The Time Is NOW! I have a "humble plan" to actually fix this seriously F'...

[Real_Person]

Reality Check:
People seeking Merit are attracted to people who have some to give, If you do not understand this, then please do not respond, and/or have something truly worthwhile to add to the conversation, thank you.

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Update:

The merit systems is working to stop spammers. ...

No.
Merit seekers are "attacking" people who have merit to give, and if you do not see it how is that possible?

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... I'm fairly sure other merit sources feel similarly.

+2 But I have none to give  

Fine, I surrender.
Given enough time, there will be at least a few people who understand the current system could be replaced by something funded with your existing abundance, which is much more healthy than what we have now.

Peace and Love to all this holiday season.


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OP
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The Time Is NOW! I have a "humble plan" to actually fix this seriously F'up place.


Rough draft, eat me alive or find the really good parts, please.
::Keeping in mind the forum does allow multiple accounts, sometimes they are "White-Hat" for fun and/or seperate projects.

Headline News:
Nice Try with the current merit system, but you also created huge new issues.

Brief Summary:
If I post a worthwhile topic from a newbie account, it is no surprise if it gets buried.
Posting from a full member account which used to be treated "fairly", due to a down to Earth & friendly username, now that same account gets mostly ignored due to having no merits to give away.

Posting from my LEGENDARY account: Anyone want to guess what happens?
Eager, hungry merit seekers find my content really interesting, oh my...

You have created an almost permanent underclass, while degrading the experience of your long-term members, except perhaps the ones who enjoy feeling the thrill of being in a (somewhat fake and unsatisfying) position of power.


As an experiment?
Please consider, saving the data, and temporarily 100% trashing the current "merit" system.
Hire (for example), for very low wages some of these hungry merit seekers to be "Jr Staff", since they can help* with the incoming flood of reported posts.
*Help in some way, perhaps moving accused garbage posts to a temporary area?
&&& A key part of the (roughly drafted) plan is to encourage this hungry community to report bad posts, or else the current, horrible merit system will return.
<snip>

Please use some of your huge resources to find a better solution, because the current one is not working.
Thank you.

[S_Therapist]

Who said current one is not working? Without altcoin section, I think all other board is working better than previous. Lots of shitposters stopped shitposting just because  they can't be a jr member to wear the signature.
Do an experiment between ranked accounts before merit system vs after merit system. I believe you will get the differences and how much appropriate the merit system is.
FYI, those persons who are helping the community members, meanwhile posting some good quality posts are getting merits regularly.

[Marshall14]

You seem to actually be the only one who feels the current system aint working,right now noobs are trying to be helpful,on varying degrees I must confess,its basically a known fact..
Prior to the merit system,i never would reply to this thread of yours in meta,i will be replying "nice project" on the 7th page of a garbage post in the Altcoin discussion board..
The merit system changed a lot of things for me and most noobs,the only ones we can really complain about are those who get the one elusive merit and go straight back into one line/20 words spam in the AD section,they are the real menace here and the reason why sooner or later a stricter measure ought to be put in place.

Please consider, saving the data, and temporarily 100% trashing the current "merit" system.
Hire (for example), for very low wages some of these hungry merit seekers to be "Jr Staff", since they can help* with the incoming flood of reported posts

While your suggestion is a vague one, I guess this is it,if you're advocating for more mods,then it could be sensible,but it mustn't be "merit seekers" or "Jr members",we would simply do with more moderators really to assist the senior moderators.
And I do not see how trashing the merit system will help clean things up here,its the main reason why the forum is still habitable for genuine members..

[Sharon121212]

I would be brief and direct on this one.

The OP sure does have a wrong perception of the whole thing. I am bearly two weeks old here and must have missed the merit system update. But significantly I have been taking seriously right from day one regardless of my rank or forum age.

The forum is completely fair an every member would be giving credit according to what they deserve. Once you can come up with something worth having attention you would surely get it and when you don't you might even be out on ignore.

 

[bitmover]

That's not true.

I was a newbie when the merit system was implemented. I had zero Airdrop merit, I didn't knew anyone here, and my posts where not buried. I am almost a self made hero member and there many others like me.

There are many users here who are seeking for good posts to merit. There is also a "competition" to give merit to newbie members.

Your topics are getting buried because they are on the wrong board, or because they suck.

Try to write about Bitcoin in technical discussion board, for example. Few people post there, almost zero spam... But I'd you are posting about price in the Altcoin session, well, getting buried is well deserved

[Maus0728]

It is sad to see that there are some members who does not appreciate the merit system

Merit system was introduced simply because the forum are flooded with spambies who only cares for themselves just to earn a few cents. Surprisingly it works

Back from history, this was one of the best forum you can imagine discussing all the corners of cryptocurrencies. And I think this is the main agenda of the system, to create newly established members who will continue and maintain the quality of the forum. And I am a product of it.

[LoyceV]

If I post a worthwhile topic from a newbie account, it is no surprise if it gets buried.
Posting from a full member account which used to be treated "fairly", due to a down to Earth & friendly username, now that same account gets mostly ignored due to having no merits to give away.

Posting from my LEGENDARY account: Anyone want to guess what happens?
Eager, hungry merit seekers find my content really interesting, oh my...

Can you provide links to some examples of your posts that support your claims? I'm also curious why you're not posting this from your Legendary account if you have one.

It is sad to see that there are some members who does not appreciate the merit system

That's not sad, it's intentional
Theymos said it shortly after it's introduction: the ones complaining about Merit are the ones that shouldn't rank up anymore:

First, most people complaining about merit are constantly posting garbage, and should not rank-up.

[Infinixhot1996]

Merit system was introduced simply because the forum are flooded with spambies who only cares for themselves just to earn a few cents. Surprisingly it works

Wrong, the merit system wasn't introduced as a result of spambies,the merit system was introduced to acknowledge quality posts on the forum,and a means to reward one who's of help to another on the forum...
The merit system was enhanced as a result of the plethora of poor quality posts,and to ensure noobs are of use on the forum before ranking up

[cryptohunter]

The merit systems is working to stop spammers. That's reason enough to let it continue. I would even raise it to 5 merits for junior not 1.

Merit itself means nothing do not worry about your merit score. There is no hard correlation between merit score and post value.

Merit works to stop spammers and indirectly scams proliferating. Holds back account farmers and is just a nice way to reward those that either align with your pov on something or have provided you with something you may find interesting and useful.

Sure there is a merit circle jerking club and certain boards are where they mostly reside. However so long as merit is of net benefit which is certainly is then we should keep it. I would weaponise it further by creating junior boards and move away all those less than full member from current discussion boards.

As many here have said even those with huge merit scores - don't keep worry about it merit is not that important.

I do not think it should be tied to rank after you reach senior.

I don't know why the OP is really complaining in here though sounds like someone trying to power up account farms.

[Real_Person]

The merit systems is working to stop spammers. ...

No.
Merit seekers are "attacking" people who have merit to give, and if you do not see it how is that possible?

[eddie13]

It went from being annoyed by uses doing the absolute minumum to make a post, to users doing their absolute maximum to make a post, which is an interesting phenomenon.
It's often entertaining when a poster writes half a page of useless shit trying to do "the best they can" and it being nonsense when "the best they can" is still trash. I feel sorry at times for their apparent incapability.

E.g. - guy has 2-3 years of bounty report posts and makes a merit hunting post proving that he knows fuck-all about crypto and/or the crypto community.

[Real_Person]

It went from being annoyed by uses doing the absolute minumum to make a post, to users doing their absolute maximum to make a post, which is an interesting phenomenon.
It's often entertaining when a poster writes half a page of useless shit trying to do "the best they can" and it being nonsense when "the best they can" is still trash. I feel sorry at times...

I feel sorry at times..
I am honestly shocked at how blind people are to the realities of the current system. It is a historical fact (for example) that Hitler had the support of the middle-class even when he was invading large parts of the surrounding ecosystem.

To the blind sheep:
Enjoy your life, Happy Holidays!

[The Sceptical Chymist]

just to earn a few cents.

It drive me bonkers when I read snippets like this, that bounty hunters are only earning a few pennies/satoshis/whatever.  It's not an insignificant amount, which is why people are driven to keep doing it.  I don't exactly know what bounty hunters are earning, but for a bitcoin-paying signature campaign, the rewards can be incredible--especially if you're living in a country where the cost of living is very low, i.e., poverty-stricken countries.

I sometimes wonder how well I could live if I had a few alt accounts in campaigns and was living in a place like Indonesia or the Philippines (just for example).  My point is that it's not pennies people are earning.

OP obviously has some alt accounts and is having trouble with the merit system.  No surprise there; lots of people are.  But the worst thing that could happen to bitcointalk right now would be to revoke the merit system, even as an experiment.  If you have any sense of bitcointalk history at all, you realize how bad the forum had become and why Theymos decided to implement merits.

Also, I'm not quite grasping the

Merit seekers are "attacking" people who have merit to give, and if you do not see it how is that possible?

part of OP's post.  I'm not feeling attacked whatsoever, and right now I've got plenty of sMerits to give out.  I'm not some moron who can't judge a good post and who's going to feel pressured into handing them out....to these vague "attackers".  I'm fairly sure other merit sources feel similarly.

[Yeahpro]

The merit system is 11 months old now, and the revised newbie restrictions  is about two months old.
And it has been a hot debated topic for a very VP ng time, with members criticizing, suggestion, and airing there views over countless threads on the subject.

It's about time we all get over it and look towards what really matters. Merits are not trophies but simply incentives to make quality posts. And it really does no good to the forum reason why theymos is probably not interested in changing it up. (it's ICOs and bounty hunters who value it more).

Also it really does not need changing, the system is working just fine as it is.

The trust system which is of mote value should be given precedence.
Trust was not airdropped when introduced as merits was, so everyone had to earn it by proving worthy in trades and daily interactions with other members.

[Real_Person]

... I'm fairly sure other merit sources feel similarly.

+2 But I have none to give 

Fine, I surrender.
Given enough time, there will be at least a few people who understand the current system could be replaced by something funded with your existing abundance, which is much more healthy than what we have now.

Peace and Love to all this holiday season.

[Real_Person]

Who said current one is not working?

I did.
The OP has been updated to be more clear, please feel free to debate the details, thank you.

[r1s2g3]

Brief Summary:
If I post a worthwhile topic from a newbie account, it is no surprise if it gets buried.
Posting from a full member account which used to be treated "fairly", due to a down to Earth & friendly username, now that same account gets mostly ignored due to having no merits to give away.

Posting from my LEGENDARY account: Anyone want to guess what happens?
Eager, hungry merit seekers find my content really interesting, oh my...

You are not talking on facts. You are making assumptions.

Let me put some facts derived from Piggy Sql Tool

Code:

select sum(m.merit) sum_merits ,u.username fid from userdata u,meritdata m where u.userid=m.toid and u.rank='Legendary' group by m.toid
having sum_merits >10 order by sum_merits desc;

They are only 548 Legendaries  that earn 10+ merit. This list contains current rank , so it included users that become legendary after accumulating 500+ merit.

Code:

select sum(m.merit) sum_merits ,u.username fid from userdata u,meritdata m where u.userid=m.toid and u.rank not in ('Legendary','Administrator','Founder') group by m.toid
having sum_merits >10 order by sum_merits desc

This list contain 3649 user. It include those user also who have rank displayed Donator,Global Moderator etc. but they are handful.
Theymos, satoshi and cyrus are excluded in both the list.

Link to sheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kX9__wTAv8RMEXC7Px87BoyGuS-tt6OHLZUZOufea7o/edit#gid=0

I read in Coin-1 topic more than 1840 newbies reached member rank . This exclude users having 10+ merit and activity less than 60.

Clearly in 10 month old system newbies overtook legendary.  So it is never the case newbies topics are ignored.

Legendary have advantage as they know the forum and bitcoin ecosystem well when merit introduced whereas newbie need some time to understand bitcoin, Altcoin , ICO ,forum, forum rules, bounty etc. With spam level so high that making it more difficult for newbie to get useful information.

[suchmoon]

Merit seekers are "attacking" people who have merit to give, and if you do not see it how is that possible?

I'm literally trying to give merits away via the thread in my signature and nobody wants it, let alone attacks me.

Also there is the "Ignore" thingy in case someone is actually attacking someone so...

Edit: what's your relationship with Bit_Happy?