Need for advice regarding the legality of a contest to "win" Merits + Proposal

Hi there,

this post has 2 motivations:

1 - present an approach to ensure that no forum rules are violated
2 - Explain how this approach may be likely to provide an early solution to one of the main disadvantages of Merits for beginners.

Ref: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5023456.0 (in French)

The context

On the French forum, the community is large and active, many new members have registered since early 2018, but the Merits stock has been quickly depleted.

On May 20 and June 26, we are 2 members with some Merits to distribute who organized a small challenge to win Merits to those who, through their actions in favor of the community, were the most deserving.
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4051989.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4545889.0

This approach allowed 11 members to recover 1 or 2 Merits (and motivation!). This has given a boost to the French part.

Recently, we had the good surprise on the French forum to see the appointment of a Moderator who is also Merit Source.
This is a very good progress but it is still a little insufficient to really energize our section of the forum.

For this reason, one of our members applied to become Merit Source as well (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4899677.0).

The problem is that the Merits system is so locked that even members who have obtained 1 or 2 Merits as a result of these small challenges have great difficulty raising their counters...

I know that everyone is aware of the problem and its explanations, but I think the situation is quite basic:
many "beginners" are more or less always evolving in the same sections of the Forum and it is difficult for them to gain enough self-confidence to publish in more specialized parts of the Forum.
However, this does not mean that they are less " meritorious ".
A Junior Member who helps a newbie in the Beginner Section about a complicated Airdrop deserves as much respect as a Legendary who gives his opinion on a Technical Analysis (and probably more in fact!)

2 - A contest to win a "Member" rank

In this context, I proposed a new contest during the month of September with a higher goal: to obtain for the winner the number of Merits sufficient to reach the rank of "Member" (+ 4 other winners of 1 or 2 Merits)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5023456.0

I think this is a good incentive, considering that it is required of participating members:

- This competition is intended to reward your ability to "serve the forum/community" rather than simply "use it".

- Post on this thread, for your benefit, or for someone you think is meritorious, 1 or 2 posts showing a willingness to participate in the community. This may be a general post, as well as assistance to a particular member.
(Some ideas: writing a guide to set up a rig, understand a techno, an upcoming innovation..., explain how to participate in a promising but complex Airdrop, recover tokens, secure a wallet, edit images..., post a relevant message for the benefit of the community, feed a thread on a difficult subject, etc...)

- Messages can be old, but I also accept posts that will be written between now and the game period end date.

- During the contest period, you are entitled (and it is even advisable!) to post new contributions as part of the contest.

And this is an important question: I specify that the contest is open to everyone, including newbies and that the first prize will be the number of Merits needed for the member to reach 10.

This implies (even if the probability is low) that a highly motivated newbie could be awarded 10 Merits at once, offered by me.

You see where I'm coming from, I want to be sure that this approach is not a case of "Merit Abuse" (note that it is expected that the results will be submitted to the French moderator before the Merits are delivered).

2 - A beginning of a solution to a recurring problem?

Some parts of the Forum are full of complaints about the Merit system, particularly about the "invisible barrier" making it very difficult to increase its rank.

Of course, the classic answer is "post useful things", "participate in community life" but in reality this is probably not enough.

Many Junior Members have activity levels of 200, 300 or more...
1 year ago, they would have been Full Members or more

This is clearly not fair (although it was probably the least bad solution)

In short, it is interesting to search some solutions.

The organisation of a small competition of this type can provide an initial solution.

- it animates the community in a fun way
- This encourages members to write quality contributions and to help each other
- This promotes interaction between members
- The reward is concrete, accessible and with real value in the context of the Forum

My proposal is therefore as follows: why not organize regularly (every 2 months for example), this type of small challenge, especially in section frequented by beginners ?
The conditions and results can be controlled by the moderators of the sections concerned.
Merits could come from Source Merits or Voluntary Members, depending on the circumstances.

It's a simple idea but I would be interested by your opinion: feasible or utopian idea unachievable?

Thank you for reading me