[MERIT][NSFN] We're destroying more merits than we're sending. Like, way more.

[LoyceV]

Would be interesting to find out how much sMerit they've sent before getting banned if possible...

If you (or suchmoon) can get me a list of banned users (just the userIDs is enough, not the usernames), I'll tell you how many sMerit they've sent.

[1713536313]

1713536313

[stompix]

Unfortunately, I'm not the AI    capable of doing something like that so we will have to wait for suchmoon..or Vod as I remembered we had a somewhat related discussion about this elusive list of banned users.

How about this: Vod was planning to create one list of banned users. I'll create a list of banned merited users after Vod publishes this list.

[LoyceV]

~we will have to wait for suchmoon..

Suchmoon got me data from approximately the past 6 weeks. I won't publish his list, but from 9539 banned accounts, I get the following results using last Fridays' merit data:

• 899 now banned users have sent a total of 7109 Merit to 2686 posts in 2892 transactions.
• 1054 now banned users have received a total of 8620 Merit for 2606 posts in 3366 transactions.

Disclaimer: this was a quick count, for which I didn't do as many checks as I would normally do.

[suchmoon]

I have updated the OP with another month's worth of data. Two months total now. The trend is roughly the same, except we're sending fewer merits.

[tranthidung]

I have updated the OP with another month's worth of data. Two months total now. The trend is roughly the same, except we're sending fewer merits.

Yeap, daily distributed merits decreased over time, and have been at  nearly the median since January.
Medians mean true means, somewhere around true means, and at bottoms, of course.
I made a time series plot on daily merits, which present the general decreasing trend.
Here you go:
Time series analysis on distributed merits in the forum (daily, weekly, monthly)

650 merits in total per day is current median, and I believe that it will not change significantly over time.
If Theymos will not implement something big in the future, 650 merits distributed over users per day will be a long-lasting figure.

[Coin-1]

• According to Coin-1's newbie rank-up thread, 4289 newbies received their first merit and became Jr. Members between September 17 - November 9. This includes the massive boost after the 1 merit requirement for Jr. Member rank was introduced. ~500 Jr. Members have been banned during that time period.

Thank you for mentioning my thread. I will keep it updated.

My analysis also uses the list of permanently banned users. To be honest, I look at the BPIP service made by Vod and then I manually add such users to the corresponding list. Undoubtedly, I need to make a modlog parser in the future.

[mikeywith]

NSFN stands for "not safe for newbies". If you're a newbie looking to earn your first merit this topic may elevate your blood pressure.

I think I have passed the newbie level by a few steps, but these numbers still elevate my blood pressure .

[Oxstone]

I don't understand the trouble here... Probably cause I'm new though 

The only restrictions I see as being a newbie are about span time between posts or PM or whatever. That's a bit annoying but it's not DRAMATIC. It's not really important if it takes 3 years for me to go full member. Though it would hurt my pride a bit I guess...

So if the problem is with signature campaigns... Just limit signature campaigns to full member or senior members or whatever is needed.

I don't see what harm it could do. Less spam, less trouble and higher rates for the campaigns cause scarcity = higher prices.

Everyone wins.
Except for the abusers of course.

[arnux]

I don't understand the trouble here... Probably cause I'm new though 

The only restrictions I see as being a newbie are about span time between posts or PM or whatever. That's a bit annoying but it's not DRAMATIC. It's not really important if it takes 3 years for me to go full member. Though it would hurt my pride a bit I guess...

So if the problem is with signature campaigns... Just limit signature campaigns to full member or senior members or whatever is needed.

I don't see what harm it could do. Less spam, less trouble and higher rates for the campaigns cause scarcity = higher prices.

Everyone wins.
Except for the abusers of course.

Did you not read the title? NSFN!

The thing is with signature campaigns is they are ran by the campaign managers and the campaign managers are the ones that decide on the rules of the campaign. Probably with approved by the people hiring them. The people wanting to advertise their project will not want to restrict their campaign too much because they want to advertise as much as possible. Lower ranked accounts generally earn less in signature campaigns which means they are spending less for the same amount of views. Although higher ranked accounts are much more likely to gain a click/sale due to people trusting higher ranked members judgement.

The way signature campaigns are going the payment for each rank will continue to go in a downward fashion due to the amount of people doing it and even higher ranked members not caring what they are advertising. You could probably do a social experiment and ask people to advertise a complete scam and I bet several high ranked members would gladly endorse it for some coin. The whole culture with signature campaigns is worrying to say the least. Look at the bounty forum and you will see hundreds of users willing to promote and advertise scams. Almost all of them are complete scams and doomed for failure but people are still willing to try and make a profit and do what ever they can for that. Signature campaigns will be worthless in a few years and hopefully then we can reclaim the forum back.

[suchmoon]

I don't understand the trouble here...

No trouble really. Just quite amusing seeing many users complain how hard it is to get merits and at the same time so many merits are basically thrown away.

The way signature campaigns are going the payment for each rank will continue to go in a downward fashion due to the amount of people doing it and even higher ranked members not caring what they are advertising.

I think for the higher ranks the payments might go up, depending on the market conditions of course. There is a very clear trend of high-rank accounts being destroyed far quicker than new ones being promoted.

[arnux]

I think for the higher ranks the payments might go up, depending on the market conditions of course. There is a very clear trend of high-rank accounts being destroyed far quicker than new ones being promoted.

Maybe but looking at some of the campaigns legendaries are willing to settle for sr member positions and only 20 dollars a week. I don't mind the signature campaigns gone to be honest. I think account selling will be completely eradicated if that were to happen. There are several abusers in campaigns and several legendaries sending out 50 merits for shit posts. Its a complete mess right now.

[suchmoon]

Bump... updated with another month's worth of data, three months total now. Added earned merits and average merits per rank.

The trend remains roughly the same.

Edit: I just realized how horrible the earned merit number is. In 3 months we sent out 50-55k merits, which includes everything - airdrop, source merits, and half-life merits. Shitposters destroyed 1/4 of that amount.

[suchmoon]

Bump... updated with 4 months worth of data.

What stands out this month:

[...] 76% of newly created accounts in 2018(*) do not post. Taking that on to the 21K new accounts created last month, and assuming that they maintain the same behavioural trend, that would leave around 4.200 of those accounts that do post at some point or other.

If ~4200 new active accounts have been created in a month and 5000+ accounts have been banned then perhaps there is hope to turn the tide of shitposting.

[JayJuanGee]

Bump... updated with 4 months worth of data.

What stands out this month:

[...] 76% of newly created accounts in 2018(*) do not post. Taking that on to the 21K new accounts created last month, and assuming that they maintain the same behavioural trend, that would leave around 4.200 of those accounts that do post at some point or other.

If ~4200 new active accounts have been created in a month and 5000+ accounts have been banned then perhaps there is hope to turn the tide of shitposting.

Nevertheless, guaranteed full employment for years to come for anyone seeking engagement in such a shit posting battle.  hahhahahahaha   

[stompix]

7 users have ranked up to Legendary since the introduction of the merit system. 35 Legendaries have been banned in just four months.

Assuming most of them were banned for plagiarism I wonder just how stupid they can be, there is no way they are going to get anywhere near that rank in the next decade. But probably a few of them didn't even bother to read about the merit system.

Still, this one is funny:

35 Legendary     1005 average merits

An average of 5 merits earned...unless there is a ranked up user in those which I highly doubt.

160 Hero Member    519 average merits

So it seems banned hero members were earning more merit than Legendaries.  

[suchmoon]

Updated with new data.

Seems like reporters were slacking this month. Perhaps too engaged in the DT drama

[suchmoon]

Updated through March. This will be the last update for a while. I might revisit it a few months later.

[1miau]

Hi!

Just quoting my post from another thread:

@LoyceV @suchmoon
Is it possible to scrape the data how much Merit has been destroyed by the recent bans?

Would be interesting to see the spike. 

[suchmoon]

Would be interesting to see the spike. 

Updated through mid-June.