As I have reported before in
this thread, I've continued to report spam posts on a daily basis. It sucks. You feel like cleaning other people's houses, but without being paid for it. It also feels like you're losing the battle cuz every time you clean out a thread, there's new spam the day after. My respect for the mods who do this constantly has been grown even huger since.
Keeping in mind how many - if not all - spammers only do this only for the signature bounty campaigns, I (modestly) think I might have found a way of using the Merit system to actually get rid of new spammers as well as to clean the threads from the spam that's already there, and I believe it might even be quite simple to implement.
This idea no doubt needs to be refined, and I am quite curious to hear the other members' opinion about this.
1. REWARD PEOPLE FOR REPORTING SPAMFor every 500 reported posts, which are evaluated and confirmed as "Good" spam by the mods, users get 1 Merit.
To avoid inaccurate reports (meaning posts that are not actual spam and are qualified as "Bad" non-spam posts),
the user only receives this if his accuracy is at least at 99%. If he goes lower than 99%, he loses his number of reported posts and firstly has to continue reporting to get back to 99% from which the counting to 500 restarts from zero.
At the end of this post, I explain why I believe the system should be so severe.
2. PUNISH PEOPLE WHO SPAMYou know those 1 Merit Junior Members? You know those long-membership Full and Senior Members who post nothing but shit? Does "You sir project very unique I follow" ring a bell?
I say:
hit them where it hurts most.
Every time 20 posts from a member have been rightfully reported (meaning 20 posts qualified as "Good" spam by the mods), those members lose 1 Merit.
3. ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM- It would be appreciated by those good-willed
Newbies and Juniors who are actually trying to do something useful for the forum, even without necessarily posting rocket science or Nobel Prize in Literature quality, to get a little bit higher in rank. You just can't expect people who are new to crypto, to post HQ topics and replies but at least they can earn some Merits while they are growing and learning. The reward would be nice but not disproportional, because if they wish to grow in rank, they will actually need to report 500 posts which is A LOT. So they will be helping to keep the forums tidy whilst being discouraged to post spam for which they risk to lose Merit again.
- It would be appreciated by those good-willed higher ranked members who are always wondering if it wouldn't be better to get a life, instead of spending hours reporting spam on their favorite forum. At least
you'd feel like you're not doing this for nothing. Yes, that includes myself, too
. (don't worry, I will continue to actively report even without Merit
)
I believe nonetheless that it would especially help newer members, as the reward decreases "relatively" while your rank grows.
Let me use an example to make myself clear:
I have now over 1000 reported posts with 100% accuracy. To me, this would mean 2 Merits, which is nice but modest for a Full Member and even more modest for higher ranks. To a Newbie or Junior Member, however, this is huge, and their participation and involvement in the forums would increase.- It would be appreciated by those good-willed higher ranked members (this also includes myself), who have been
searching endlessly for those lower-ranked good-willed members "who most certainly are out there and deserve to receive sMerits but can't seem to be found nonetheless". Of course, these low-ranks will still be able to receive sMerits for their high-quality posts, but this extra "Spam Reporting Merits" will at least guarantee them a bit more visibility and credibility.
- It would be appreciated by those good-willed
mods who do not like to ban people easily. The system would not "kill" or "ban" members but these members would be forced to respect the very minimum low-level requirement of participating in the conversations in a normal people's way to be able to receive Merit and participate in bounty campaigns.
- It would be appreciated by those good-willed
members who do not want bounty campaigns to disappear but hate spam nonetheless. Indeed, you've guessed it: this also includes myself. This system would not only clean the existing spam posts, as these would be reported and deleted by the mods. It would also avoid new spam as you risk losing Merits every time 20 of your posts are accurately reported as spam.
- It would be appreciated by those good-willed
members who do want to learn more about crypto or other subjects on the forums: by reading, scrolling and reporting spam, you also get to see interesting replies and OP's.
- And to those goldseekers who don't care about interesting topics, involvement or participation, and who came here only to get bounty signature money we now could say: you are most welcome to this forum and can stay a Newbie forever, but if you want to get a higher rank, you'll have to get your hands dirty and work for the forum by reporting spam.
- Keeping the numbers high and the accuracy demands very strict will
avoid making a whole new level of Merit accumulation by members who are trying to report posts untruthfully.
