Merit Champions from the local boards

[cryptovigi]

When you start your career on the forum, after some time you start to think that it would be nice to get a higher rank then you get the information that you need a merit. OK, it took some time to write a few dozen posts and no merit appeared. What is going on? What do I do not so surely somewhere you can find some guides?

Most likely you will find the TMAN thread which is the most popular in this topic:
TMAN'S guide to getting merit.  (Read 5441 times)

As a top 10 merited user I feel qualified to post this guide, this is to help new users and users who are reasonably established to level up.
I am adamant the no1 cause of no merits is poor English, this is something you can change if you are struggling to get merits so if you know that this is the limitation then you need to take some steps

* Improve your English language, this isnt just spelling and grammar this includes using words like Sir & Mr when I see those I imediately asume the person is a 3rd world poster
* Spend the time that you currently use posting incoherent rubbish to learn proper Written English, start with youtube there has to be over 3002 different videos about writing the English Language
* Read a few English books, you can download free Ebooks as a starter, look how sentences are structured common words etc.
* Remember a quality post isnt necessarily a long winded post, using words that make you sound like you swallowed a thesauras doesnt help your cause
...

I want to make it clear that I agree with TMAN's advice and undoubtedly when you take advantage of them you have the best chance of success, but what if your English is very weak or, what if is even worse - you do not know it at all? Does not knowing this language exclude you from the race for promotion to a higher rank?
Not necessarily ...

Let's see what the numbers say ...
Since the introduction of the merit system to 15/03/2019, a total of 340,932 merits have been distributed, of which as much as 104,066 for local subboards - which is 30.52% - which is quite good. This means that people who do not speak English fluently have a chance to get a merit. But what are the real chances of getting a merit for writing a post. The best way to check this would be to compare the number of posts that have been created in a given board since the introduction of the merit system to the number of merits given there. I did not find such statistics anywhere, but knowing that the merit system was introduced on 24/01/2019 it was enough to find the number of posts that were made on local boards at that time and compare it with current values.

I found a screenshot of 23.01.2018 - one day before the introduction of the merit system ... (https://web.archive.org/web/20180123014711/https://bitcointalk.org/) - thanks to which I was able to calculate the approximate number of posts created in each forum / subforum. Comparing this number with the number of merits given on that board, I managed to calculate the average number of merits per 1 post.

subboard	posts	merits	merits/posts
Deutsch (German)	83242	10910	13,11%
Hrvatski (Croatian)	17949	2057	11,46%
Français	57562	5450	9,47%
Italiano (Italian)	44320	3634	8,2%
Eλληνικά (Greek)	8773	662	7,55%
Português (Portuguese)	40157	2168	5,4%
Other languages/locations	12662	644	5,09%
Polski	13477	660	4,9%
Español (Spanish)	64404	3030	4,7%
العربية (Arabic)	21055	956	4,54%
Türkçe (Turkish)	398251	15779	3,96%
Nederlands (Dutch)	10727	390	3,64%
日本語 (Japanese)	17435	614	3,52%
Pilipinas	68016	2285	3,36%
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)	452876	13464	2,97%
Pyccкий (Russian)	2045711	38408	1,88%
中文 (Chinese)	150295	2427	1,61%
Română (Romanian)	10623	165	1,55%
India	18856	239	1,27%
עברית (Hebrew)	425	5	1,18%
한국어 (Korean)	9428	100	1,06%
Skandinavisk	1206	12	1%
Pilipinas	68016	133	0,20%

As you can see, depending on the language, the percentage of awarded posts varies - from just 0.2% over 13%, but is it a lot or not? Compare these values with other popular boards - eg this Bitcoin Discussion, Mining or Meta

subboard	posts	merits	merits/posts
Bitcoin Discussion	482678	15325	3,17%
Mining	85208	2057	5,95%
Meta	104067	36912	35,47%

As you can see, the ratio of the number of merits to number of posts written in the Meta section is several times larger than in any local board, but when we compare local boards from the top of the table (for example German) with Bitcoin Discussion board what we see? - It can be 4 times easier (statistically) to get meirt on the locar board.

Ok, we have already seen that statistically wise posting in local departments can result in many merits, in some cases even several times more than in creating posts on the main English-language boards.
And now let's take a look at specific users - let's see how among the most rewarded users of merit there are those who only (or mostly) earned their merits on local sub-floors. We will use the report of 1000 of the best merit users from the bpip site https://bpip.org/report.aspx?r=mostmerited.

This list is "the best of the best" in the field of merits received since the system was introduced in January 2018.
Analysis of mertite sources obtained by individual users has shown that

373 users from the first 1000, over 25% of their merits, obtained on local boards
334 users from the first 1000, over 50% of their merits, obtained on local boards
283 users from the first 1000, over 75% of their merits, obtained on local boards
223 users from the first 1000, over 90% of their merits, obtained on local boards
184 users from the first 1000, over 95% of their merits, obtained on local boards
106 users from the first 1000 100% of their merits obtained on local boards

We see that a really large percentage of "the best in merit" the vast majority or all their merits have earned in the local background. So we already know that many local posters went to the first thousand, but are they also among the best of the best? So let's check if the local posters also hit the first 100 (be in the first thousand sounds good but be in the top 100 it sounds much better!).

17 users from the first 100, over 60% of their merits, obtained on local boards
12 users from the first 100, over 75% of their merits, obtained on local boards
9   users from the first 100, over 90% of their merits, obtained on local boards
7   users from the first 100, over 95% of their merits, obtained on local boards
3   users from the first 100, over 99% of their merits, obtained on local boards
1   user from the first 100 100% of their merits obtained on local boards


As you can see, it does not look bad, let's check yet which highest positions among the top 100 took the local posters -

Merit Champions from the local boards from the title...

ID	nick	Top 1000 possition	all merits	merits from local board	rate%
1275282	joniboini	19	873	788	90,26%
24140	qwk	22	853	577	67,64%
1878246	abhiseshakana	27	776	774	99,74%
1051955	roycilik	43	603	583	96,68%
1574226	mu_enrico	44	597	505	84,59%
1424178	mole0815	50	569	569	100%
2143453	1miau	52	569	433	76,1%
1827294	Husna QA	61	518	511	98,65%
1071136	PHI1618	62	516	435	84,3%
1304130	pandukelana2712	69	485	478	98,56%
1580039	asche	73	471	326	69,21%
1855828	taikuri13	74	472	451	95,55%
1039323	Goran_	87	420	417	99,29%
805820	Lafu	88	417	254	60,91%
1764764	esmanthra	90	410	298	72,68%
1090672	Smart man	91	406	377	92,86%
1068464	Xal0lex	98	378	268	70,9%

As you can see, a few users posting only or mainly on local boards have reached very high positions in the ranking. The best example is joniboini, who achieved the highest number of merits on the local board - up to 788 which accounted for over 90% of all his merits and enabled him to reach the 19th position. Another good example is abhiseshakana, who earned only few merits less on the local board - 774 pieces, but in his case they constituted as much as 99.74% of all his merits and allowed him to achieve a very high 27th position. The user who gained merit only on the local board and at the same time managed to achieve also the high position of 50 is mole0815.

To sum up this analysis, as I mentioned earlier, I support the advice provided by TMAN in his guide. Certainly, spending some time on learning and training English will go out for good and moreover, it will be useful not only on this forum but in every area of life.
But at the same time I wanted to show that the lack of good language skills does not exclude you from the race for high ranking positions or from the possibility of promotion to a higher rank. So, regardless of your language skills, it's always worth to create good posts in any language because they can give you a pass to high ranks as well as a lot of satisfaction.

[DdmrDdmr]

I’ve gone over the data and make similar numbers from the Dashboard and other previous analysis, and your numbers seem pretty aligned. Just a couple of considerations:

a)   The merits per post on local boards mixes other inner child boards, and the resulting ratio, while being a good one for comparisons, is also influenced by the weight of the child boards posts. Namely, bounty reports may have quite a saying in the number of posts on a local board.

For example on a specific local Spanish board analysis I did back in December 2018, the ratio on merit per post was 0,038 over a 10 month period. When I went a level deeper and stepped into the child boards within the Spanish local board, I got the following readings:

-   Main Spanish Board: 0,138 merits per post (7,14% share of posts).
-   Market & Economy: 0,08 merits per post (10,02% share of posts).
-   Hardware & Mining: 0,053 merits per post (1,30% share of posts).
-   Off-Topic (really a general purpose section, mixing meta, off-topic and so on): 0,196 (4,37% share of posts).
-   Sell of goods: 0,103 merits per post (1,07% share of posts)-
-   Beginners & Help: 0,165 merits per post (2,27% share of posts).
-   Altcoins: 0,008 merits per post (but 73,74% share of posts).

What the above shows is that, in the Spanish local board, average merit per post is driven down by the number of posts in the Altcoin section, which represented at the time 73,74% of all posts. Now this may well vary from local board to local board, but it does have a strong weight against the overall local board aggregate merit per post ratio.

Comparing the overall ratio to other more monolithically composed boards such as Meta is “unfairish”, since the weight of Altcoins, with a high number of posts and low number of merits, is noticeable.

b)   The number of merit sources and their allowance has a strong influence too on local board capability to get people into the top 100 or 1000, especially those that are more based on local merit. It also depends on the person’s posting habits, but some local board centred people have very little chances of shinning (especially on smaller local boards), due to the merit circulation being low in some of them.

[cryptovigi]

...
What the above shows is that, in the Spanish local board, average merit per post is driven down by the number of posts in the Altcoin section, which represented at the time 73,74% of all posts. Now this may well vary from local board to local board, but it does have a strong weight against the overall local board aggregate merit per post ratio.

As you have probably noticed in my post, I have encouraged people to write "valuable posts" on local boards because they can bring them merits ("valuable" means the opposite of those posts from the altcoin section you wrote about). Therefore, the assumption that an average altcoin childboard is 75% of posts with the smallest chance of receiving a merit can be very good news! This means that every post written on a local board in a section other than altcoin has a 4-times greater chance of getting a merit than I showed above!

...
Comparing the overall ratio to other more monolithically composed boards such as Meta is “unfairish”, since the weight of Altcoins, with a high number of posts and low number of merits, is noticeable.
...

This is a very valuable remark but notice in this case how low are rewarded with merits the posts in the Bitcoin Discussion section. Bearing in mind the high share of posts from the altcoin section in local boards mentioned by you. The more "worthwhile" it seems to be to post "valuable posts" on the local board than, for example, in the Bitcoin Discussion board.

...
b)   The number of merit sources and their allowance has a strong influence too on local board capability to get people into the top 100 or 1000, especially those that are more based on local merit. It also depends on the person’s posting habits, but some local board centred people have very little chances of shinning (especially on smaller local boards), due to the merit circulation being low in some of them.
...

I agree that in smallerst boards (Hebrew, Skandinavisk, Korean or similar), earning a few twenty merites may be a real problem, but at least half of the local boards have already been given 1000 and more merits, so you can say that they have potential. Other words You don't need to shine very much to get to the top 1000 today it's only 56 merits but getting to the top 100 is much more complicated  because you have to collect almost 400 of them...

[tranthidung]

I wanted to start something like @CryptopreneurBrainboss did:
[OPEN] Africa Bitcointalk community hangout signature campaign.
But, I don't have a local board to do like this.
Doing this for Asian crypto enthusiasts is too widely range, that I don't like.
I started my challenge for Junior Members a bit more than month ago, there is very little interests, and only one winner so far.
More than 70 sMerits available to give away (high strict rules) [Members only]
If nothing improved in that challenge, I will close it next week.
Any suggestion, please.

[hugeblack]

I think you've forgotten another important indicator. Some of the local boards have been created over the last two years, making most members have low ranks "from newbie to member" and taking my local board "Arabic" as an example.

 - 90% of the members are below Full member rank. This statistic is not accurate but the number of members between "Full member to Legendary member" is limited and can be counted by finger. Unlike the merit source "which has less than 100 sMerit," the total number of sMerit is very limited.

 - Most local boards contain Altcoins section, which represents more low-quality posts and some ads get a lot of merits despite the low-quality topic.

In other words, each local board has special considerations and opportunities to Merits that differ from board to board.

[cryptovigi]

...
I started my challenge for Junior Members a bit more than month ago, there is very little interests, and only one winner so far.
More than 70 sMerits available to give away (high strict rules) [Members only]
If nothing improved in that challenge, I will close it next week.
Any suggestion, please.

I've done something similar on my local polish board to activate our community Konkurs – Pula nagród co najmniej 10 meritów!!! the interest was not large as well ;(
I closed it after three months finding really few good posts (although one really good) but maybe my requirements were too big - 3 fresh good posts  written by low ranked users .

Can I ask if Pilipinas or Philippine Local board has any approved merit source? It has the lowest percentage of merits circulating. I don't know why their activity there seems to lack active merit points while the users are many.

You can find a list of potential merit sources here: [TOP-200] The most generous users giving merits
I believe this is your local merit source:

User name

Sent merits

Received merits

Generosity

...

41)

rickbig41

482 (in 207 txns to 118 users)

109 (in 54 txns from 37 users)

427 (max 428)

Is it possible to apply on other Local board as merit source even you're not LITERALLY on that Local Country but, you can speak fluently the language of that board?

You don't have to apply to become a "local merit source" just a "merit source". Being merit source you decide if you focus rather on local board or other boards

[DdmrDdmr]

Can I ask if Pilipinas or Philippine Local board has any approved merit source? It has the lowest percentage of merits circulating. <…>

I think there is probably a typo in the sMerits awarded to the Philippine local board in the OP, and thus the extremely low ratio. I make it 2.195 the number of awarded sMerits as of last Friday (numbers may vary from one data source to another due to how deleted posts are treated for example). That would make the local board overall ratio of around 3,23% and not 0,2% …

Edit: Ok @cryptovigi, mystery resolved ...

[cryptovigi]

Can I ask if Pilipinas or Philippine Local board has any approved merit source? It has the lowest percentage of merits circulating. <…>

I think there is probably a typo in the sMerits awarded to the Philippine local board in the OP, and thus the extremely low ratio. I make it 2.195 the number of awarded sMerits as of last Friday (numbers may vary from one data source to another due to how deleted posts are treated for example). That would make the local board overall ratio of around 3,23% and not 0,2% …

Just checked it... you've right there were some inaccuracies in philippines local board. I've checked each sub board separately (using https://albertoit.github.io/Merit-Explorer-SQL/) according to the next names that appear on the list of local boards. Currently, the name "Pilipinas" appears there,

So I've checked "Pilipinas" and went to another local board. Now when I've pulled out all subboards from the base, I saw that this language has two separate tags: "Pilipinas" and "Philippines":

So probably the tag has been changed recently and hence this inaccuracy ... In this case, combine the results for both local tags and change the value to the correct one:

subboard	posts	merits	merits/posts
Pilipinas	68016	133	0,20%
Pilipinas	68016	2285	3,36%