Merit source observations

[fillippone]

The number of 17 additional merit source was mentioned in an earlier post but the number of total merit source has dropped from 109 to 88 according to the stats page. Is this a unilateral decision by theymos or a collective one between him and some senior members/admin?

Are you implying that out of 109 old merit sources, Theymos created 17 new Merit Sources, and destroyed 38 other MS?
This makes me wondering who was demoted. I had no clue about such an high number of MS being so inactive.
Well, I have a few ideas, but I don't know how to check for that number in reality.

[Odohu]

The number of 17 additional merit source was mentioned in an earlier post but the number of total merit source has dropped from 109 to 88 according to the stats page. Is this a unilateral decision by theymos or a collective one between him and some senior members/admin?

Are you implying that out of 109 old merit sources, Theymos created 17 new Merit Sources, and destroyed 38 other MS?
This makes me wondering who was demoted. I had no clue about such an high number of MS being so inactive.
Well, I have a few ideas, but I don't know how to check for that number in reality.

In reality, that is what it is. If we remove some members that have left the forum, at least those we know of and accounts that were banned like that of Ratimov, that will drop the numbers and for those, it's perfectly justified that they be removed from the list. But I don't know if such accounts are that many yo make up for the 38 MS that were dropped.

[EFS]

Are you implying that out of 109 old merit sources, Theymos created 17 new Merit Sources, and destroyed 38 other MS?
This makes me wondering who was demoted. I had no clue about such an high number of MS being so inactive.
Well, I have a few ideas, but I don't know how to check for that number in reality.

It's possible. I see 89 users who have 0 source merit, which means they were merit sources at one point and now they aren't. I don't have the previous source list but 38 demoted sources in this update sounds about right.
Some of them didn't even login to the forum. So even though the total number of sources and allocation has decreased, we can observe a general increase in merits because now we have more active sources.

[philipma1957]

Well, even if people didn't announce they had become sources, it wouldn't have taken long for others to notice.
After a long time, theymos made an update to the list of merit sources. Some inactive sources were removed, some those who applied were accepted. I won't name names here, but it'll soon become clear who the new sources are.
An update regarding merit system was needed. I see this as a positive development for the forum. Good luck to all new merit sources.

So 17 new MS if my calculations are correct. I see Theymos wanted to buy a bit of peace
I feel sorry for the next person who will start a topic to become a MS, because he/she will be waiting a long, long time .

From what can be seen, 8 members have confirmed that they have become MS, and there are another 14 people on the public list who have applied, including myself. I haven't received any message yet, nor do I see anything changed on the sMerits page.

This would literally mean that there will be no new MS until the end of this decade.

You are a good poster here are 12 merits.

If 88 give 30000 merits they get over 300 a month to pass out.

I WAS TOLD MY merit number via pm and it is way lower than 300 a month.

Not an issue as I get a lot of merits from many people but I don't  mind reading posts and giving merits out.

[Lucius]

You are a good poster here are 12 merits.
~snip~

Thanks for replenishing my thin sMerits supply as always - they will be awarded in the best possible way. Who knows, maybe I'll get some kind of gift on the occasion of the tenth anniversary on the forum

[JollyGood]

That is exactly what seems to have happened. Before the recent flurry of noises some of the new merit sources were making in their celebratory posts, there were 109 merit source according to the stats page. It was then reported b a member of staff that 17 new merit source were added however the stats page shows 88 in total: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=sources

Are you implying that out of 109 old merit sources, Theymos created 17 new Merit Sources, and destroyed 38 other MS?
This makes me wondering who was demoted. I had no clue about such an high number of MS being so inactive.
Well, I have a few ideas, but I don't know how to check for that number in reality.

[fillippone]

In reality, that is what it is. If we remove some members that have left the forum, at least those we know of and accounts that were banned like that of Ratimov,

I don’t think the user formerly known as Ratimov was banned, but I guess he voluntarily left the forum.
Of course, him and o_e_l_e_o, who for sure voluntarily left the forum, were two heavy weights in the MS space.
Still interested what happened to MS.
Did any of the current MS experienced change in MS allowance? This is another point.

[JayJuanGee]

In reality, that is what it is. If we remove some members that have left the forum, at least those we know of and accounts that were banned like that of Ratimov,

I don’t think the user formerly known as Ratimov was banned, but I guess he voluntarily left the forum.
Of course, him and o_e_l_e_o, who for sure voluntarily left the forum, were two heavy weights in the MS space.
Still interested what happened to MS.
Did any of the current MS experienced change in MS allowance? This is another point.

You may have had missed the drama around Ratimov, and I don't have the exact link, but he changed his name (and supposedly sold his account) and so I am pretty sure he ended up getting banned or something.  He also went on a post and/or thread deleting rampage.  It was not a very pretty history.. and maybe that is why I don't have such links in the top of my head or desires to wade through such drama..

[babo]

I don’t think the user formerly known as Ratimov was banned, but I guess he voluntarily left the forum.
Of course, him and o_e_l_e_o, who for sure voluntarily left the forum, were two heavy weights in the MS space.
Still interested what happened to MS.
Did any of the current MS experienced change in MS allowance? This is another point.

If I remember correctly there is no official list for privacy and security reasons
furthermore we cannot know if xoy decides to leave the forum for non-obvious reasons

let's say that the update done, as it was done, is fine and I believe it is done every so many months

I'm quite satisfied with how it goes

[fillippone]

In reality, that is what it is. If we remove some members that have left the forum, at least those we know of and accounts that were banned like that of Ratimov,

I don’t think the user formerly known as Ratimov was banned, but I guess he voluntarily left the forum.
Of course, him and o_e_l_e_o, who for sure voluntarily left the forum, were two heavy weights in the MS space.
Still interested what happened to MS.
Did any of the current MS experienced change in MS allowance? This is another point.

You may have had missed the drama around Ratimov, and I don't have the exact link, but he changed his name (and supposedly sold his account) and so I am pretty sure he ended up getting banned or something.  He also went on a post and/or thread deleting rampage.  It was not a very pretty history.. and maybe that is why I don't have such links in the top of my head or desires to wade through such drama..

I totally missed the part of account selling.
I do remember he changed his name (so it might be nice thing to call him with his new name Symmetrick), and his deletion of messages.
On BPIP.org on the other hand, there are no sign of him being banned

[JayJuanGee]

I don’t think the user formerly known as Ratimov was banned, but I guess he voluntarily left the forum.
Of course, him and o_e_l_e_o, who for sure voluntarily left the forum, were two heavy weights in the MS space.
Still interested what happened to MS.
Did any of the current MS experienced change in MS allowance? This is another point.

If I remember correctly there is no official list for privacy and security reasons
furthermore we cannot know if xoy decides to leave the forum for non-obvious reasons

let's say that the update done, as it was done, is fine and I believe it is done every so many months

I'm quite satisfied with how it goes

Maybe in the past 7.5 years since the merit system started, theymos may have done 5-ish decently-sized adjustments to assigning of the merit sources and/or their quantity of smerits in their monthly source.. and then perhaps on a case-by-case bases, he may have made some one-off adjustments to add or remove a merit source for "reasons." Perhaps that is "enough?"

In reality, that is what it is. If we remove some members that have left the forum, at least those we know of and accounts that were banned like that of Ratimov,

I don’t think the user formerly known as Ratimov was banned, but I guess he voluntarily left the forum.
Of course, him and o_e_l_e_o, who for sure voluntarily left the forum, were two heavy weights in the MS space.
Still interested what happened to MS.
Did any of the current MS experienced change in MS allowance? This is another point.

You may have had missed the drama around Ratimov, and I don't have the exact link, but he changed his name (and supposedly sold his account) and so I am pretty sure he ended up getting banned or something.  He also went on a post and/or thread deleting rampage.  It was not a very pretty history.. and maybe that is why I don't have such links in the top of my head or desires to wade through such drama..

I totally missed the part of account selling.
I do remember he changed his name (so it might be nice thing to call him with his new name Symmetrick), and his deletion of messages.
On BPIP.org on the other hand, there are no sign of him being banned

For some reason, I recall something about banning, but yeah, I could be wrong.  It could be that he left on his own accord, but there was a lot of questions regarding how the account could have had been quite valuable to someone purchasing it, but then at the same time, even if the account had been sold, the hostility of the interactions in the past few weeks of Symmetrick's activity seemed to have been one of those rage quit kinds of activities.. that does not tend to have good endings.

O.k... your BPIP link helped me to hone in and see some of the late 2023 drama for anyone who might want to look at some of the threads discussing some of the drama around Symmetrick's account and then  activity.  Through Symmetrick's trust page from his profile, we see that forum staff Xal0lex reported that Symmetrick had been banned.

[fillippone]

O.k... your BPIP link helped me to hone in and see some of the late 2023 drama for anyone who might want to look at some of the threads discussing some of the drama around Symmetrick's account and then  activity.  Through Symmetrick's trust page from his profile, we see that forum staff Xal0lex reported that Symmetrick had been banned.

This is weird. Is it a bug on BPIP.org page?
Something to investigate, apparently.
Apart from this, I am not a big fan of meta-drama, and I think that wasn’t one of the brightest episode in the forum history.
I can’t find any value in reviving those moments.

[hosemary]

This is weird. Is it a bug on BPIP.org page?

BPIP gets the information about bans from the modlog and it doesn't have any informaton about Symmetrick's ban, because that was not reported in the modlog by forum.
As mentioned by LoyceV in this post, Symmetrick was proabably banned in the same way as satoshi and Lauda.

Edit:
I just noticed LoyceV had said the same thing on BPIP thread before I made this post.

[JayJuanGee]

O.k... your BPIP link helped me to hone in and see some of the late 2023 drama for anyone who might want to look at some of the threads discussing some of the drama around Symmetrick's account and then  activity.  Through Symmetrick's trust page from his profile, we see that forum staff Xal0lex reported that Symmetrick had been banned.

This is weird. Is it a bug on BPIP.org page?
Something to investigate, apparently.
Apart from this, I am not a big fan of meta-drama, and I think that wasn’t one of the brightest episode in the forum history.
I can’t find any value in reviving those moments.

I will tend to agree that sometimes there is not enough time in the day to get caught up in drama or reviewing some historical forum drama that might no longer be timely or relevant, yet sometimes if we become aware of some historical situation that we had not known previously, it can become difficult to completely ignore such situation.., Perhaps it is like being unable to resist slowing down and turning our attention (head and eyes) to the side of a road to try to see some details of a car wreck on the side of the road.. - a phenomena known as "rubber necking."

[fillippone]

I am writing here and bringing this thread back to life, as the merit source number seems to have dropped to 86.
Not sure how long this has been the case, but there has been a stark reduction from the latest observations (109, to 88 and now down to 86).
Any hint on this?

[LoyceV]

Any hint on this?

This post explains half the drop from 88 to 86.

[fillippone]

Any hint on this?

This post explains half the drop from 88 to 86.

Maybe I am not caffeinated enough today, but this would explain a drop from 88 to 87.
On a slightly embarrassing note, I apparently read that post and even commented on the thread, and I didn't remember about this.
I am old dude in a heatwave.

[LoyceV]

Maybe I am not caffeinated enough today, but this would explain a drop from 88 to 87.

That's what I said

On a slightly embarrassing note, I apparently read that post and even commented on the thread, and I didn't remember about this.

It's the other drink that causes memory loss

I am old dude in a heatwave.

Are you the one sending us heat for the coming week?

[fillippone]

Maybe I am not caffeinated enough today, but this would explain a drop from 88 to 87.

That's what I said

That’s what I sad as well.
Nit caffeinated enough!

It's the other drink that causes memory loss

Not sure drinking both you can cancel the effects and have a good working memory.

Are you the one sending us heat for the coming week?

Not at all. And as I am travelling now, I can tell you that being in an heatwave in a place that is not used to heatwaves (clearly, not Italy) is far worse than being in an heatwave.

[JeromeTash]

Looking at the OP, at one point we had 130 merit sources and now just 86. Now that's a massive drop! I don't know how many people have been applying to be merit sources but haven't yet been given  the responsibility but I don't think it is even more than 20.
Is this a case of reduced merit sources but with bigger amounts of sMerits vs what they had in the past?