Analysis – Sender’s Merit Network – How does it evolve?

[DdmrDdmr]

1. Introduction

Lately I had the feeling that I was only awarding merit to people I had already in my merited Merit Network, and had the idea that it seemed more and more difficult to find different people to merit, to those that I already has over the past. Nothing wrong with that, but I thought that there may be a saturation curve, whereby we expand our merit network rapidly, and gradually tend to reduce it’s expansion drastically as time goes by. Mind and memory do play tricks on perception sometimes though, so I wanted to see if this was true, and to what extent.

The Sender’s Merit Network is the forum members that we have sent merit to at some point, and therefore we have interacted with them from a sMerit sender’s point of view. The receivers in our network are likely to be merited by other people too. I thought it would also be interesting to see how many sMerit receivers we had merited for the first time (we gave them their first merit).


2. My personal Case

This is what data shows in my personal case:


Note: I’ve rounded up the percentages for better representation.

My personal Merit Network consists of 204 forum members that I have merited at some point. Out of those 204, 20 received their first merit from me (9,80% of my Merit Network).
I merited 3 distinct people in March 2018, added 35 more to my network in April 2018 who I had never merited before, another 39 in May 2018, and so on(*).
Contrary to my initial though, and leaving October 2018 out for being a partial month yet, I merited more people than I had never merited before during September 2018, adding 41 people to my Merit Network.

(*) Interpretation: The numbers shown represent the amount of people merited on a given month, but not before. So for example, the 41 shown for September 2018 represents that I merited during that month 41 forum members I had never merited before. Aside from that, I have also merited many more people during September 2018, but they were not new to my Merit Network since I had merited them on previous months.

A complete list with the underlying data for each forum member can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hjfK03KhWIEvCItK_eqaR230MwDIlDk-zZyDQS1pY8k/edit?usp=sharing. The list is ordered by default by Merited Network size.
Each number in columns E to N is the number on people that each forum member added to his Merit Network. Column O (total) is the total size of the Merit Network. nFirstTime represents how many of those in your network have received their first sMerit from a given forum member.


3. Global Aggregates


If we add up all the Merit Networks, we get a view of how the expansion of the Merit Network is going on the whole. There was a global expansion at the beginning doe to the airdropped sMerit, and gradually the rate of monthly overall expansion seems to settle in the 6-7% area, with the spike in September 2018 after the adjustments made to the Jr. Member rank level.


4. Top 30 Network Size data

The data for the top 30 forum members with the largestMerit Netwotk Size is as follows:

Code:

rank                     user_id   name                                    Jan18     Feb18     Mar18     Apr18     May18     Jun18     Jul18     Aug18     Sep18     Oct18     total     nFirstTime
Legendary                234771    suchmoon                                35        62        146       150       94        62        62        47        59        29        746       174       
Sr. Member               1192397   paxmao                                  12        173       100       64        63        65        45        27        66        13        628       267       
Donator                  18321     OgNasty                                 95        80        84        50        18        28        18        38        83        43        537       265       
Legendary                459836    LoyceV                                  41        89        25        27        31        48        42        53        54        17        427       95        
Staff                    153634    dbshck                                  44        54        52        25        25        22        12        10        140       37        421       102       
Legendary                30747     Vod                                     58        100       55        45        24        35        32        31        23        5         408       104       
Legendary                33156     vapourminer                             68        51        42        35        24        33        39        30        52        29        403       120       
Legendary                252510    JayJuanGee                              88        95        46        29        31        19        18        20        33        11        390       85        
Full Member              1202061   chimk                                   1         6         0         0         1         5         120       91        112       23        359       121       
Donator                  24140     qwk                                     3         33        83        5         8         70        50        12        75        6         345       94        
Legendary                507936    DarkStar_                               51        46        34        36        32        34        39        25        30        12        339       52        
Hero Member              98986     TMAN                                    111       21        47        55        45        15        4         8         15        15        336       70        
Staff                    140584    EFS                                     82        84        40        43        22        7         13        8         24        7         330       145       
Legendary                452769    bones261                                18        18        48        43        58        19        12        17        69        26        328       74        
Legendary                698159    Jet Cash                                26        87        52        33        28        34        24        14        19        3         320       90        
Legendary                487418    The Pharmacist                          27        94        13        26        13        9         11        27        23        8         251       45        
Staff                    382413    xandry                                  19        37        38        32        24        27        19        14        20        9         239       70        
Staff                    84521     Welsh                                   57        3         7         5         9         73        18        17        18        4         211       13        
Global Moderator         51173     mprep                                   47        68        22        27        9         3         9         7         16        0         208       20        
Sr. Member               1582324   DdmrDdmr                                0         0         3         35        39        31        14        33        41        8         204       20        
Legendary                379487    LFC_Bitcoin                             25        32        34        22        17        13        11        16        25        7         202       12        
Legendary                72795     QuestionAuthority                       37        64        11        21        10        31        5         1         6         12        198       48        
Legendary                176777    mindrust                                0         22        43        32        31        25        14        21        4         0         192       44        
Legendary                55384     Foxpup                                  23        32        24        10        38        15        18        15        13        2         190       34        
Legendary                85033     d5000                                   16        57        19        27        18        13        9         15        9         6         189       42        
Hero Member              897509    xtraelv                                 0         0         1         0         10        84        38        13        23        6         175       41        
Legendary                158960    teramit                                 1         2         23        4         7         46        8         10        61        11        173       47        
Staff                    23092     malevolent                              5         11        73        15        24        4         9         8         7         2         158       35        
Sr. Member               1291828   iasenko                                 7         22        9         9         11        12        14        31        20        14        149       12        
Staff                    290195    achow101                                61        34        10        5         9         10        5         3         7         2         146       43        

The above and the data for every user is available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hjfK03KhWIEvCItK_eqaR230MwDIlDk-zZyDQS1pY8k/edit?usp=sharing


5. Top 50 First Merit Awarders

These are the top 50 forum members that have initiated most people on the merit path by awarding them their first merit. nFirstTime represents the number of forum members that they hve given their first merit ever to (on any rank). The percentage is in relation to the total people that are in their personal Merit Network.

Code:

rank                     user_id   name                                    total     nFirstTime %	url
Sr. Member               1192397   paxmao                                  628       267       42,52%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1192397
Donator                  18321     OgNasty                                 537       265       49,35%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=18321
Legendary                234771    suchmoon                                746       174       23,32%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=234771
Staff                    140584    EFS                                     330       145       43,94%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=140584
Full Member              1202061   chimk                                   359       121       33,70%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1202061
Legendary                33156     vapourminer                             403       120       29,78%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=33156
Legendary                369216    MalReynolds                             113       109       96,46%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=369216
Legendary                30747     Vod                                     408       104       25,49%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=30747
Staff                    153634    dbshck                                  421       102       24,23%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=153634
Legendary                459836    LoyceV                                  427       95        22,25%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=459836
Donator                  24140     qwk                                     345       94        27,25%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=24140
Legendary                698159    Jet Cash                                320       90        28,13%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=698159
Legendary                252510    JayJuanGee                              390       85        21,79%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=252510
Legendary                485194    foserfox                                104       78        75,00%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=485194
Legendary                452769    bones261                                328       74        22,56%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=452769
Hero Member              98986     TMAN                                    336       70        20,83%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=98986
Staff                    382413    xandry                                  239       70        29,29%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=382413
Sr. Member               965234    dumbtool45                              65        62        95,38%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=965234
Legendary                131361    Timelord2067                            136       61        44,85%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=131361
Staff                    988740    frodocooper                             143       58        40,56%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=988740
Legendary                399366    Vadi2323                                140       56        40,00%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=399366
Legendary                507936    DarkStar_                               339       52        15,34%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=507936
Legendary                124876    STT                                     125       49        39,20%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=124876
Legendary                17501     iCEBREAKER                              99        49        49,49%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=17501
Legendary                72795     QuestionAuthority                       198       48        24,24%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=72795
Staff                    54791     Dabs                                    98        48        48,98%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=54791
Hero Member              176605    nick777                                 49        48        97,96%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=176605
Legendary                158960    teramit                                 173       47        27,17%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=158960
Legendary                487418    The Pharmacist                          251       45        17,93%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=487418
Legendary                494856    Mrpumperitis                            57        45        78,95%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=494856
Hero Member              218947    zanzibar                                48        45        93,75%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=218947
Legendary                176777    mindrust                                192       44        22,92%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=176777
Legendary                479624    Last of the V8s                         145       44        30,34%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=479624
Staff                    290195    achow101                                146       43        29,45%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=290195
Legendary                85033     d5000                                   189       42        22,22%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=85033
Legendary                255170    Slark                                   46        42        91,30%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=255170
Hero Member              897509    xtraelv                                 175       41        23,43%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=897509
Legendary                520313    Lutpin                                  122       41        33,61%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=520313
Legendary                6706      RodeoX                                  118       38        32,20%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=6706
Hero Member              846936    sabotag3x                               104       38        36,54%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=846936
Legendary                125583    tokeweed                                85        37        43,53%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=125583
Legendary                169515    EcuaMobi                                90        36        40,00%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=169515
Sr. Member               1424178   mole0815                                86        36        41,86%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1424178
Staff                    23092     malevolent                              158       35        22,15%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=23092
Hero Member              1000199   krogothmanhattan                        123       35        28,46%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1000199
Legendary                55384     Foxpup                                  190       34        17,89%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=55384
Staff                    1053119   Halab                                   87        34        39,08%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1053119
Legendary                64507     philipma1957                            72        34        47,22%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=64507
Legendary                485285    WhiteManWhite                           110       33        30,00%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=485285
Legendary                115423    Micio                                   75        33        44,00%    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=115423

[LoyceV]

Another great analysis! I didn't keep track of the increase in unique users I've Merited, and this confirms my efforts to get rid of more sMerit reach more users.

Lately I had the feeling that I was only awarding merit to people I had already in my merited Merit Network

I could say I send the majority of my sMerit to usernames I recognize. But it's more accurate to say I recognize the usernames that consistently produce good quality posts.

Can you fuck off with all these decent posts bud, you are making the rest of us look bad.

I love how you make a compliment

[TMAN]

Can you fuck off with all these decent posts bud, you are making the rest of us look bad. Seriously man this is interesting reading, it should kick me up the arse to merit more newbies.

[DdmrDdmr]

<..>

Thanks @LoyceV. As you indicate, there are really multiple dimensions to one’s personal Senders Merit Network: The amount on people we merit, how many of them were new overall (first time merited), the amount of merit we give them, etc. All of them are important in the grand scheme of things, and within the Merit Network, there are bound to be those you encounter more often and likely merit more due to the content of their posts.

Can you fuck off with all these decent posts bud, you are making the rest of us look bad.

I love how you make a compliment

Yeah, Tman’s compliments often go in one direction, so seeing the same terms and assuming a different direction is a personal risk, and makes on re-read it multiple time to see if one has the right end of the stick.

Can you fuck off with all these decent posts bud, you are making the rest of us look bad. Seriously man this is interesting reading, it should kick me up the arse to merit more newbies.

I don´t particularly shine on one of those lists. In fact, my ratio of awarding merit to first time receivers is crap (9,8% of my Sender’s Merit Network), which spares me from cropping up on the Top 50 Merit First Merit Awarders list and shove me over to the google spreadsheet. My homework too then ..

[virendarnagpal]

Lately I had the feeling that I was only awarding merit to people I had already in my merited Merit Network, and had the idea that it seemed more and more difficult to find different people to merit, to those that I already has over the past. Nothing wrong with that, but I thought that there may be a saturation curve, whereby we expand our merit network rapidly, and gradually tend to reduce it’s expansion drastically as time goes by. Mind and memory do play tricks on perception sometimes though, so I wanted to see if this was true, and to what extent.

The Sender’s Merit Network is the forum members that we have sent merit to at some point, and therefore we have interacted with them from a sMerit sender’s point of view. The receivers in our network are likely to be merited by other people too. I thought it would also be interesting to see how many sMerit receivers we had merited for the first time (we gave them their first merit).

This idea of making such a decent work came to your mind, may be some other members already doing the work in this way. 
There may be many members, not thinking on these lines.  But after reading your research;  may be they also now would like to add more and more new bottom level members to their merit list.  If it happens then it will expand the merit receiver's list. 
The job done by you is just amazing. 

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

Thanks. Just one comment on something I may not have explained well enough: The merit Network in this analysis is rankles from the point of view of who one adds to the network. That is, in this analysis I am not concerned with who one adds to their network, not the receiver’s rank, but rather more focused on what month we add new members to our network, and how many of them. My main concern is seeing more people into the meriting/merited game, regardless of their rank (I reserve the right to breakdown the analysis by rank in v 2.0 at some point though … We can see that one coming right?).
Consequently, the nFirstTime column of data follows that spirit, and indicates how many people we merit for the first time, be them newbies, Legendaries or whatnot.

In summary, I think it is important to try to expand the Network in first instance if possible, and rank is a secondary variable in terms of importance in my opinion. I’m rather sure that many of us are willing (and sometimes slightly eager) to be able to merit lower ranks without any issue, providing the posts are decent, and the history shows a certain constancy at doing so – at least that is my basic criteria.

[technosaviour]

wow interesting read about Merits.

Your posts are generally quite good. I thinks that's the reason even which less activity your merits are skyrocketing. 
We need to earn merits (sometimes we get lucky) but quality post like this should be an example.
 

[JetAid]

It looks as if I (Jet Cash)  have been a bit lax recently in awarding merits to first timers.

I'll spend a few minutes now looking for some.

[Coyster]

Ddmr Ddmr makes earning merits on the forum look quite easy IMO,hardly bashes newbies, never posts off topic, always ready to help out and assist noobs in one way or the other,but hardly gives out merits though

Coming up with a post such as this takes time and strength,i really admire what you come up with mate..
Keep it up

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>Ddmr Ddmr <…> hardly gives out merits though <…>

Not so really … These are my merit awarding stats as of last Friday:
-   Sent 545 sMerits to 231 different people over 511 TXs.
-   Sent Merit: November (7 so far, as of last Friday), October (97) , September (112), August (82), July (52), June (69), May (74), April (49), March (3).

What the numbers on the chart labelled "DdmrDdmr’s personal Network Size – Expansion" show, is how my Sender’s Network is growing over the months. At the time I created the chart, I had sent sMerit to 204 different people (now it is 231 as stated above): that is not the quantity of sMerit, but the number of new people I sent sMerit to each month.
For example, in August I sent sMerit to 33 people I had never merited before, and a bunch of others that I had merited before, totalling 82 sent sMerits. In September I merited 41 people I had never merited before (and some I had merited before), totalling 112 sent Smerits.

I normally do not send much per TX, since I do not really have that much stashed up. 1 sMerit is my usual, 2 rare, 3 and exception, and the most I’ve awarded in a single TX is 4 sMerits to @Piggy just this week.