Analysis - Merited on multiple Subsections and the Correlation Matrix - Updated

[DdmrDdmr]

Update 04/04/2021

Data is now accesible here (updated weekly):
https://public.tableau.com/views/BitcointalkMeritDashboard/CorrelationMatrix?:language=es&:display_count=y&publish=yes&:origin=viz_share_link

1.   Introduction.

I’ve updated this OP, which was elaborated in August 2018,.recalculating all the data, and additionally included the merit matrix by rank. All with data is now as of 20/12/2019.

In order to allow comparison between then and now, I’ve archieved the old version of the OP here: http://archive.ph/R2owd

A couple of days ago, there was a discussion going on related to whether people are being awarded sMerit solely on a specific section/topic, and how that seems unfair. While many of us would like to be Satoshi alike, the fact is that sMerit is meant to be awarded to any post we find contribute, be it on the topic it may be. It’s up to the awarder’s criteria.
Every individual has his own skillset (some strong, some weak at best), and we do not all converge on them, less of all on being highly knowledgeable on Bitcoin. In a company that produces shoes, only a subset of the employees will have any idea as to how to design them, but everyone knows how to wear them. The same applies here in terms of Bitcoin knowledge, and although it is improvable for all, only a specific set of people will really master it enough to be able to contribute with a depth charge of knowledge.

In fact, as can be seen on the Merit Dashboard (go to the Tab labelled "Section Subsection"), the Bitcoin aggregate section receives only around 10% of all the sMerit that has been awarded). There are multiple reasons behind this fact, but that is not the real objective of this post.

What the discussion got me to wonder is the following:

a)   How many people receive sMerit on how many forum subsection (i.e. how many are capable of being merited on more than one subsection, and who excels on multiple subsections).

b)   For a given forum subsection where people are merited, what other subsections correlate through those same people (a kind of correlation matrix).


2.   Forum members Merited on Multiple subsections.

The idea here is to see a summary of the number of subsections forum members (all ranks considered) have been merited on. By subsection I’m considering the main level of subsections I’ve used on previous occasions (Altcoin Discussion, Announcements (Altcoins), Marketplace (Altcoins), Mining (Altcoins), Speculation (Altcoins), Bitcoin Discussion, Bitcoin Technical Support, Development & Technical Discussion, Mining, Project Development, Deleted, Economics, Marketplace, Trading Discussion, Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Indian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Other Languages, Philippines, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Skandinavisk, Spanish, Turkish, Archival, Beginners & Help, Meta, Off-topic, Politics & Society, Serious discussion). There are 41 subsections, 22 of which are local languages.

I’ve first created the distribution for all merited users, and then restricted it to those that have received >= 10 sMerits for comparison reasons. Posts that have been deleted cannot count in any section, but I’ve also included a count of those that have received sMerit exclusively on deleted posts, which is an area of interest on its own (excluded from the list below, but included in the merit matrix).



Things that standout:

a)   158 (27 last time) people have been merited on 10 or more subsections. That is a very difficult achievement, which implies a good knowledge in multiple areas as well as communication skills. This feat is in the hands of the following:

Code:

user_id   Name                          nSubSections
234771    suchmoon                      20
459836    LoyceV                        20
507936    DarkStar_                     18
35        theymos                       17
300014    DaveF                         17
405464    mocacinno                     17
257071    NeuroticFish                  16
1059082   hugeblack                     16
194811    vit05                         16
155345    gentlemand                    16
1554927   bitmover                      16
176777    mindrust                      16
897509    xtraelv                       16
1291828   iasenko                       16
2003859   DireWolfM14                   15
93844     legendster                    15
1188543   o_e_l_e_o                     15
359716    ETFbitcoin                    15
101872    Lauda                         15
479624    Last of the V8s               15
1052091   CryptopreneurBrainboss        15
1275282   joniboini                     15
1564795   Heisenberg_Hunter             15
131333    wwzsocki                      15
18321     OgNasty                       15
120694    xhomerx10                     15
334783    seoincorporation              15
1067333   micgoossens                   14
1082600   kenzawak                      14
557798    TryNinja                      14
1112531   Steamtyme                     14
375981    OmegaStarScream               14
33156     vapourminer                   14
1237156   nc50lc                        14
370611    bill gator                    14
886521    mjglqw                        14
23092     malevolent                    14
1580039   asche                         14
452769    bones261                      14
358020    Quickseller                   14
257004    big_daddy                     14
1852120   fillippone                    14
317618    nutildah                      14
2033515   mikeywith                     14
65837     franky1                       14
507856    LeGaulois                     14
1179651   sheenshane                    14
6706      RodeoX                        13
765632    bL4nkcode                     13
877396    AdolfinWolf                   13
533583    Lucius                        13
2143453   1miau                         13
698159    Jet Cash                      13
64507     philipma1957                  13
914465    crwth                         13
366632    Royse777                      13
1210969   JSRAW                         13
112493    Pmalek                        13
458393    harizen                       13
980501    Artemis3                      13
1012655   khaled0111                    13
351569    tmfp                          13
30        BitcoinFX                     13
54791     Dabs                          12
849090    tomahawk9                     12
525056    BitMaxz                       12
171896    Stedsm                        12
1107844   amishmanish                   12
898928    Theb                          12
163641    eternalgloom                  12
164749    stompix                       12
1446224   r1s2g3                        12
121796    alani123                      12
338591    Thirdspace                    12
553037    jhenfelipe                    12
99837     HeRetiK                       12
984384    Baofeng                       12
487418    The Pharmacist                12
1180530   theyoungmillionaire           12
1432468   mdayonliner                   12
1292764   tranthidung                   12
1903546   LoyceMobile                   12
787736    marlboroza                    12
1582324   DdmrDdmr                      12
579628    bob123                        12
1169179   BitCryptex                    12
62955     odolvlobo                     11
543626    jackg                         11
143168    TheQuin                       11
345771    Thekool1s                     11
904524    ChiBitCTy                     11
252510    JayJuanGee                    11
1069508   aleksej996                    11
198573    Hueristic                     11
547435    LTU_btc                       11
1453007   RivAngE                       11
379147    pooya87                       11
859197    posi                          11
803757    BrewMaster                    11
153656    TheNewAnon135246              11
841337    shield132                     11
136484    figmentofmyass                11
1247226   logfiles                      11
55384     Foxpup                        11
1164833   Direwolve735                  11
2423488   Upgrade00                     11
30747     Vod                           11
1574226   mu_enrico                     11
1022860   qwertyup23                    11
878630    TheUltraElite                 11
741872    poptok1                       11
2561166   PrimeNumber7                  11
1410401   dkbit98                       11
1162397   Parodium                      10
783422    Slow death                    10
1980983   Coolcryptovator               10
1920993   elda34b                       10
954316    TravelMug                     10
1096237   tbct_mt2                      10
162680    squatter                      10
84521     Welsh                         10
1235090   akhjob                        10
782831    akamit                        10
1107222   Don Pedro Dinero              10
1099056   TheWolf666                    10
1459810   bitperson                     10
1153977   LUCKMCFLY                     10
1634314   shahzadafzal                  10
1738107   Seetheummerallyeah            10
901859    buwaytress                    10
771962    Raja_MBZ                      10
1938519   butka                         10
1010454   Samarkand                     10
1022241   bkbirge                       10
99165     Searing                       10
557989    BTCforJoe                     10
187618    guybrushthreepwood            10
337097    iluvbitcoins                  10
763588    Jating                        10
379487    LFC_Bitcoin                   10
111872    Deathwing                     10
2363935   YOSHIE                        10
66060     kingcolex                     10
1015954   aundroid                      10
79608     Flying Hellfish               10
662330    Pamoldar                      10
965440    aoluain                       10
1520746   hd49728                       10
821995    hatshepsut93                  10
85033     d5000                         10
1920923   anu1908                       10
339364    European Central Bank         10
1267993   Leteravian                    10
1339716   coinlocket$                   10
1972523   Naida_BR                      10
60820     DannyHamilton                 10
1143164   LogitechMouse                 10
867786    HCP                           10

The list with the actual subsections where the above have been merited can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CFMvMD4lDMnnkxWl9p02k0ZoJW044eRY4EGEqkYd-8I/edit?usp=sharing (second tab).
Each person has his own mix of subsections that contribute to his total received sMerit with different weight. I’ve included the column PMerit (percentage of Merit) to show this.I've now extended this information (on the Google Sheet) to all merited profiles, not just those listed here.


b)   The vast majority (73,53%) of people have only been awarded sMerit in one subsection, and 12,10% have in two subsections. The former amount is logical, due to the large amount of people that have been awarded a single merit.

c)   For those awarded >= 10 sMerits, 50,01% have been on a single subsection, and 20,74% on two.

d)   The total exclusively deleted is 1.801 people (5,62% of those merited), having 206 of those  received >= 10 sMerits. This set of users have gained every single sMerit on what are now deleted posts!

I guess a list in mandatory here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CFMvMD4lDMnnkxWl9p02k0ZoJW044eRY4EGEqkYd-8I/edit?usp=sharing  (third tab)


3.   Subsection correlation matrix.

This has been a toughie. What I’ve done here is, for each subsection, determine the number of forum members that have been awarded sMerit for posts in the subsection. Then, I’ve analysed for each of them, in what other forum subsections they’ve also been merited in.
The idea behind is to see the correlation of sMerit between subsections, based on where the people are being merited. This should tell us the subsection affinity of the merited users. The less exclusive (see later on) a merited subsection is, the more we can see correlations to other subsections on the forum.

Since the number of subsections is large, I have grouped all the Local sections into one, thus simplifying by nearly half the matrix, and on the premise that correlation between subsections is very small. I’ve also brought “Deleted” to the table as a virtual subsection due to its weight.

The result is the following table (All ranks):



I’ve highlighted the top three percentages for each row (excluding the deleted column). I’ve also got the absolute value table, but the one displayed in percentages is better suited here.

Example of interpretation:

Altcoin Discussion has 3.870 merited people (12,08% of all merited profiles), 1.796 of which are exclusively merited just in this subsection and no other (46,41% of the 3.870 people).
Out of those merited here, 16,28% have also been merited on Bitcoin Discussion, 15,87% on a Local Board, and 14,86% in the Economics subsection. Only 0,90% have been merited in the Bitcoin Mining subsection. A fact aside is that 22,97% of these people have also been merited on a post that has now been deleted (or off-limits).

Table is best read by rows.

Things that are interesting:

a)   Column nMeritedUsers indicates how many distinct users have been merited in that subsection (not the total sMerit they received), and % Distinct Users the percentage of all merited users.  
It’s interested to see that 35,77% of merited users are merited on local boards, albeit with low sMerit values (seen on previous analysis). On the other end of the scale, Serious Discussion and Project Development have only 1,39% of all merited users merited there (archival is lower, but it’s not really a proper subsection).
 

b)   Column nExclusiveUsers (or deleted) indicates how many of those users have received their sMerit solely on a given Subsection. If the user has also got deleted posts, I do not count these here as a separate subsection, and thus consider that the sMerits are awarded exclusively to a single exclusive subsection.
 
Column %Subsection specifies the percentage of exclusive users in relation to all the merited users in the subsection.
77,90% of Local merited users are merited exclusively on local boards. Ann Altcoin is also a very closed circle (70,80%) and so are the mining subsections (64,53% mining altcoins and 61,13% mining in the Bitcoin section). On the other hand, subsections belonging to the Other section are less exclusive.


c)   16,37% of merited people have at least been merited on one post that has later been deleted. Out of those, nearly a third has been merited exclusively for what are now deleted posts, as seen before.

d)   Correlations that stand-out (summarized by Section):

-   Altcoin subsections have a strong correlation to local boards, as well as to the other Alternate Cryptocurrencies subsections.

-   Bitcoin subsections correlate more to Marketplace, Bitcoin Discussion and Meta.

-   Deleted virtual subsection correlates most to Local boards as well as Bitcoin and Altcoin discussions.

-   Economics section correlates best to Bitcoin Discussion, Marketplace, Trading and Meta.

-   Local Sections correlate more to Altcoin and Meta (although not much, since they are rather endogenic).

-   Other section components correlate best to Meta, Bitcoin Discussion, and Marketplace.



The merit matrix delimited to Legendary rank:




The merit matrix delimited to Hero rank:




The merit matrix delimited to Sr. Member rank:




The merit matrix delimited to Full Member rank:




The merit matrix delimited to Member rank:




The merit matrix delimited to Jr. Member rank:



Note: I've omitted the merit matrix for some standard ranks (Brand New, Newbies) and non-standard ranks (Administrators, etc.).

[1714951590]

1714951590

[mdayonliner]

Nice work mate. There are very few people on the forum who can play around with data like you. Fantastic effort.

PS: I am really happy to see me on the list which eventually proves that mdayonliner is not someone who talks about merit only LOL

Things that standout:

a)   27 people have been merited on 10 or more subsections. That is a very difficult achievement, which implies a good knowledge in multiple areas as well as communication skills. This feat is in the hands of the following:

Code:

user_id   Name                          nSubSections
1432468   mdayonliner                   10

The list with the actual subsections where the above have been merited can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EzhU2vE5oRxPaVi8-2Cw7wb4CzoG5H1TY26uNcD8Cas/edit?usp=sharing (first tab). Each person has his own mix of subsections that contribute to his total received sMerit with different weight.

[bitmover]

Your data analysis is amazing ddmr.

I am happy to see I participate in many boards. I didn't know that other users are used to visit only few boards.

There are many boards which I ignore completely, such as mining, reputation, scam accusations, gambling, etc...

Your post is a good incentive to try to visit other boards and change posting habits

[Alone055]

Amazing analysis!
I personally always try to take part in discussions from almost every other section/subsection of the forum, but as you said, not all of us have enough knowledge to contribute useful opinions everywhere. Though some times I skip sections because of the excessive spam in there, as I don't want to get into the eyes of people as a spammer.

[hugeblack]

You make a lot of effort in these analyzes; I hope your analysis will contribute to make this forum a better place.
Maybe you can do the same thing to know who are giving merits to Subsections "help to choose merit sources."

a)   27 people have been merited on 10 or more subsections. That is a very difficult achievement, which implies a good knowledge in multiple areas as well as communication skills. This feat is in the hands of the following:

Code:

user_id   Name                          nSubSections
35        theymos                       14
1059082   hugeblack                     14

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

You’re becoming a usual on my recent stats. That’s two out of two you’ve shown up on a highlighted list!
By the way, I’ve just added a third tab to the spreadsheet with the Rank and number of merited subsections for all merited users (thanks to @ theyoungmillionaire for the idea).

<…> Your post is a good incentive to try to visit other boards and change posting habits

Yes, that is on my to do list too, since I’ve only been merited in 5 subsections myself. Way more space for knowledge here on the forum.

<…>

Yes, spam is kind of terrible on the Bitcoin subsections for example, but I persist on (only for now) reading there. The basically spam-free are the more technical subforums, better for reading than other subforums, but rather more challenging.

<…>
Maybe you can do the same thing to know who are giving merits to Subsections "help to choose merit sources."

I did! See User's sMerit Network size – Data to select possible Merit Sources . I also included it as part of the Merit Dashboard to keep it up-to-date (Tab labelled Potential Merit Sources).

Finding a potential source (excluding current ones) is just one of the parts to the equation. It is just as hard to determine exactly where there is a lack of merit sources, and that is necessarily complemented with post content exploration, raising voices (backed by lots of real examples) where merit sources are required, and possibly a strategic vision.

For example, a given Subsection/Local Board may seem under-merited, and we may even find a few candidates numerically (pending manual whitelisting), but the number of unmerited posts in the subsection needs to be visually assessed by someone/a team in order to certify that a merit source is in fact required. That along with a cross reference to sMerit evolution in the subsection over time.

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

Code:

user_id           Name                          nSubSections
1564795      Heisenberg_Hunter                       12

Ah, It was strange to see myself in your list. I randomly open up all the boards every morning, and just read through them. Though I don't post often, I read a lot from various subsections(the latest one getting added is the Mining(altcoins)).

Bitcoin (Mining) section seems to be a dangerous board and I haven't made a single post out there. Unless we are really very familiar about mining and the mining equipment, we shouldn't post there. The mods are pretty strict out there and spam posting would lead us to the posts getting deleted more often or at times would get us banned too.

And I do hunt for some good tech based threads(which is literally very difficult) in the frog pond(Altcoin Discussion) which has helped a lot more people. Though I have requested a separate board for Altcoin Tech Discussion, I don't think it would happen as most of the users argue that it is a bitcoin forum.

[TheBeardedBaby]

I don't need to repeat myself every time but man, this is great analysis, thanks. You deserve every single merit you got til now, don't listen to those who complain, they envy you.

Seems like the majority of those 27 have acquired the most merits in the meta section and this is not surprising as this was the "hottest" subject for the last couple of months.

I'm happy to see that just a bit more than the half of my merits (63%) are collected in meta, and big part of the rest are in the Beginners & Help (28%). So I'm on the right way in helping the community.I'm satisfied.

I can't wait to see your next idea. Really like surprises

[Parodium]

Extraordinary effort, glad to see people contributing valuable discussion to the forum. Usually among the people indicated as high merit achievers, you'll usually find one or two that are abusing merit. However, that list looks as legit as can be, no merit abusers there. I wonder who will be the first to achieve merit in every section (including archival!)

[Jet Cash]

It's an interesting analysis, and I didn't realise that I had been merited in so many sections. I try to visit a lot of them, but the problems in finding interesting thread titles puts me off opening a lot of threads. I don't open threads with titles like "Bitcoin", "problem", or even "help me". Maybe I should give some of those posters a chance to make their point. I did make a guide to starting threads, but nobody seems to read these topics, least of all newbies.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

Yes, the mining subsections are certainly for the very savvy on the matter, and require in-depth knowledge to understand the topics, let alone be able to add to the threads without feeling scenic fear. I bet you’ll be merited there though sooner or later…

<…>
Seems like the majority of those 27 have acquired the most merits in the meta section and this is not surprising as this was the "hottest" subject for the last couple of months.

Nicely spotted. As you say, Meta is a structural subsection for those on the list, with 49,64% of the received sMerits being for posts in that subsection. Of course theymos rules on Meta, and excluding his sMerits, the amount would be 35,84% for the forum members on the short list.

I'm happy to see that just a bit more than the half of my merits (63%) are collected in meta, and big part of the rest are in the Beginners & Help (28%). So I'm on the right way in helping the community.I'm satisfied.

You certainly should be. Besides, all those that invest a lot of personal time on cleaning spam from the Forum have that additional plus towards the community, which is barely recognized and should (badges aside).

I can't wait to see your next idea. Really like surprises

Every time I finish one of these analyses, I feel that perhaps all has already been said, but someone’s question on a post often triggers a new idea that leads so something interesting.

<…>I wonder who will be the first to achieve merit in every section (including archival!)

There’s an idea for yet another user profile badge! Something like the eye of an Oracle…

<…>

True, it can be rather off-putting in some of the sections. In the mega-thread areas, I normally tend to visually perform a filter on the number of posts in the thread. Any thread over 20-30 replies I kind of skip, unless they are reputably known threads.

[slocker]

This is very good for me i probably for some other member with no merit or low merit. If we count out local board that are mainly for friendly merit giveaway i presume, ANN and altcoin section is mainly where merit is distributed.

[Helana]

This is very good for me i probably for some other member with no merit or low merit. If we count out local board that are mainly for friendly merit giveaway i presume, ANN and altcoin section is mainly where merit is distributed.

Well, in fact, is kind of surprising that the Altcoin and ANN sections are the most merited ones -if I did interpreted well the graphics. To me, those two are full of trash, in the best of cases.

To the OP, do you think that this situation is actually enlighting that there is a problem of merit trading -bigger than considered 'till now- in these boards? Or, on the contrary, that, hidden in between all the crap there are, in fact, some good posts in there?
For all that I can see so far -I've been a passive reader of the forum for about 5 months before even creating an account - I have been unable to find a single decent post in there, so when I first started to read your post, I thought that either Meta or Serious Discussion should be the most merited ones. I'm kind of surprised.

Also, the numbers obtained in the Deleted post are quite disturbing.

Anyway, thanks for this awesome work.

[jackg]

Well, in fact, is kind of surprising that the Altcoin and ANN sections are the most merited ones -if I did interpreted well the graphics. To me, those two are full of trash, in the best of cases.

To the OP, do you think that this situation is actually enlighting that there is a problem of merit trading -bigger than considered 'till now- in these boards? Or, on the contrary, that, hidden in between all the crap there are, in fact, some good posts in there?

There are some gold mines in there sometimes but you have to be very lucky to find one near the top.
Some people with advanced issues with altcoins that get merit (often clients related to the forked coins that require advanced technical knowledge of bitcoin's design).
There are a few users who completely ruin everything for everyone and one user who was giving merit to supporters of the thread (who also conveniently turned out to be either his alts or part of the team - hence why they were in support of his ico).

I thought that either Meta or Serious Discussion should be the most merited ones. I'm kind of surprised.

Serious discussion and Ivory tower I guess are pretty small based on how much you need to rank up in order to be able to post there.

[Helana]

There are some gold mines in there sometimes but you have to be very lucky to find one near the top.

Maybe this happens due to the "bumping fever"?

Some people with advanced issues with altcoins that get merit (often clients related to the forked coins that require advanced technical knowledge of bitcoin's design).
There are a few users who completely ruin everything for everyone and one user who was giving merit to supporters of the thread (who also conveniently turned out to be either his alts or part of the team - hence why they were in support of his ico).

Yep, I'm afraid that this is an issue, also there are external links offering bumping services like this one: https://www.seoclerk.com/Traffic/611685/Bump-Up-Your-Bitcointalk-Thread  (notice that they are bumping with different accounts!!! what a professional!!!)

Serious discussion and Ivory tower I guess are pretty small based on how much you need to rank up in order to be able to post there.

Yep, you are probably right. One tends to think that the one's favourites boards should be the same for everybody, but of course, it doesn't. And yes, the Serious and the Ivory are quite silent, but, still, really merited. It will be interesting to see a correlation between the number of post on a board and the merits per board in the same table, just to be able to come to some conclusions.
If it has been previously done, please point me in the right direction, I'm just a newbie.

[DdmrDdmr]

This is very good for me i probably for some other member with no merit or low merit. If we count out local board that are mainly for friendly merit giveaway i presume, ANN and altcoin section is mainly where merit is distributed.

It’s informative, and helps to monitor how things are going, but context is also required to interpret the information since not all is what it seems. For example, Ann Altcoin is the historically most merited subsection, although if you play around with the filters on the Merit Dashboard, you’ll see that it is losing its share of merit over time (in comparison to other subsections). There are probably no merit sources there, so I fell it will keel on losing its share gradually.
Nevertheless, merit distributed on the Ann section follows for the most it’s own patron on meriting, which may not concur with the post quality that often. A post above by @jackg breaks this down a bit for us.

By the way, I believe you have got a merit source on your local (Croatian) board, so if you write some good posts there you should get a decent chance. Another matter is if the merit ratio to post is adequate or not (0,113 on the Croatian Local over the last six months – see my last reply on this post to a link to the data source).
In my local board for example (Spanish 0,034 merits/post), the ratio of merit per post is rather low, although a bit better off than yours in terms of absolute merit. In my Local board, there are not very many decent posters, and if you put a bit of effort you will get merited. Nevertheless, the amount merited per post is low, so ranking-up on my local board by just posting local is a slow process. It also depends on what subsubsections you have within the Local board and how active they are posting (i.e. active local Ann threads for example will possibly bring the ratio down there and not boost it).

<…>To the OP, do you think that this situation is actually enlighting that there is a problem of merit trading -bigger than considered 'till now- in these boards? Or, on the contrary, that, hidden in between all the crap there are, in fact, some good posts in there?<…>

A bit of everything guess (somewhat like Anaxagoras' principle of "there’s a portion of everything in everything"), though opinion is based on observation and not empirical data. I guess a lot of ICO hype bares its toll too. Many of the Ann threads I’ve seen merit the OP, possibly in the hope to give more credibility to the ICO and thus improving the marketing of their investment to some extent. Also many Ops merit users within the thread, often for helping to keeping it bumped through their posts. Merit abuse/trading can easily be hidden there due to the amount of posts in the subsection, and some decent posts are to be found for sure.
In an ideal world, there should be plenty of decent post there since so many people are behind projects that relate to blockchain and its usage. In reality, the quick buck for some, and the quick million for others prostitute what could be a good section.

<…>

I appreciate your feedback to @Helana. A form veteran can always bring good insights on to motives behind the scenes.

<…> It will be interesting to see a correlation between the number of post on a board and the merits per board in the same table, just to be able to come to some conclusions.
If it has been previously done, please point me in the right direction, I'm just a newbie.

Your questions are not bad for a newbie, and attitude does wonders in general. One tends to forget that the mapping of person to forum Rank is not linear to age, and seeing Newbie as the rank of a forum member is not the equivalent to a toddler in real life.

As to your question, I created a post on the matter just a month ago: Bitcointalk – Posts per Day - evolution during past six months. Specifically, there’s an entry called "4. Merit per Post Ratio" within the post that tells us the Merit per post on each subsection over the last 6 month (on aggregate) and the last month. If your interested, read the whole post as it gives you context to some strange negative numbers you’ll find on the embedded data table (quick mystery solver: it’s due to post deletion by forum members and mods in cleaning up processes).

The results in that post are very interesting, as we can see which subsections have the highest/lowest merit to post ratio. But again, context is important when interpreting the data. For example, Meta (0,3) , Serious Discussion (0,349)  and Bitcoin Development & Technical Discussion (0,286) have the largest merit/post ratio, but the degree of effort in the post there in general terms are noticeable. Market Place Altcoins (0,001) and Altcoin Discussion (0,009) has one of the lowest ratios, which is no surprise.

[vit05]

I was going through the names, I saw names that are always on different lists about merit and reputation. Great names. So I was surprised and happy to see mine too. Thank you for creating this list. It is cool to know that I've been doing interesting topics and posts in different sections of the forum, instead of focusing on one place.

This is very good for me i probably for some other member with no merit or low merit. If we count out local board that are mainly for friendly merit giveaway i presume, ANN and altcoin section is mainly where merit is distributed.

Have you considered the possibility of being 1000 times more comfortable writing deep texts in the native language? The time that is consumed, the difficulty of expressing everything you think, the difficulty of writing with the correct grammar, the difficulty even in understanding what others are writing. Even telling a joke or giving a funny answer is MUCH more difficult.

I do not believe that merits are only distributed among friends in those sections.

Cryptocurrency will only be adopted when greater incentives are given for the universalization and acceptance in every corner of the planet. Rather than being restricted to small bubbles where only those with excellent English, enough money for just Hodl without selling and deep knowledge of programming, encryption and technology related topics. I believe that there should even be a greater incentive for local sections to grow. With more sources of merit in them.

If we take global statistics, the global population is not fully represented here. What is a shame.


Indonesia+Brazil+Pakistan+Nigeria+Bangladesh=1Billion.

This is probably because in some countries the penetration of internet access is much higher. In the USA it is 85%, in Africa it is only 10%.

But the expectation is that the world will be completely connected in the next 10 years. That is, if the Bitcoin-related communities know how to open the doors to these people, instead of always trying to close them, we would have disruptive power over the banks. This has always been the concept of Bitcoin intended by Satoshi. And opening doors does not mean talking: learn English or disappear. It means allowing the growth of these communities.

[slocker]

This is very good for me i probably for some other member with no merit or low merit. If we count out local board that are mainly for friendly merit giveaway i presume, ANN and altcoin section is mainly where merit is distributed.

It’s informative, and helps to monitor how things are going, but context is also required to interpret the information since not all is what it seems. For example, Ann Altcoin is the historically most merited subsection, although if you play around with the filters on the Merit Dashboard, you’ll see that it is losing its share of merit over time (in comparison to other subsections). There are probably no merit sources there, so I fell it will keel on losing its share gradually.
Nevertheless, merit distributed on the Ann section follows for the most it’s own patron on meriting, which may not concur with the post quality that often. A post above by @jackg breaks this down a bit for us.

By the way, I believe you have got a merit source on your local (Croatian) board, so if you write some good posts there you should get a decent chance. Another matter is if the merit ratio to post is adequate or not (0,113 on the Croatian Local over the last six months – see my last reply on this post to a link to the data source).
In my local board for example (Spanish 0,034 merits/post), the ratio of merit per post is rather low, although a bit better off than yours in terms of absolute merit. In my Local board, there are not very many decent posters, and if you put a bit of effort you will get merited. Nevertheless, the amount merited per post is low, so ranking-up on my local board by just posting local is a slow process. It also depends on what subsubsections you have within the Local board and how active they are posting (i.e. active local Ann threads for example will possibly bring the ratio down there and not boost it).

I totally agree with you this topic is very helpful in all the way. Merit is something that is earn with good work and comment not just with posting rubbish (seen  on local all over it).
My surprise was the same for this merit on local i expected somewhere else but one is good for start anyway.

[Helana]

The results in that post are very interesting, as we can see which subsections have the highest/lowest merit to post ratio. But again, context is important when interpreting the data. For example, Meta (0,3) , Serious Discussion (0,349)  and Bitcoin Development & Technical Discussion (0,286) have the largest merit/post ratio, but the degree of effort in the post there in general terms are noticeable. Market Place Altcoins (0,001) and Altcoin Discussion (0,009) has one of the lowest ratios, which is no surprise.

Thanks for that. Somehow, I feel quite a relief once I understood that, in fact, the Serious Discussion board is the most merited per number of posts then. As discussed on the other thread, the information actually is showing up that the merit system is working just fine, for the more merited boards are those in which the people put more effort or help others, or create some good informative posts.
Regarding locals, I haven' t take a look at my local yet (Spanish, I guess), so I don' t know what is going on there. I will and see, then, so I can obtain a complete vision, of course with my language limitation, of what you guys are pointing-up about local' s problems.
Anyway, thanks again for the patience and for being so kind when explaining to me the information. As said I'm quite brute when reading stats.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>This is probably because in some countries the penetration of internet access is much higher. In the USA it is 85%, in Africa it is only 10%.[/url]
But the expectation is that the world will be completely connected in the next 10 years. That is, if the Bitcoin-related communities know how to open the doors to these people, instead of always trying to close them, we would have disruptive power over the banks. This has always been the concept of Bitcoin intended by Satoshi. And opening doors does not mean talking: learn English or disappear. It means allowing the growth of these communities.

Actually, you’ve got a good point there which may be interesting to talk about as a topic on it’s own (on Serious Discussion or so). It’s not just access to internet that is required. Things like a higher awareness of crypto (not just bounties for a quick buck please), mainstream/easy usage and a rather more stable price in relation to FIAT would play their role.
Many that are in crypto from, let’s say, first world countries, can play by the "invest what you can afford to lose" rule. This non-written rule may not seem as appealing to many non-first world citizens, as crypto is too volatile and what they can afford to lose is rather measly if anything at all.

In relation to the forum, the impression I get is that it’s members are not against non-english people coming along for the ride, but rather that if their command of English is not good, then communication suffers for both parties (poster and readers), and thus it is "better" if they stick to their local board. As seen on the list in the OP, half of the top forum members that get merited across multiple subsections do so also on a local section (and are probably non-native English in origin, but have good command of it).
Signature Campaigns sometimes exclude local boards, driving people to go out of their natural language local board and write in very broken English on the general boards.
Ideally, local boards should boost over the next few years (I guess Forum management will have this in mind), and further thought has to be put to them at some point.

In terms on local merit sources, we’ve discussed this on Meta a few times recently, but to sum-up the way I see it, if a local community finds that it is well under merited, they need to shout-out with something solid in order to be heard (i.e. longish lists with un/under merited posts). They can also apply to become a merit source for the local board. Perhaps the main problem will be precisely being capable (from the Forum’s management side) of telling how un/under-merited the local board is, due to the language barrier (from management to local).
From my local forum's perspective, I don't find too many unmerited posts in my areas of interest, buy they are often undermerited (i.e.1 sMerit instead of 3 or 5), and generally merited by 1 or 2 people at most.

<…> Regarding locals, I haven' t take a look at my local yet (Spanish, I guess), so I don' t know what is going on there. <…>

We’re in luck here, for there is a stat for our local Spanish forum specifically: Análisis del sMérito en el foro en español.