So I've Become a Merit Source... Need Some Advice

[tokeweed]

theymos suggested that I'd give merits to some newbies in the forum who make good posts, but then I don't wanna waste too much time looking at threads for hours just to find one. 

Is there another merit source in here?  I wanna distribute merit by looking at his (or her) sent merits, read the posts where the merits were sent myself and see if it deserves some additional merits from me as well...  Can I do that? 

I know...  I'm lazy.  But I wanna spread the love.  Lol.

[TryNinja]

You could create a review thread. People (maybe limited to Newbies/Jr. Members) would post links to their supposedly HQ posts and you could merit them if you think they are good enough.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

It's good that you have a positive attitude and want to spread love among the newbies in the form of merit.

Every merit source has his or her own standards as to what constitutes a good post.  What you're going to find (if it's not obvious already) is that Newbies and Jr. Members tend to post only for their bounty campaigns, and those posts are invariably lazy, poorly-written, and don't say anything interesting.  My advice would be to NEVER merit posts like that.

If a newbie post is clear in what they're trying to say, and it doesn't look like it was written in leet-speak, feel free to merit it.  I tend to be very picky, but that's just me.

Be judicious when meriting posts.  You don't want to give them out to someone who's going to sell their sMerits or merit their alt accounts.  Good luck, and congrats on being selected as a merit source.

[Vod]

I know...  I'm lazy.  But I wanna spread the love.  Lol.

It's not meant to be a responsibility, or a chore.

Just surf as normal, and if you like something, leave a merit or two.

[RocketSingh]

I have lots of sMerit. But, how do I know if I am a merit source or not?

[tokeweed]

I know...  I'm lazy.  But I wanna spread the love.  Lol.

It's not meant to be a responsibility, or a chore.

Just surf as normal, and if you like something, leave a merit or two.

That's the thing.  I'm doing that and I haven't found one newbie that deserved a merit.  So I'm thinking a little more effort (but the absolute minimum lololol) is needed.  Lol.

[TryNinja]

I have lots of sMerit. But, how do I know if I am a merit source or not?

You probably aren't. AFAIK theymos sent a PM to every user who was choosen to become a merit source.

But you can check in the merit page: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit

You should see something like this if you are a merit source:

For me (and other sources), it is. My merit page reads
"You are a merit source. The next XXX merit you spend will come from your source rather than your sMerit balance. Merit spent from your source will come back in 30 days. Unused source merit is wasted. It is not allowed for merit sources to sell their merit."

[Thanasis]

I have lots of sMerit. But, how do I know if I am a merit source or not?

If your sMerits keep increasing every 30 days then you are a merit source,if that was same as when the airdropped merit given at the time of merit system implemented you are not but it doesn't meant that you dn't have to merit anyone,just merit the posts if you think the posts are worthy to merit because airdropped merits may decay at any time.

Edit:Oops Ninja was little bit faster.

[gellany32]

Do you have any standards on giving merit? Well if you do you do not need to go anywhere else instead you can let them go inside in one thread and check their previous posts to be merited.
Like for example:

BCT Name: Gellany32
BCT Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2298341
Number of post: 2
Number of Activity: 2

The raw data is needed before taking a look to one's BCT profile and those above mentions could be a tool for your assessment whether to check the posts or not. Like there are newbie's like me gets demoted. I manage to delete my post since I figured out that it is better to start again than buying copper membership. I do love to accept the challenge which theymos had implemented that if i could not rank up then probably this forum is not for me.

Aside from that things are getting better in this forum. It is really annoying before seeing spam post which contents are obviously just being made because they are getting paid on it. Unfortunately, I did anticipate all those wrong doings for spamming posts on the section. However, I was relieve now seeing the current situation for the forum having a huge improvement on preventing spam posts.

Basically I consider the new update as an assessment tool for one to see the results. And clearly the result is good and it shows positive feedback from the newbies to legendary rank regarding on the implementation of jr. member rank requirement. I may not be technically good but for sure I could not be left behind with the other members here in the forum.

[vlad230]

I think the best way to award merit is to look through a lot of posts each day. So, this may require more hours per day (if you're not spending a lot of time here already).

If you're a regular here, then you'll know where people are posting good quality posts and follow them.

Another suggestion, if you're looking to find more people to merit and kind of 'ease the task' a bit, would be to create your own review thread.
For example, QuestionAuthority has one here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2827596.msg28975211#msg28975211

If you also like to lurk Meta there are a lot of posts that are "merituos". You can even find them in forums like Bitcoin & Altcoin Discussion but you need to take the spam shovel there

[...]
Every merit source has his or her own standards as to what constitutes a good post.  What you're going to find (if it's not obvious already) is that Newbies and Jr. Members tend to post only for their bounty campaigns, and those posts are invariably lazy, poorly-written, and don't say anything interesting.  My advice would be to NEVER merit posts like that.
[...]

I agree with The Pharmacist here. I would even go a bit further and check the post history and merit only if the post history looks good don't get tricked by one good post
Otherwise, the recent limitations theymos put in (1 merit to be Jr Member) are useless.

P.S. OP, you have unlocked the gates of hell to your PM box. Good luck  

[PurpleTulle]

How about we just send you links to some of our posts we think are merit-worthy?   

[detector]

Since you're merit source , you need spare your time to forum. 
Remember when comes the great power ....

But I have question, what will happen to merit source if he/she never giving any of his/her merit because let say OP's case , lack of time although OP's posting is very insightful ?

[r1s2g3]

theymos suggested that I'd give merits to some newbies in the forum who make good posts, but then I don't wanna waste too much time looking at threads for hours just to find one. 

You can create a Merit review service putting your terms and conditions to qualify. It might will save your time as Newbies directly post on the thread (about their post that need to be reviewed.) or you can review last 20-30 post of that newbie.

I know...  I'm lazy.  But I wanna spread the love.  Lol.

Lazy and want to spread love, might you leave newbies more confused.

[vlad230]

But I have question, what will happen to merit source if he/she never giving any of his/her merit because let say OP's case , lack of time although OP's posting is very insightful ?

As far as I know, you get a certain amount of sMerit when you're a source. When you "spend" it it will be replenished the same date next month.

In theory, if you don't spend your assigned merit you won't get it back the next month so, it's almost how budgets are made - spend or loose

At least that's how I understood it, others feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Just a tip here, I'm not a merit source but I've given more than 200 merits. When you like a post, check that it's not a case of plagiarism. I know it takes a bit more time but it's important to keep your reputation as there is no demerit option yet.

[eddie13]

theymos suggested that I'd give merits to some newbies in the forum who make good posts

He specifically mentioned trying to find newbies to you? That is interesting..

I have also been trying to find good newbies to merit and it has not been easy.. I don't have/get all that many smerits and even with the few I have I have not been able to completely dump them on deserving newbies, so I have a few in stock. The ones that especially deserve it are hard to find, probably because they have already got merit since they are good posters. Maybe 1 in 50, if not less, newbie accounts deserve a merit to become a junior and haven't gotten one yet, after looking at their post histories..

Maybe my standards are a bit too stiff (or not?) but I have only been able to bring myself to merit 7-8 newbies or so since the mass derank happening..
You could look at my sent merit history, but I don't know if they deserve more merit than the one I gave them. By definition if they have received a merit then they are no longer newbies so their is that hangup too.. You aren't going to find newbies in sent merit histories of anyone because they cannot exist..

Even if I find a newbie account that makes good posts and knows what they are talking about, it makes me wonder what happened to their old account..
they are probably red tagged or some shit and starting over from a new account..

I like the ones that I can tell are real newbies from their first posts, and ask good questions they actually want the answers to..

Other than newbies, I think I prefer to give my few smerits to lower ranked accounts that actually need it, where they will mean the most to the person..

I don't know if you can find an easy way to give merits to deserving merit virgin newbs, but just giving merits away to whatever posts you like and want to see more of is probably pretty easy, much easier than trying to find rare deserving newbs..

[slocker]

If you have time little time create topic that you will visit ones a week. Users can make one post something like joining into some counties or campaigns.

Example form:
Please review my post: [link to specific post]
Rank: [specify rank] in this case i read here that someone suggested that can be limited to newbie and jr but maybe members can do this also

This maybe could benefit that maybe besides you someone else can spare also a merit or two if post is good. Off course you can limit per member that you wont give more then five times.

Consider this as suggestion, maybe it will help.

[vphasitha01]

I know...  I'm lazy.  But I wanna spread the love.  Lol.

Bill gates once said that he really likes to recruit the lazy peoples to his company because he believes they will somehow find a way to do the work with minimum effort but with good productivity. Maybe theymos likes the way bill gates seeing the laziness.

How about we just send you links to some of our posts we think are merit-worthy?    

I don't think that's a good idea. We are normally tends to think that our every post is merit worthy. That's the human nature. So I would like to suggest vise versa of what you have suggested. If we can find the post of others which deserved to be Merited, just share it here and then OP can check whether that perticular post deserved to be Merited.

[vit05]

Go to the patrol page. Scroll the page as fast as you can until you find a post that has more than 5 lines. Open the profile of who posted, see if the last 5 posts were larger than 3 lines with a valid and original content. Copy and paste in google to check if it is not a copy and past.

If all is correct and it seems that this newbie will help the forum, give him 10 merits.

[Jet Cash]

It's quite a difficult task, and the awarding is very subjective. I try to encourage new members to start good discussion threads, and I've set up a site to help members with English as a second language. If you have some fluency in a language other than English, I would welcome some help.