Some suggestions to future merit giveway thread starters

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Haven kept an updated merit giveway thread from different users for the last 4months+ I have notice some common mistakes or will i say misuse of the merit system from different giveways threads starters and I'll like to give some suggestion.

If you're thinking of starting a giveway thread, this thread [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source can serve as a perfect example of how your giveway should be structured and how it should be managed. The style of your thread is a personal choose but you should try to keep the thread as clean and decent as possible to avoid misuse therefore;

• Style of meriting your applicants:  You have to understand merit was implemented to highlight quality posts so when a link to a post is submitted it'll be more appropriate to merit the submitted post not link to submitted post. As meriting the link simple means you're highlighting that post as a quality post instead of the main post the link was supposed to redirect to.
  
  Also meriting the main post instead of link is more beneficial to the OP as merited post are likable to draw more attention of reader and also other meriters which might give the OP additional advantages in recieving more merit on his post but on the link it has no benefits so if you're using the meriting on link to serve as a form of recognition of deserving post, you can do that with reply after the main post most have recieved merits.

• Most advisable to use a self moderated thread: A self moderated thread helps you moderate spam/off topic reply on your thread which in return helps reduce the workload on moderators in regards to reviewing off topic or spam posts.

• Use a submission format: To make things easier for you to review, you should employ a submission format for your applicants instead of just requesting for a link. Maybe you can ask for the category the post they're submitting can fit in example; was the post a guide, opinion, technical reply, analysis, help to other forum user etc something that give you an idea of what you should look out for when reading their post.

• Put more emphasis on past unmerited post: To avoid getting taking advantage of, you should concentrate on unmeriting past contributions that must have been missed since that was the initial idea behind giveway threads that way new post or reply won't be made just to take advantage of your merit giveway thread and over time this criteria can be adjusted to accommodate more future posts.
  

I choosed the beginner and help board to post this information as it's the most likely board for merit giveways threads. Hope I get my message across.

[nakamura12]

I'm also with your idea. I also notice that when I joined a merit giveaway and I did receive merit but when I check the merited post instead the post I made providing the link of my post that I think is constructive or merit worthy the merited post is the one got merited and not the post I provide. I'll provide an example of what you mean. Let's say that this is the post that is merited from the user who started the giveaway rather than clicking the link I provided and redirected to the said post that is worthy to give reward.

[chenille]

Assumed that Merit giveaways have often a limited allocation of sMerit defined by the giveaway starter I would announce a limited period of time until when users can submit links to their unmerited or under-merited posts. After this "application" time is expired the Merit giveaway starter can review all the applications and give merit to the most valuable posts.

Often, it happens that fast applications receive the Merit and the allocated amount of sMerit is distributed completely very soon that the late applicants don't receive Merit despite their linked posts are much better than the ones of the other applicants only because they were faster for their application.
If the giveaway starter collects all applications first he can review them diligently and spent the allocated Merit for the best ones. That would ensure to give the Merit really to the best posts and be independant if users applied first or late.

This should be considered if normal users are offering a Merit giveaway because their number of sMerit is limited. To guarantee a maximum of fairness a review after all applications are submitted would be the best solution for an equitable Merit giveaway. 

[Sharon121212]

I choosed the beginner and help board to post this information as it's the most likely board for merit giveways threads. Hope I get my message across.

Most recently merit give away thread started are moved by moderators to the off topic section.


Your message hold some quality in it. But I would like to add that there should be a standard for someone to start a merit give away thread so that the whole idea of merit give away wouldn't be abused or used for ulterior motives.

[2double0]

I choosed the beginner and help board to post this information as it's the most likely board for merit giveways threads. Hope I get my message across.

Most recently merit give away thread started are moved by moderators to the off topic section.


Your message hold some quality in it. But I would like to add that there should be a standard for someone to start a merit give away thread so that the whole idea of merit give away wouldn't be abused or used for ulterior motives.

Even if there is a standard set by someone (like my example), the mods have been actively moving all such giveaway threads to Off-topic part of the forum. I think that the word 'Giveaway' itself is not what the admins want us to show and that could be due to the reason that merits were never meant for giveaways as they are not something which should be given as an incentive but rather a reward. I may have misunderstood and I will be changing a few things in my thread later today after studying a bit more about how to let convert my giveaway into a rewarding thread based on high standards.

Note: You quoted OP's post 2 times, I mean that there is an extra quote made by you over your quoted OP's post.
You can see that I FTFY in my quotes.

[Quickseller]

For my thread, I have a criteria that I am generally looking for, but I am generally willing to be very flexible in terms of what I am willing to accept. In general, as long as it is clear you are putting a decent amount of effort into the posts you cite, and generally know what you are talking about, you will receive some amount of merit from me so long as I have some available.

The only exception to the above is the person needing to submit at least two posts (I prefer more), if you only submit one post, I will generally sent you a PM asking for a second post to look at, however if your one post is especially helpful, and after a quick review of your post history, I believe your post history is strong, I will generally give some amount of merit, if I have any available.

[tranthidung]

It is true that more merited threads tend to catch attention of readers, but it is personal rights of merit-giveway topics' authors. They have rights to do anything they want. Moreover, real users will spend their time to read new threads (without a single merit) with eyes-caught title. In contrast, shitposters don't even care to read highly-merited threads.
And, please fix a typo.

Also meriting the main post instead of link is more beneficial to the OP as merited post are likable to draw more attention of reader and also other meriters which might give the OP additional advantages in recieving more merit on his post but on the link it has no benefits so if you're using the meriting on link to serve as a form of recognition of deserving post, you can do that with reply after the main post most have recieved merits.

Should emphasize that self-moderation only be set up when user create topics. After that, they won't be able to add option to make their topics as self-moderate threads, at least by now (when theymos has not added such option).

Most advisable to use a self moderated thread: A self moderated thread helps you moderate spam/off topic reply on your thread which in return

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

It is true that more merited threads tend to catch attention of readers, but it is personal rights of merit-giveway topics' authors. They have rights to do anything they want.

That's why the thread is titled suggestion and beside irrespective of what ever right you have, you have to make use of the system rightly. merit was introduced to highlight quality post that means technically any post we see merits on are supposed to classified as quality post and not link to quality. It's understandable when you send merit to a member for highlighting other users post worth meriting (not necessary) you can as well look through his history for a quality post he/she have written and merit it. but if you're to merit the user that submitted his own post then go merit the main post not link to post. There's a reason why he submitted the link to that post so if you want to reward his contribution, do it on his main post. It's a suggestion.

Also what're you trying to correct on my OP, the word is spelled recieved and that's how I wrote it.

[tranthidung]

I'm hoping that this system will increase post quality by:
 - Forcing people to post high-quality stuff in order to rank up. If you just post garbage, you will never get even 1 merit point, and you will therefore never be able to put links in your signature, etc.
 - Highlighting good posts with the "Merited by" line.

Now, it's time to look back main objectives of merit system (two main objectives quoted above). You are right, fella. I agree to disagree, but let me explain a little bit about the difference between our perspectives. In my own side, meriting a post serves main purpose is because it is a good, and helpful one. If I see it as a helpful one, for me at least, it deserves merits. If I see it as a good post, but just likely helpful for others (not me, because I already know such stuffs), I might or might not give it merits. I don't think we should stick with the idea to give post merit(s) because we should or have to highlight it as a good post with merits as a mean to do it. Using merit(s) properly will show both two purposes, but we should not force ourselves to stick with only one of the two purposes.

[Harlot]

You've missed on important part anf that is not all people can put up their own merit giveaway thread. People who aren't really a merit sender in the first place shouldn't even bother putting up their own merit giveaway thread as a lot of people will view the thread to be serving another purpose like receiving merits in return to tank up or just to setup a thread in order to give merits back to their alt account. Yes anyone can create their giveaway thread but if you don't want to look suspicious or a worthless member to others you just stick to finding good post and sending them merits personally on your own.

[jademaxsuy]

I haven't seem merit giveaways lately in the forum after quickseller and OGnastys merit giveaway thread. It seems that most users are hoarding merits? Well, I do hope I am.wrong since the usual active member here been had merited posts that are constructive. I guess only few users had done hoarding smerits probably due to inactive in the forum. Some merit source had been giving their 50 smerits to users whom.they think worth it and is credible in giving merits.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I haven't seem merit giveaways lately in the forum after quickseller and OGnastys merit giveaway thread. It seems that most users are hoarding merits?

That's not the case, the lack of merit giveway thread doesn't mean people are hoarding smerits, infact we have more users awarding deserving post without creating a merit giveway thread (it isn't mandatory to create a thread to merit posts) also if you're in search of merit giveways you should look more in the off topic board because most giveway recently have been moved to the board.

[rosezionjohn]

It would be nice also if you open giveaway thread on your local board and maybe merit only posts/comments made in that board. This may improve the quality and will also keep your local active.

[The Cryptovator]

I am not a fan of merit giveaway threads lately although I was open thread at beginning. Especially who is lower rank like member. To be honest I can't hold my merit ever. I always try to spread all over forum. So I don't think I need open giveaway thread ( in case I am not busy). I think it's very simple task to spread merit like 50/100. And most of giveaway thread don't have much merit. Sadly some of them never spend any smerit but they opened giveaway thread. It's really not wise decision.

[DdmrDdmr]

It would be nice also if you open giveaway thread on your local board and maybe merit only posts/comments made in that board. This may improve the quality and will also keep your local active.

"Giveaway" is rather a deceptive term here, since the point of this type of thread is to award sMerits to decent enough posts, not to give it away (but that is just terminology ...).

Most of the local boards don’t have that many sMerits awarded anyway. Looking over my latest update (see re:Merit & new rank requirements), out of the 22 Local Boards (Other Languages counted as one), only 6 were awarded over 50 sMerits during the past complete week of data (13/05/2019 .. 19/05/2019). The remaining 16 Local Boards were well below that figure on average.

Anyone with enough merits to start a proper sMerit Awarding Thread on a Local Board can just as easily browse around their Local Board and award them likely fairly easily. I browse around mine pretty often, and even so the amount of merits I award there is pretty low in the big picture (19,20% of my awarded sMerits all time; 19,30% during 2019 so far). I may miss something out, so I do recheck the threads every now and then, and do not find it necessary nor interesting to set-up a thread of a kind there.

What would help more, in general terms is to have more eyes on the board, which would take away weight to the subjectivity factor on boards where there are not many people awarding sMerits, in favour of a broader scope of criteria and scouting capabilities.

[welovedcrypto]

Don't know about other but here is what I personally think.

Do not give merits to the users who has already earned enough merits in last few days. Reason is that they are capable enough to earn merits in future.

Give merits to such person who are not earning merits or very slow, for example any user is sharing his suggestion or giving advice () to anyone and the starter of thread has not merit to give that person but his posts helps him (I know its hard to find such posts)

Send merits to low rank users do not send merits to Hero or legendary users, they mostly don't need merits.

Do not put limits on sending merits.

Regards

[Oyarebu]

Don't know about other but here is what I personally think.

Do not give merits to the users who has already earned enough merits in last few days. Reason is that they are capable enough to earn merits in future.

No one among them that have earned enough merit that need no more merit mate. They all struggle for more merit to rank-up even at the highest peak Legendary. Some of these merit guru earners have already earn into our merit future. 

Give merits to such person who are not earning merits or very slow, for example any user is sharing his suggestion or giving advice () to anyone and the starter of thread has not merit to give that person but his posts helps him (I know its hard to find such posts)

Remember, shillers aren't belong here and never will they get merit to their post or replies. Never be discourage mate, i feel what exactly you feel, but mine wasn't intentional but put up your best and you will get there too.

Send merits to low rank users do not send merits to Hero or legendary users, they mostly don't need merits.

Says WHO? they crave for more merit mate, they mostly need more merit than you think.   

Do not put limits on sending merits.

  To who? there must be a limit to avoid over dose of it.

Regards

Regard too.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Don't know about other but here is what I personally think.

Do not give merits to the users who has already earned enough merits in last few days. Reason is that they are capable enough to earn merits in future.

You have a point and i have also seen some members employing this strategy athough it all boils down to why the merit giveway thread was created, some threads are created to merit quality post, such thread don't have to follow your suggestions while other giveaway threads are created to merit members that aren't recieving enough merit. OPs of those type of giveways usually follow your suggestion.

Send merits to low rank users do not send merits to Hero or legendary users, they mostly don't need merits.

Unless the thread have some special rank it intend to attend to, i don't see a reason why not to merit higher ranked users especially as merit purpose is to highlight quality contribution and not for some charity purpose.

[Coyster]

Send merits to low rank users do not send merits to Hero or legendary users, they mostly don't need merits.

Merits simply stands out as an indication or a recognition of someone's efforts, contribution, help, etc and it is not rank specific.
Whoever contributes or makes quality posts deserves a sort of recognition and that can only be done on bitcointalk via merits.

High or low rank members deserve or should be, as they are, allowed to earn merits whenever their posts stand out as being quality, but of course that's subjective.
Everyone should just put in considerable amount of effort and allow others to judge if their posts count for recognition or not

[welovedcrypto]

Send merits to low rank users do not send merits to Hero or legendary users, they mostly don't need merits.

Merits simply stands out as an indication or a recognition of someone's efforts, contribution, help, etc and it is not rank specific.
Whoever contributes or makes quality posts deserves a sort of recognition and that can only be done on bitcointalk via merits.

High or low rank members deserve or should be, as they are, allowed to earn merits whenever their posts stand out as being quality, but of course that's subjective.
Everyone should just put in considerable amount of effort and allow others to judge if their posts count for recognition or not

Well what I mean is that, If there is a giveaway then it should target those who needs. Here "needs" means those who need to rank up. "And Higher member ranks don't need Merits from giveaway."

Good posters (mostly) getting merits from best posts. So giving them from giveaway is not suitable.

Regards.