Tools for managers to check quality of posts (both merited & unmerited posts)

[tbct_mt2]

TOOLS FOR CAMPAIGN MANAGERS

Today, I saw the topic, created by 1miau, Number of earned Merit during the last 120 days (counted automatically)
Inside the topic, some ideas raised, from which I got ideas to start my topic.
In addition, one of famous managers, Hhampuz raised question about this, days ago:
What can I do about possible merit abuse?

I think that managers should use different tools in combination to check their campaigns' applications better (faster, more easily and more efficiently).
Managers usually spend their time to look at raw figures like total earned merits, total earned merits in last 120 days, then they will do next step to check post quality. Campaigns' managers have to dig deeply into merited posts to see quality and assess that users got merits for really quality posts or fake ones.

In my opinion, the number of total earned merits during last 120 days is just a raw indicator, hence to improve their checking procedure more efficiently, managers should do those following steps, with supports from tools give by Vod, LoyceV, and DdmrDdmr.
1. Total numbers of earned merits (given by BPIP);
For example:
Hhampuz
How to use it?

Already done:
https://bpip.org/smerit.aspx?to=&from=&start=&end=&min=&max=

Just put profile name after to= and 120 days ago in start=

Code for Hhampuz's example:

Code:

[url=https://bpip.org/smerit.aspx?to=Hhampuz&from=&start=11/27/18&end=&min=&max=]Hhampuz[/url]

2. Intensity of earned merits (given by @LoyceV's charts);
Each bar presents total merits earned for each 5-day period. The bar chat can help us to have good overview on the intensity of earned merits over user history, and sudden changes in some bar (spikes) should be considered deeply due to potential merit abusements.
For example:
Hhampuz's earned merits chart.

Code:

[img alt=Image loading...]http://loyce.club/Merit/history/img/881377_blue.gif[/img]

3. Merit Dashboard (given by @DdmrDdmr);
How to use DdmrDdmr's tool?
Here you go:

The Merit Dashboard does that. Simply go to the "Received Merit" tab, and adjust the date range slider to the date interval required (i.e. between date x and date y), be it 120 days or other. By default it shows all history. Then enter the user name or user Id on the boxes on the right side of the screen.

You should see (data as of last Friday):
- the total amount of merits earned by the forum member in the timeframe (on the right side of the screen, under the name).
- the amount received per rank in that timeframe.
- a breakdown by month.
- a breakdown by day.
- a summary of the forum names that merited the profile, and amounts, in the timeframe.

To change the username or id, just click on the parameter box, press the "x’ to delete current parameter, and type in a new name.

Note that the software, Tableau Public will timeout after around four minutes of inactivity, so if that happens, the date range may need to be provided again.

You can also see (on the "Rankings" tab) the most merited profiles in a given timeframe and board.

For example:

4. Quality of merited posts or topics (manually check by managers);

5. General quality of recent posts, including merited ones and un-merited ones (manually check by managers).
I am not sure about the given tool on Merit Dashboard, that likely a little bit complicated, but these two tools (1), and (2) should be used as additional tools for the manual works in step (4), and (5).

6. Merits received/sent in the last 120 days" script, v0.2, by TryNinja

I just noticed I made a very bad and obvious mistake on my "Merits received/sent in the last 120 days" script. I counted each entry as if it was of only 1 merit, making the number appear much lower than it should. I only noticed that when I checked the profile of a user that received 50 merits in a single transaction (along with other txs), and yet it was showing like he only received 49 merits in the last 120 days.

Sources:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5125387.msg50347771#msg50347771 (LoyceV)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5125387.msg50346292#msg50346292 (Vod)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5125387.msg50347016#msg50347016 (DdmrDdmr)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=topusers (forum stats)

[mikeywith]

Manually checking only recent posts may not be fair, sometimes people fail to post something constructive for a while, someone might just want to spend a week or so just posting some funny memes in the WO thread.

but again checking old and new posts might be time consuming too, maybe campaign managers should hire someone they trust  to provide quality-check for campaign applicants? Provided they don't have the time to do so themselves.

[tbct_mt2]

I agreed that even constructive users sometime turned off, or inactively in the forum, due to their personal reasons, so you made a good point.
However, I thought the 120-day period is enough to check and have neutral, and exact overview on quality of users' posts.

Manually checking only recent posts may not be fair, sometimes people fail to post something constructive for a while

So, to save time, but still remain effectively checking quality of posts, managers randomly check posts.
By random, I meant randomly choose some period (pages in post history) and check posts ' quality in those random-chosen periods.

but again checking old and new posts might be time consuming too, maybe campaign managers should hire someone they trust  to provide quality-check for campaign applicants? Provided they don't have the time to do so themselves.

[Simple_Plan]

Post with no lower than 100 characters is the only do-able method bounty managers can think of to reduce spam. Very rare managers are aware of quality or they are but not being able to control (too time-consuming to check). Those tools that you mentioned in you topic are useful but trust me, in normal bounty campaigns, to find a real quality post is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. Some campaigns (Chip Mixer, Fortuna Jack..) are for high quality posters but their rules are strict and payings are very worthy.

[Findingnemo]

When you check the merit history of me in the chart look,you may not see much blue on it,there will be some growth on the recent days,and if you check most of the people's merit history there won't be much blue to compare so I guess manual checking is the better way.This tool is good to check the fellas on the most merited list.

[LoyceV]

Those tools that you mentioned in you topic are useful but trust me, in normal bounty campaigns, to find a real quality post is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. Some campaigns (Chip Mixer, Fortuna Jack..) are for high quality posters but their rules are strict and payings are very worthy.

This topic is for checking participants before they join. I don't think anyone here considers bounty spammers to be serious users, why else would they accept made-up tokens as payment.

Hhampuz is bringing many new Bitcoin paying campaigns to the forum, those were scarce for the past year, so I welcome this development.

When you check the merit history of me in the chart look,you may not see much blue on it

Let's see:

Merit received by Findingnemo from January 24, 2018 until March 22, 2019 (source)

It tells me you're consistently earning Merit, and the amount is going up.
Some users have a single high spike, which is something to check for Merit abuse.

[bernardos]

Unfortunately no tool can help with this except manually checking the posts and checking the posts that got merited. Also, who merited the posts. That is the only way to do it and it is a lengthy process. A tool can only show you the stats but not the quality of a users posts.

[Alone055]

There would be no use of using tools if the managers would still require to do manual checking of merited and general posts of a user. It would rather be less time-consuming if they only check the profiles of the applicants and then proceed to their post history. An earned-merit-check should only be done if the manager doesn't find the post history convincing which would somehow make him doubtful about the earned Merits of that user. Otherwise, if a user has a solid post history and a clean trust as well, there should be no problem for a manager to hire him up.

A constructive user would generally never need to commit Merit abuse since they can earn them just by posting constructively which they can. So, only a user--- who doesn't seem to be constructive by their recent or general post history and has still got Merits, would require the checks about abuse and stuff

[tbct_mt2]

Some users have a single high spike, which is something to check for Merit abuse.

This is why your earned-merits bar chart gives very good overview on merit history, I called it as a good chart to identify intensity of earned merits.

[Findingnemo]

When you check the merit history of me in the chart look,you may not see much blue on it

Let's see:

Merit received by Findingnemo from January 24, 2018 until March 22, 2019 (source)

It tells me you're consistently earning Merit, and the amount is going up.
Some users have a single high spike, which is something to check for Merit abuse.

Thank you Loycev! for showing my merit history in chart view.

Yes,I am also feeling like I am contributing something useful to the community in the right way since I am started to earn some merits in the very recent days Its not hard to find our forum's AI with new avatar.

[bitart]

Maybe a single percentage of the number of the merited posts deleted / total earned merits would be interesting...
As far as I'm concerned, a merit worthy post is not going to be deleted anytime (OK, except when a thread becomes a spam megathread because of the spammers, and the whole thread gets deleted), so if someone has a high percentage of the deleted merited posts, it would be at least suspicious

[tbct_mt2]

I simply collected available tools provided by other users. Things you suggested require technical to build up a tool, that I don't have to do it myself. Sorry for any conveniences you get with all available tools I present in the OP.
Sometimes, posts deleted by users themselves when they clean up their post history and during process they think such past merited posts are outdated, non-sense, etc. Sometimes, forum members easily to merit posts of well-known users for joking posts, that likely deleted later by posts' owners.

[tbct_mt2]

Managers or users can view their merit charts, by using the following code

Code:

img alt=Image loading...]http://loyce.club/Merit/history/img/yourID_color_of_bars.gif[/img]

For example, I display my merit chart with different colors (there are two color options, Blue and Red):
Blue:

Red:

[malevolent]

The charts show the entire Merit history since the system's inception?

And red charts show sent merit points, and blue charts show merit points received? It wasn't mentioned anywhere, and reading 'two color options' my first impression was there are two colors to choose if someone doesn't like either of them

[LoyceV]

The charts show the entire Merit history since the system's inception?

Yes.

And red charts show sent merit points, and blue charts show merit points received?

Correct.

See Full merit transaction history for any user - with GRAPHS, BANS and BBCode! for details

Here's yours: http://loyce.club/Merit/history/23092.html
And BBCode for posting on the forum: http://loyce.club/Merit/history/BBCode/23092.txt

[tbct_mt2]

You can make your charts with two colors: Blue (for received merits), and Red (for sent merits)

Blue:

Red:


Simply replacing my profile ID before _blue & _red by your profile ID, then you will get your charts.

Code:

[img alt=Image loading...]http://loyce.club/Merit/history/img/1096237_blue.gif[/img]
[img alt=Image loading...]http://loyce.club/Merit/history/img/1096237_red.gif[/img]

[Daniel91]

Unfortunately no tool can help with this except manually checking the posts and checking the posts that got merited. Also, who merited the posts. That is the only way to do it and it is a lengthy process. A tool can only show you the stats but not the quality of a users posts.

I can agree with you.
When I thinking to give merit for some post, I checking how much is this post helpful for other users, constructive or informative.
It's the same for campaign managers, I think.
They have to check all posts manually and decide about post quality personally.
I don't think that some tools can replace 100 % manual checking.

[tbct_mt2]

They have to check all posts manually and decide about post quality personally.
I don't think that some tools can replace 100 % manual checking.

Those tools are helpful, because we can have very good overview on each user. After that, we should move to further steps, with manual checkings on users' post quality over different randomized chosen periods. I do think those tools are helpful, but nothing can replace human perfectly.

[tbct_mt2]

That script to check total received / sent merits within last 120 days is very great tool for managers. It is helpful for managers to check real figures of applicants who sometimes apply with fake figures of received merits. Without that script, managers can estimate total merit received within last 120 days but the script help them to get exact figures.
Script built by TryNinja

[Zionatin]

This forum is too selfish for a merit system. How many merits remain dormant in so many users accounts. I bet some have not to spend a single merit. You should be punished for not spending merits.
I have no merits left to give and never do since I always use them since that's what they are for. Pity most people do not share my view and would rather horde for no reason. Funny how some people can spend hours on a forum making tons of posts yet cannot take 2 seconds to help someone out. They do not give you enough merits either. They should take the dormant merits from selfish people and give them to users like myself so we can actually give them out. When I post I look for nice posts. Not posts I agree with but just well-written posts. To try and be nice and to encourage people to be active. People who don't spam and can have a nice conversation online deserve merits. These other clowns can stay on their current rank. They bring nothing to the forum and I cannot stand selfish people. I often feel so band since I have no merits to give anyone and I see nice posts everyday. How can you call this a good system if the people who actually use it are so limited??

Another thing is if you look at the merits graph you will notice there is somewhat of an inner circle. You will notice many people within the same group meriting one another. All those merits have done has increased the gap between the normal user and the elites. I have even seen many times even long term users give merits to people who are admins and do not need them and to people who are already legendary. WTF even.

You get a merit-based on one persons opinion, not on quality. Popular people and topic starters get so many merits. You just shifted from spamming to basically sucking up. Many topics are created with the sole purpose of getting merits. How does that solve anything? The reason for making topics is the same as the reason people use to spam.

Some people don't enjoy making topics and they are severely punished for it. Those who have ranked up through merits have sweat blood to get there. They find articles and things they hope others will find interesting and only care for what others will like not what they like or what they believe.

People who often deserve merits will never see the light of day since their posts get buried by shit. Merits are totally pointless and only reflect how much sucking up you can do and who you know. Introverted people are doomed. How is that a fair system? Not everyone wants to be the centre of attention all the time to suck up merits.