's guide to getting merits
Full Member thanks to merit system (by iasenko, who got hundreds of merits to rank up)

[MrMac1000]

Informational OP, thanks!

[ZeroBTC1]

This is such a great post. I have learnt something great from it.