@theymos, if you can decay merits, why can't you refill / recharge them?

[Stedsm]

I am not one of those who are coming here to fight you, but I want to put this question because I've been watching many good posts and I don't want to send links to merit sources to merit them as they may or may not do it if they like / don't like it. Another thing is, I'm not interested in begging for sMerits at all because then, it's not worth it to send them to the deserving ones because those merits will be said as came to me as a charity.

Now, when you can decay as it's all under your authority, isn't it possible for you to add sMerits to active merits senders' profiles and see if they actively do it ahead or not? And if I don't do it, just decay them after a given timeline to me? When you can set a timeline for bans and everything, why not set a deadline for the use of merits too? This will also speed up spending of sMerits a bit more. Anyways, I'm a nobody when it comes to suggesting anything to you @theymos, but being a good user of your forum, I thought I should tell you how it feels when we see a good deserving post but can't send them merits due to being out of sMerits. It's just like a guy watching a food item, wishes to buy it but when searching on his pocket, finds nothing.

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[Foxpup]

Now, when you can decay as it's all under your authority, isn't it possible for you to add sMerits to active merits senders' profiles and see if they actively do it ahead or not? And if I don't do it, just decay them after a given timeline to me?

Because that's pretty much exactly how merit sources work already. Merit sources don't have to spend any or all of their sMerits, and while source sMerit doesn't decay, it doesn't accumulate either: if a source doesn't spend their monthly sMerits allocation, they don't get any more.

(Incidentally, sMerits do not decay and never have. That message just indicates that they might decay if theymos changes his mind about that, but he hasn't yet.)

[Stedsm]

Now, when you can decay as it's all under your authority, isn't it possible for you to add sMerits to active merits senders' profiles and see if they actively do it ahead or not? And if I don't do it, just decay them after a given timeline to me?

Because that's pretty much exactly how merit sources work already. Merit sources don't have to spend any or all of their sMerits, and while source sMerit doesn't decay, it doesn't accumulate either: if a source doesn't spend their monthly sMerits allocation, they don't get any more.

(Incidentally, sMerits do not decay and never have. That message just indicates that they might decay if theymos changes his mind about that, but he hasn't yet.)

Ok, I accept that merit sources need to work like that to remain a merit source, can't theymos do it with normal users too who demand some sMerits? Is begging the only option that remains if all our tries at earning Merits don't become successful in order to send our potential sMerits to a compiled list of some highly qualified posts? I know that such posts which have high quality get merited already by one or another active merit sender, but why can't we receive a refill or recharge on our sMerits (not asking to change my received Merits number but just add some sMerits to our profile to send some merits to a few posts we like)?

One more suggestion on this, if theymos is going to continue how it's all going, is it then possible for him to change his structure of Merit:sMerits from 1:0.5 to 1:1?

[DiamondCardz]

One more suggestion on this, if theymos is going to continue how it's all going, is it then possible for him to change his structure of Merit:sMerits from 1:0.5 to 1:1?

Absolutely not. Really really bad idea. You could just bounce merit back and forth between you and as many users you wanted, up to the 50 merit limit per person, and farm merit incredibly quickly. Way too open to abuse or just stupid usage in general.

That halving serves a very good purpose, if it wasn't there then merit sources would barely be needed.

[Foxpup]

Ok, I accept that merit sources need to work like that to remain a merit source, can't theymos do it with normal users too who demand some sMerits?

Theymos occasionally promotes normal users to the status of merit source, though you'll need to do more than "demand some sMerits" to be worthy of consideration.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

The best procedure is the one that is already in place, which is through applying to become a Merit Source. The whole point of Merit Sources is to pour new merits into the system through a set of people that have been screened to some extent, allowing for a certain level of trust in that they will award the sMerits with a generally good criteria.

Opening this set of Merit Sources to a larger number I figure is doable and would bring further plurality and diversity in the awarding criteria, but opening the scope of sMerit refills to “active merit senders” (not that there are too many besides Merit Sources) by applying a numerical criteria, rather than a screened process is risky due to the derivate value of sMerits.

The 1:1 ratio you mention would create thousands of sMerit circle-jerks, even simply between 2 forum profiles, defeating the whole purpose.

[Stedsm]

Ok, I accept that merit sources need to work like that to remain a merit source, can't theymos do it with normal users too who demand some sMerits?

Theymos occasionally promotes normal users to the status of merit source, though you'll need to do more than "demand some sMerits" to be worthy of consideration.

Though I'm unable to give too much time to the forum, not bragging about myself but I guess I'm doing enough in what I'm contributing in order to get some merits and be able to get sMerits to send to others, but to me, merits is now totally luck-based when we consider a person like Vadi2323 involved as a merit source.  

--snip--

The 1:1 ratio you mention would create thousands of sMerit circle-jerks, even simply between 2 forum profiles, defeating the whole purpose.

Why would that be bad? Instead, there will then be many bans if such merit abuses will take place and that will be specifically for those jerks who will try to do it. But yeah, on other hand, that may be bad for the forum as merit farmers (who will do it after this gets approved) will be able to sell more merits through this (I never thought about that).

[Deathwing]

Ok, I accept that merit sources need to work like that to remain a merit source, can't theymos do it with normal users too who demand some sMerits?

Theymos occasionally promotes normal users to the status of merit source, though you'll need to do more than "demand some sMerits" to be worthy of consideration.

Though I'm unable to give too much time to the forum, not bragging about myself but I guess I'm doing enough in what I'm contributing in order to get some merits and be able to get sMerits to send to others, but to me, merits is now totally luck-based when we consider a person like Vadi2323 involved as a merit source.  

--snip--

The 1:1 ratio you mention would create thousands of sMerit circle-jerks, even simply between 2 forum profiles, defeating the whole purpose.

Why would that be bad? Instead, there will then be many bans if such merit abuses will take place and that will be specifically for those jerks who will try to do it. But yeah, on other hand, that may be bad for the forum as merit farmers (who will do it after this gets approved) will be able to sell more merits through this (I never thought about that).

but to me, merits is now totally luck-based

It really shouldn't be. Earning merit, actually, is really easy. I earned a substantial amount of merit in the last few weeks by just writing some informational replies and creating threads on the Newbies section for Local (Turkish) board. Although it may not seem like it, a lot of people do pay attention to what you are sharing, writing.

Why would that be bad? Instead, there will then be many bans if such merit abuses will take place

This requires a lot of human intervention. Mods are humans. Not robots.

[hugeblack]

Why not bookmark good posts and give Merits as soon as they are available to you?
The distribution of merits varies from source to others, where sources like suchmoon get a few hundred or thousands of sMerits while others get 10.

Now, when you can decay as it's all under your authority, isn't it possible for you to add sMerits to active merits senders' profiles

It is difficult to determine because the activity is related to the availability of sMerits, so the best measure is how you can identify high-quality topics by posting your top 10 list.

[Jet Cash]

Where are all these good posts that deserve merits? I don't find very many, ad I've got a lot of sMerit to awatd. OK, I've got some strange ideas - I don't open threads with all caps titles, and I don't merit posts that misuse quotes, and I have a few other things that cause me to skip posts. I've lost interest in discussing merits, activity, bounty, reputation and such topics. I'd like to discuss Bitcoin, economics, politics and other crypto issues, but it is difficult to find good discussions. I've tried to start a few, and to create a few projects, but they don't seem to generate any interest, so I end up letting them decay.

Maybe I'm getting old or something, but I'm finding it hard to read the boards and retain interest. Bitcoin and crypto are going through an exciting period, and the forum should be vibrant, but we seem to be stuck on comparisons with gold, and other topics that were relevant 5 years ago. I've got moths in my merit purse, give me some topics and posts so that I can unzip it.

[DireWolfM14]

I have a feeling Stedsm is misinterpreting the "decaying" of sMerit, and what it means.

For every Merit point you earn, you only have 1/2 of an sMerit to give away.  For example: if suchmoon gives you 4 merits for a post, you will have two sMerit to give away.  If you choose to give those merits to Foxpup, she will have 1 sMerit to give away.  If she gives it a newbie who's never earned a merit before, he'll have to wait until he is awarded another before he has 1 sMerit to give away.  

That's the "decaying" effect currently in place.  It doesn't mean that your sMerit will go away if you don't spend them.  They will be there for ever, but they don't do anybody any good in that state.

[suchmoon]

I don't want to send links to merit sources to merit them as they may or may not do it if they like / don't like it.

Actually there are merit sources who are expecting you to do that, so don't hesitate. And if that's not enough - apply to be a merit source yourself.

Whatever you decide to do, don't let "many good posts" to go unmerited but also don't expect someone else to fix this. It's pretty much a community effort with some mild oversight from above. Do your part.

sources like suchmoon get a few hundred or thousands of sMerits

"get" is a very generous description of what's actually going on

[hosseinimr93]

--snip--

The 1:1 ratio you mention would create thousands of sMerit circle-jerks, even simply between 2 forum profiles, defeating the whole purpose.

Why would that be bad? Instead, there will then be many bans if such merit abuses will take place and that will be specifically for those jerks who will try to do it. But yeah, on other hand, that may be bad for the forum as merit farmers (who will do it after this gets approved) will be able to sell more merits through this (I never thought about that).

There would be many abuses that will never be detected. If there are two accounts sending merits to each other, yes that would be easily detected. But if there 20-30 accounts that farm merit, wouldn't be easy to detected.
Assume that account A sends 50 merits to account B and account B sends 50 merits to account C. It's not easy to prove that the merit system has been abused. Those accounts can claim that the post has been helpful to them.
The 1:0.5 ratio is great and I am sure Theymos will never change that.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I don't want to send links to merit sources to merit them as they may or may not do it if they like / don't like it.

Just speaking for myself here, please feel free to PM me with links to posts/threads you think deserve merits.  I've been blasting merits this month, but I'm sure I'm not seeing many posts which deserve them and I'm more than happy to take a look at anything that gets sent to me via PM.  If I disagree, I disagree and I won't merit the posts--but the way I see it, it doesn't inconvenience me at all.

That goes for anyone, too.  PM me if you think there are any under-merited threads or posts.  Theymos gives sMerits to merit sources for distribution, and that's basically how it's worked so far and will continue to.  If non-merit sources got extra sMerits, it wouldn't work.  You have to be accepted as a merit source, meaning that you've shown good judgement in handing out merits in the past and show promise of doing the same in the future.  Giving out sMerits willy-nilly would just promote merit sales and/or abuse.