One year anniversary of merit system

[tranthidung]

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF MERIT SYSTEM

One year ago today, the forum witnessed one of the most innovative change that entirely and successfully changed the way of spamming control. Merit system launched on January 24, 2018, 11:00:11 PM (forum time), or Wednesday 24 January 2018 22:12:21 (GMT time).

To take away all doubt: the first Merit was this one:

Code:

1516831941	1	2818066.msg28853325	35	877396

Use EpochConverter to convert 1516831941 (Unix Time) to GMT: Wednesday 24 January 2018 22:12:21.

The system launched by theymos, forum admin, with the topic, namely Merits & new rank requirements.
Firstly, we should take a look at the time-series plot of merit circulations in the forum within the past one year.

Time series plot of full dataset (from 24/1/2018 to 16/1/2019)

Time series plot of truncated dataset (from 26/1/2018 to 16/1/2019) [first two days dropped]

From now on, we will take an overview on merit system (its history, upgrades, basic statistics, and helpful guides & topics on merit system and related stuffs)

ABSTRACT
Notes:
- The asbstract describes figures of intraday merits over the period from 19/2/2018 to 14/01/2019 (truncated dataset), except figures of all time high and all time low.
- Days from 24/1/2018 to 18/2/2018 truncated due to highly potential outliers; and days after 14/01/2019 truncated as well due to incomplete week (the third week of 2019 -2019w3);
- Statistics presented in the post are for truncated dataset.
- The part will be updated with the coming data dump from LoyceV on 26th Jan. 2019, I guess that LoyceV will dump data somewhere around that day. For now, simply using the statistics from old dataset.

(1) Potential outliers are days that have intraday total merits beyond 123 or 1163;
(2) Median of intraday merits over the period is 619, whilst the interquartile range is from 513 to 773;
(3) Friday is the day over weeks has lowest intraday merits in terms of both median and mean, at 542, and 617, respectively.
In contrast, Monday is the day over weeks has highest intraday merits in terms of both median and mean, at 748 and 657, respectively.

- All time high of intraday merits is 13018, on the one day period from 24th Jan. 2018 to 25th Jan. 2018, whilst the all time low of intraday merits is 312 on one day period from 24th Dec. 2018 to 25th Dec. 2018.

Chronological history of merit system
Before jumping into chronological history of merit system, we should review where it originated.
Around more than one month before 24th Jan. 2018 [on December 18, 2017, 12:54:08 AM], theymos ask for ideas to improve post quality and/ or at somewhat extent to control spamming endemic in the forum better.
ideas for improving post quality?

1) Launch day: 24/1/2018.
Then, the first forum users discussed about merits there: What is the function of the "Merit" score?. As a result of that, AdolfinWolf is the first one got sMerits from theymos.
How many merits allocated to existing forum users in total?
Theymos stated that there are around 600k sendable merits (sMerits) allocated to forum users.

About 600k.

I am not sure about the figure 600k, when the figure collected, at the first dump or after additional Merits and sMerits allocated to Hero members who satisfied activity threshold on January 27, 2018, 02:57:53 AM (forum time).
Interestingly, an estimated figure of more than 11k sMerits destroyed permanently because they belong to permanent banned users.
Then, bugs found and fixed later.

A few leftovers from the bug:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg28857781#msg28857781 (negative merit)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg28857729#msg28857729 (zero value merit)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.msg28857682#msg28857682 (negative merit)

It's actually gone, those are just cached.

2) First adjustment: Additional re-allocation merits to Hero members who satistified the threshold of activity over the last one year before the launch of merit system.

The exact formula was:

Code:

yearActivity = activity in the last ~year, max 378
freeMerit = the merit (not sMerit) you started with
modifier =
  0.1 if member
  0.2 if full member
  0.25 if sr member
  0.35 if hero
  0.4 if legendary

return (yearActivity/378) * modifier * freeMerit

So the most you could get is if you were a Legendary who maxed out your activity points in the last year, in which case you would get 1 * 0.4 * 1000 = 400 sMerit.

Note that I later made an adjustment giving 500 extra merit to some hero members, but no extra sMerit was given here.

I'll probably publish a dump of the initial sMerit at some point.

On January 27, 2018, 02:57:53 AM (forum time), less than three days after the launch of merit system.

I decided that the previous allocation was too unfair in this area, so everyone with activity >= 775 got 500 more merit if they didn't already have 1000 merit (and also Lutpin). No extra sMerit, though.

3) Second adjustment: Enhanced newbie restrictions & requirements

Due to excessive garbage-posting, you now need 1 merit to be a Jr Member. All existing Jr Members who didn't meet the requirement were demoted. Also, newbies can no longer set any signature or personal text.

The change of ranking rules caused a massive merit abusements in September, total sMerits circulation rocketed in September. You can easily see spikes in September from my time series plot. Consequently, there are lots of higher-ranked users got red-tag with their abusements.

Recent days (since 9th January of 2019), the Trust system upgrade with new rules/ operational mechanisms, that led to a new tide of merit circulation. Once again, you can easily see the spikes since 9th Jan. 2019. In my opinion, the new tide has nearly the same fractal pattern of the September’s tide. Addtionally, it’s interesting to see how long the Trust system-related topics will maintain its hot-level. Anyway, the Trust system changes actually resulted in dramatical rises of total intraday merits during last two weeks.

History of merit sources:
1. 24/01/2018: 35 merit sourcess

Does that mean all merit sources are hand selected?

Right. There are about 35 right now.

2. 26/01/2018: 49 merit sources

I was checking merit stats and found that there are now 49 merit sources:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=sources

Merit sources
There are 49 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 9025 sMerit per 30 days

Initially there were 35 announced and I noticed 1 or 2 people nominating. How come we have an additional 14 in one day ?

I added more.

By no means is the set of merit sources or their sMerit/month static. I will be adjusting it a lot as needed, especially in the beginning. I wouldn't be surprised if there are 100-200 sources in a year from now.

3. 01/03/2018: 57 merit sources in total

This number is much larger than 11975 sMerits, which are currently created by 57 merit sources per month.
The sMerits created by 57 merit sources are not sufficient and most of used sMerits were initially assigned ones.

4. Rose to 123 merit sources in total (not sure when ??)

5. 15/3/2019: Increased to 130 merit sources
This wave happened simultaneously with Vod's remove as a merit source

If I remember correctly, there were 123 Merit sources yesterday. One dropped out:

Theymos has responded to my request to be removed as a merit source.  No more working for free.  

I think theymos took the opportunity to process new Merit source applications, there are now 130 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 20605 sMerit per 30 days.

How to check temporary total merit sources? Please get it there: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=sources

Code:

There are 131 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 21045 sMerit per 30 days (02 September 2019)

Merit stats page
How many pages reached after only one day of merit system?
More than 51pages, impressive, right?

Patrol page to check temporary spamming situation of the forum


List of merit analysis topics:
1) Analysis – Merit per post per Section/Subsection (by DdmrDdmr)
2) Analysis – The Merit Path – Where we start off and the path we follow (by DdmrDdmr)
3) Analysis – Personal merit per day, merit per post and ranking-up projections (by DdmrDdmr)
4) Top 200 Merit Receivers without Merit from the Top 200 Merit Receivers (by LoyceV)
5) LoyceV's Merit data analysis (full data since Jan. 24, 2018; not just 120 days)
6) Time Series Analysis on Distributed Merits in the forum (daily, weekly, monthly) (by tranthidung)
7) Forum chronicle - UP Rank List (BPIP statistics, trust) (by Nikisa)
[MERIT] [NFSN} We’re destroying more merits than we’re sending. Like, way more. (by suchmoon)
9) Tracking the difference of merit circulations with Default Trust Changes (by tranthidung)

Guides on how to get merits and merit giving-away challenge topics
I will add more topics later
Guides:
1) List of Threads Giving Away Merits - Updated 12 march 2018 (by Outlay)
2) TMAN’s guide to getting merit
3) cabalism13's Activity Tips on Ranking (by cabalism13)
4) Stop searching for merits and you will received them.- see Smerit as liabilities (by CryptopreneurBrainboss)

Challenges:
1) Updated [20/01/2019]: List of Active Merit Giveaways threads. (by CryptopreneurBrainboss). This one is the most updated, and fully topic on merit-give-away challenges. Should read at first.
2)   Giving 18 Newbie Members a Chance to Rank Up To J. Member (by Pmalek)
3)    Merits for all Rank Members - Conditions Apply - 5 merits available. (by Juggy777)
4)    I have 10 merit to give for Jr.Members and newbies  (by mikeywith)

Inspirational stories of self-made promoted users (by tranthidung)
I believe that the topic can inspire some users to change the way they use the forum, and stop complaining, instead start thinking more positively.

Notes:
The topic has been under construction.
- It is normal if I made mistaske, so I welcome all comments to correct my mistakes if you find them.
- Thanks all in advance for any supplementary information.

Someone who have not been busy with signature campaign, can use the avatar.
Merit avatar for use.


One year anniversary of enhanced merit system
Merit source observations

[1714049514]

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[mole0815]

This is about the same thing: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5101652.0
but your thread is really pretty and informative

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

The list of thread givingaway merit is outdated here is a more current thread titled Updated [20/01/2019]: List of Active Merit Giveaways threads. it even has jet cash's video challenge titled "My 25 sMerit offer for a single post" also you should consider moving this thread to another board (off-topic)  since we already have an anniversary thread on meta.  

[tranthidung]

Thank you. I added your topic into the OP.

The list of thread givingaway merit is outdated here is a more current thread titled Updated [20/01/2019]: List of Active Merit Giveaways threads. it even has jet cash's video challenge titled "My 25 sMerit offer for a single post"

Why not leave it here some days? I don't think that Meta board is the place for first come first served one.
If topics are helpful, and meaningful, they should be there. Maybe I am wrong, not sure about this.

also you should consider moving this thread to another board (off-topic)  since we already have an anniversary thread on meta.  

[Kopyleft]

The change of ranking rules caused a massive merit abusements in September, total sMerits circulation rocketed in September.

There was also a boost in merit circulation during that period, members with smerits were hunting for good posters to award merits and rank up, likewise demoted jr members improved their posting, which was the sole purpose of the restrictions.
The spike was not simply due to merit abuse.

[tranthidung]

Sure. it is easily to see a spike in September in the time series plot.

There was also a boost in merit circulation during that period

Wrong!
They are potential merit abusers.
There is a topic, published by LoyceV about this issue:
List of demoted Jr. Members who were ranked up again

members with smerits were hunting for good posters to award merits and rank up, likewise demoted jr members improved their posting, which was the sole purpose of the restrictions.
The spike was not simply due to merit abuse.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Why not leave it here some days? I don't think that Meta board is the place for first come first served one.
If topics are helpful, and meaningful, they should be there. Maybe I am wrong, not sure about this.

You're correct beside yours looks more informative. About the merit guides, I did a thread on a simple advice I got back then and it's still guiding me today already helped me rank up to full member. the thread was titled Stop searching for merits and you will received them.- see Smerit as liabilities I believe it still has some information to pass to the new comers.

[duongdaiduong]

It is a remarkable milestone. A lot of people felt stuck when "Merit" was born. LOL.

[chimk]

It was a very elegant decision. Now, during the decline of activity, the system of merit takes the necessary forms. Is there any information who is the author of this concept or is it a teamwork?

[lobcmt2]

The origin of merit system should be mentioned in the OP.
ideas for improving post quality?
5 weeks before the day on which merit system launched, theymos asked for ideas.

[Veleor]

 

[MadZ]

Good to see merit activity picking up again in the past few weeks.

I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical of how effective the system would be at first (and a bit salty I had potential Legendary activity at the time). Definitely has been a positive addition to the forum as a whole.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

(and a bit salty I had potential Legendary activity at the time).

Dang, I just looked at your date of registration and you must have taken a serious break from posting at some point.  You could have hit Legendary a long time ago--well before the merit system was created, in fact. 

Agreed that overall it's been a positive thing, because just before the merit system rolled out last year it seemed like it was complete chaos with the shitposters overrunning a bunch of different sections, and it got to the point where actmyname and I were negging the spammers.  Not a good use of the trust system, as I've said before, but we were just so frustrated and didn't think we had any other mechanism by which we could combat these fools. 

I was absolutely ecstatic when I woke up that day in Jan. 2018 and discovered that Theymos had created the merit system.  If I hadn't had the flu at the time I would have been break dancing in my living room all day.  It was immediately clear that it would seriously cut down on account farming, since newly-created accounts would have to earn those merits in order to rank up--and I assumed (correctly) that it was going to be hard for the average shitposter/account farmer to do this.

The merit system doesn't seem to have caused much improvement in certain sections like Bitcoin Discussion, but I've seen people trying a lot harder to post constructive things as a result of it, and that's a great thing.  Overall, I much prefer having the merit system on bitcointalk even if it's far from a perfect fix for the bounty spammer problem, and that's because I remember what things used to be like before merits.  It has done its job, too.  The good posters have ranked up, while the shitposters have learned to live with being a Jr. Member for the rest of their lives here.  That's a victory.

It was a very elegant decision. Now, during the decline of activity, the system of merit takes the necessary forms. Is there any information who is the author of this concept or is it a teamwork?

Say what?

[mu_enrico]

Yeah, I still remember how merit-less I am until mid-2018. At that time, I only hope that somehow I could get 10 merits. Long story short, I'm still here even with the constant harassment from you guys! lol

I'm going to bump my newb's guide once I reach 500 merits.

[Daboy_Lyle]

I dare you all to do the 1 year merit challenge. Post your old and latest profile summary. Let's see who enjoy earning merit on its first Anniversary.

[lobcmt2]

I dare you all to do the 1 year merit challenge. Post your old and latest profile summary. Let's see who enjoy earning merit on its first Anniversary.

LOL. I guess you snapshotted the screen simply because you felt like "OMG, merits ruin my life!".
Just kidding, you has gone through the merit challenge well.

BTW, you should use the width option to resize the image, that is oversized by now.

Code:

[img width=x][/img]

Find a appropriate x figure yourself, but it looks better now, in my opinion.

[tranthidung]

Today, I made the update on my another topic with newest data dump from LoyceV. For full details, please read in original posts.
Hope it help!

Update:

ABSTRACT
Notes:
- The asbstract describes figures of intraday merits over the period from 19/2/2018 to 21/01/2019 (truncated dataset);
- Days from 24/1/2018 to 18/2/2018 truncated due to highly potential outliers; and days after 21/01/2019 truncated as well due to incomplete week (the fourth week of 2019 -2019w4);
- Statistics presented in the post are for truncated dataset.

(1) Potential outliers are days that have intraday total merits beyond 124 or 1164;
(2) Median of intraday merits over the period is 620, whilst the interquartile range is from 514 to 774;
(3) Friday is the day over weeks has lowest intraday merits in terms of both median and mean, at 617 and 542, respectively.
In contrast, Monday is the day over weeks has highest intraday merits in terms of both median and mean, at 746 and 658, respectively.

< ... >

Plots:
- Outliers displayed with red circles.

- Outliers non-displayed.

TRUST SYSTEM CHANGE'S IMPACTS ON INTRADAY MERITS

ABSTRACT

(1) Mean and median of the after period (from 09/01/2019 to 21/01/2019 - after the Trust System change) are higher than the figures of before period (from 19/02/2018 to 08/01/2019) at 26.7% and 42.3%, respectively.
(2) There is no potential outliers occured recent days (in the after period) due to effects of Trust System change.
It it very difference from the demotion of Junior Members in September 2018, when outliers occured due to massive absusements. It is just an assumption, but it is likely that the Trust System change has not led to merit abusements (at least till now).

< ... >
2) Box plots:
Outliers displayed

Outliers non-displayed (in order to have clearer view on difference between medians of before and after periods.

Notes for box plots:
- Red circles: potential outliers.
- Medians: horizontal lines inside boxes.

[Retina]

This is about the same thing: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5101652.0
but your thread is really pretty and informative

Oh, I composed it two days ago, but today I am busy a little bit (watching soccer, in fact  ), and could not publish it on time.

Oh Great, Anyway I know that you can play a lot better, you've posted a lot and got a lot of merit from there but you did not have to give anyone, how it happened, you should give them the same way as getting Merit.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Still tough to gain Merit unless you’re a techie, creating data dumps etc. I do feel sorry for the new members who are trying but struggling to rank up.

There are a lot of shit posters & spammers & the Merit system has euthanised them but it’s the average to good (but not excellent) posters who struggle to rank up.

A big shout out to them.

I have 1404 Merit but obviously only 404 of those are earnt. Even for me as a Legendary Member I’m not ashamed to say it is disheartening seeing a growing number of people on 2000+ Merit whilst I struggle along on 404.

Overall the Merit system is an excellent addition to the forum but it does kind of favour the elite posters not the average to good which there are more of.

[tranthidung]

Overall the Merit system is an excellent addition to the forum but it does kind of favour the elite posters not the average to good which there are more of.

By now, the most intesting things I witnessed around one year after the start of merit system are:
- Campaigns tend to requires minimum earned merits to join.
- Campaigns' managers tend to choose candidates with more earned merits in last 120-day period.
- Even shitty higher ranked users (Full Members, Senior Members, and higher) that have not earned single merits after more than one year will hardly have odds to get acceptance from campaigns' managers. It's amazing impacts of merit system.  

Sometimes, I saw shitty higher ranked users with no single merit earned, they will be rejected from campaigns for sure.