Merit awarding as an alternative to posting.

[Jet Cash]

I was discussing the awarding of merits with another member recently, and he made me aware that we have both started to award merits as an alternative to posting a reply in a thread. If you agree with a poster, but don't have much to add to the point he has made, do you think it is good practice to award merits without quoting and posting an agreement? It will certainly keep the thread cleaner and easier to read, but it may be difficult for those seeking to build a post count to restrain themselves.

[mocacinno]

I have actually did this a few times myself... Eventough i do take extra caution to only reward merit to a post i agree with if the post is also well-formed and informative... I'd never merit a one line "i agree"-type of post, even if i agreed with said one-liner...
It's a grey area, this is not why merits were introduced, but by making sure the post i merit is also decent quality, i don't think i'm doing anything wrong.

[TryNinja]

Sometimes I just want a “Like” or “Agree” for that. Some posts aren’t exactly worth a merit, but you still want to vouch his idea without needing to create a post for that. If I recall correctly, this was probably the suggestion that resulted in the merit system.

[dkbit98]

Sometimes I just want a “Like” or “Agree” just for that. Some posts aren’t exactly worth a merit, but you still want to vouch his idea without needing to create a post for that.

LIKE feature would be nice to see implemented in Bitcointalk forum,
as I know that many members simply don't have merits at all
and they still want to somehow reward member for his effort

[Jet Cash]

Likes and dislikes can often start flame wars. Also, I find that begging for likes on YouTube is annoying. Steemit's demands for payment for likes (upvotes) are even worse in my opinion.

[dkbit98]

Likes and dislikes can often start flame wars. Also, I find that begging for likes on YouTube is annoying.

As I said before ....many users do not have merits.

What about them?

That will only make them more quiet

[akhjob]

I was discussing the awarding of merits with another member recently, and he made me aware that we have both started to award merits as an alternative to posting a reply in a thread. If you agree with a poster, but don't have much to add to the point he has made, do you think it is good practice to award merits without quoting and posting an agreement? It will certainly keep the thread cleaner and easier to read, but it may be difficult for those seeking to build a post count to restrain themselves.

The idea seems to be great for merit sources but what about those (like me) who don't have enough merits (i have 7smerits atm)  to give it to each and every post they agree upon and don't have anything to add? I think it's not practical for everyone. As mentioned earlier a "like" button would do the job. But merit, it has to be given to deserving posts.

Edit: Didn't see dkbit98's last post before posting :/ More like same thoughts.

[hd49728]

While we will not be directly moderating this, I encourage people to give merit to posts that are objectively high-quality, not just posts that you agree with.

It is not too bad idea, but idea for merit awarding to show agreement with post owners should be applied only for high-quality posts, as theymos stated very long time ago.
If we simply I agree with this post, then I award this post owner a merit as a proof of my agreement, it might result in over-arguements from merit abusers.
Furthermore, merits should be awarded not only to high-quality posts that we agree with, but also to high-quality posts that we disagree with.

Sometimes I just want a “Like” or “Agree” for that. Some posts aren’t exactly worth a merit, but you still want to vouch his idea without needing to create a post for that. If I recall correctly, this was probably the suggestion that resulted in the merit system.

Lots of users suggested about that Like button, or even moved further by suggesting automatic conversion of Like to Merit, ie. 10 likes ~ 1 merit. Unfortunately, the forum is not Facebook, or Twitter, and that Like-Merit conversion only cause more abusements.

[TryNinja]

As I said before ....many users do not have merits.

What about them?

That will only make them more quiet

Merit isn’t meant for that anyways. An “Agree” would be more about pointing out your opinion without you needing to create a redundant post (not necessarily reward a good post). However, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen.

[mk4]

As I said before ....many users do not have merits.

What about them?

That will only make them more quiet

What do you suggest they'd do then? If they just simply agree on a certain user's reply but doesn't have anything to add to the conversation, then they wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. If they reply "this", "true!", I agree!" or something along those lines without giving more information or adding anything constructive then the reply would be reported and deleted anyway.

[dkbit98]

As I said before ....many users do not have merits.

What about them?

That will only make them more quiet

What do you suggest they'd do then? If they just simply agree on a certain user's reply but doesn't have anything to add to the conversation, then they wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. If they reply "this", "true!", I agree!" or something along those lines without giving more information or adding anything constructive then the reply would be reported and deleted anyway.

They should know better, and I think nobody will answers "true!", I agree! thanks, I like..."

I don't agree that you must give merit and keep quiet.... to make topic or thread 'clean'.
If you want 'clean' topic then lock it and enjoy

[mk4]

I don't agree that you must give merit and keep quiet.... to make topic or thread 'clean'.
If you want 'clean' topic then lock it and enjoy

Giving merits has always been optional anyway; you can simply not give merit if you don't want to as no one is forcing you. The merit just gives kudos points to the poster; pretty much giving a bit of legitimacy to the post/reply if no one makes negative responses or counter-arguments towards the reply.

[NeuroticFish]

Merit is indeed for awarding usefulness, not that you agree or like what the poster wrote.
I also think that some sort of "free" alternative for merit could be useful. Yes, some sort of like, especially since posts like +1 are not what we want to see in this forum.

Edit: should I have been quoting TryNinja's post and add a +1?  

[pugman]

I was discussing the awarding of merits with another member recently, and he made me aware that we have both started to award merits as an alternative to posting a reply in a thread. If you agree with a poster, but don't have much to add to the point he has made, do you think it is good practice to award merits without quoting and posting an agreement? It will certainly keep the thread cleaner and easier to read, but it may be difficult for those seeking to build a post count to restrain themselves.

Definitely, you don't even have to merit it, if a user doesn't have anything useful or new information to add on to the existing conversation, there's no actual use of the post except for the monetary gain the person receives in form of the signature campaign payment. I see so many people just using the concept of the verbose on an excessive scale here and that's usually nothing but spam that makes sense when you read it but is still spam and is unnecessary.

[jackg]

Likes and dislikes can often start flame wars.

This is my issue with stack. If you post something that's correct but the community hates it, you just end up with a load of downvotes (it shouldn't happen but it does - A LOT)...

Sometimes I just want a “Like” or “Agree” for that.

@jetty, does this come with stock smf (the out-of-the-box kind)? I saw it on fittotalk and a couple of your forums and I'm wondering if that's an extension or comes with smf?

I like the idea of using likes or merits (like what we have now) maybe we could have a softer version of merits (we could call them commendations or kudos points).

I rmember this sort of thing used to be done by PM before the merit system so we at least have evolved by then.

[suchmoon]

Please don't use merits as a substitute for "agree" and don't make "+1" posts.

It's a discussion forum so discuss. If you don't have anything else to add other than "+1" then just don't.

[dkbit98]

Please don't use merits as a substitute for "agree" and don't make "+1" posts.

It's a discussion forum so discuss. If you don't have anything else to add other than "+1" then just don't.

100% agree.
Merit can NEVER be alternative to posting
.

[logfiles]

The fact is that sMerits are very low amongst active members who are willing to recirculate it or would love to Merit good posts when they come across any.  I often come across good posts and posts of those who have made a good effort to expose scammers but you find yourself not being able to merit them. You have to wait until you get a couple of merits and then you go back to their post.

So i think Meriting as a form of agreeing to a post won't really work to common members who usually have 1-2 sMerit per day unless you are a merit source

[LoyceV]

If you agree with a poster, but don't have much to add to the point he has made, do you think it is good practice to award merits without quoting and posting an agreement?

I wouldn't do it for posts you "agree with", but for posts that are worth reading. I've done this to posts that stated what I wanted to add to the thread already, so posting it again would be spammy. So I try to highlight the post by Meriting it.
I guess it's caused by actually reading the thread, instead of just responding to the title or OP. I'd say that's a good thing.

[tranthidung]

I wouldn't do it for posts you "agree with", but for posts that are worth reading. I've done this to posts that stated what I wanted to add to the thread already, so posting it again would be spammy. So I try to highlight the post by Meriting it.
I guess it's caused by actually reading the thread, instead of just responding to the title or OP. I'd say that's a good thing.

I agreed with Loyce. Merit is for high quality posts. Generally, such posts deserve merits, and should be highlighted by merits.

Agree or disagree with posts, it should not be a determinant factor which decides readers send their smerits (if you have them) to posts or not. If posts are worth-reading, send smerits to them is good, and matched with what theymos envisioned how merits should be used.
Using smerit this way will give posters more motivation to keep making good posts. They will be inspired by merits they received, even from users whom do disagree with what they wrote.

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.

Let's take WO thread as an example. We all know that most of guys in that thread are bullish bitcoin investors, so it is normal to see how they have likely
'unfriendly' feelings with people whom post bitcoin will fall or fail to break that resistance. However, I think we need such guys to keep our minds as neutrally as possible. So their bearish posts if made with enough convincing proofs, deserve merits, IMO.