Source merit increase.

[Jet Cash]

I've just been given a large increase in my source merit quota, and I'm not sure how to handle this. I've been awarding merits in ones and twos, but I plan to increase this. I'm going to be giving away 5 and 10 merit awards for posts that I like in a few categories. These will be -

Technical help for Bitcoin users
Quality topics on local economic issues, especially when related to crypto.
Political issues related to banking and international payments.

I'll add some more categories when I think of them.

[eternalgloom]

Same here, guess I'll start sending 3 - 5 merits at once from now on.
Not complaining though, I was always running out

I'm a big fan of the Project Development section myself, you'll find some good stuff there occasionally.
Lots of spam as well, but it's not as bad as other sections.

[AB de Royse777]

Good luck bud. You can afford the luxury.

In my case theymos is really very silent :-(
Still hanging there: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5178503.0

I really do not need merit but I need lots and lots of sMerits.

[LoyceV]

I'll quote this (again):

If they complain about amounts, tell them to complain to me. It's best if sources try to exhaust their source allocations, even if it means giving posts higher amounts than is typical. If you have 150 source merit and you only see 3 merit-worthy posts in a month, then I'd rather you over-give each of them 50 merit than let the merit expire. That way there are more people capable of sending merit, and the "merit economy" is less top-down.

I don't really agree though, and wouldn't just dump 50 Merit per post, so I'll leave it up to the reader how to interpret this.

After my last source increase (in January), I still managed to empty it by sending 1 Merit per post most of the time. My stats last Friday:

Code:

     5. 6932 Merit sent by LoyceV (#459836) to 1362 unique users in 4744 transactions

But I couldn't keep up that way so my new system was to give more per post once remaining source amount reached 5-10% of the maximum.

Note that once your source amount is adjusted, you receive the total amount instantly. That means no refills for the coming 30 days.
My advice to Merit sources: spend it evenly the coming 30 days, and aim to empty your source around the last day (December 13), so that it comes back evenly after that. That prevents this repeating pattern of running out of source Merits:

I can see from your (micgoossens') sMerit distribution that for months in a row you're out of sMerit before the end of the month:

Merit sent by micgoossens (Trust list) from January 24, 2018 until November 01, 2019 (source)

After this first month, you can keep your source as close to zero as possible all the time to maximize the amount you can send.

[Jet Cash]

I'd actually run out of source merits, and I had started on my personal merits, so I'll still have a stream of replacement merits arriving.
I'm about to quit the Sainsbury's restaurant, so I'll be hunting tomorrow, so all you guys who are after merits start making those qulity posts about the Bitcoin economy. If you are on my ignore list, then tough, but I may review that soon. Just remember the posts and threads I skip over.

- Threads with all caps titles
- Misuse of quotes, especially nested quotes.
- Stupid text formatting, or all bold or coloured text.

If English is not your first language, then I won't can you for trying, but do use a spellchecker, and read your post out loud to see if it flows nicely.

[LoyceV]

I'd actually run out of source merits, and I had started on my personal merits, so I'll still have a stream of replacement merits arriving.

From what I've seen at my last increase, those "replacement merits" are reset too when your source is reset.

[Harlot]

If you say “local economic issues” are you talking about posts and threads found in the Economics and Press section? Or are you also including literal economic issues found on local boards? I think with a lot of merit sources receiving a huge bump in their sMerits to give they should start to also venture out on non-English boards as well if they do count on the certain categories you have provided.

[logfiles]

If you say “local economic issues” are you talking about posts and threads found in the Economics and Press section? Or are you also including literal economic issues found on local boards?

I think he means boards like Bitcoin discussion, Economics... If there is a quality post discussing on how Bitcoin and crypto is affecting economics in different parts of the world. Probably something like what you observed in your local area first hand and how its being impacted by crypto.

I think with a lot of merit sources receiving a huge bump in their sMerits to give they should start to also venture out on non-English boards as well if they do count on the certain categories you have provided.

That would be upon the local board Merit sources which i think are there in plenty at the moment.

BTW, I think people who make quality posts both in Local boards and the general English boards have almost 2 times chances of getting merit from both places than users who post only in the English boards or Local boards.
I have seen a number of members active in both local and English boards rank up very quickly compared to those active in only one type of boards.

If i had some data scrapping and statistical knowledge, i would try to study this... unfortunate, i know nothing 

[bitmover]

Quality topics on local economic issues, especially when related to crypto.

Hey Jet Cash
I made a topic about this, very interesting discussions about interest rates around the world, many interesting comments and discussions.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5183972.msg52433127#msg52433127

[Quickseller]

Mine was increased as well. The adjustment is based on the last 6 months of sMerit sent including both source merit and personal merit and the amount was multiplied by 175%.

I had found myself consistently out of source and personal sMerit and can start to increase the number of merit per post and number of posts I can merit each month.

Edit: there are now 98 merit sources and it looks like the total source merit decreased so some sources were removed.

[tranthidung]

Edit: there are now 98 merit sources and it looks like the total source merit decreased so some sources were removed.

Not only this. Total merit sources decrease 24.6% whilst total sMerits allocated to all sources each 30 days increase 3.7%.
Details:

Code:

. di (130-98)/130*100
24.615385

. di (21671-20895)/20895*100
3.7138071

Additionally, please see.

For theoritical increase of 30-days sMerits for each source, let assume each source receive same sMerits before and after the latest changes.

Code:

. di 20895/130
160.73077

. di 21671/98
221.13265

. di (222-161)/161*100
37.888199

From the above calculation, each source was allocated 161 and 222 sMerits before and after the latest changes, respectively. So it means each source theoritically received around 61 more sMerits or 38-percent of increase for their 30-days allocated sMerits.

You wrote this

Mine was increased as well. The adjustment is based on the last 6 months of sMerit sent including both source merit and personal merit and the amount was multiplied by 175%.

So the assumption above is wrong, it is just for fun to give us a kind of estimation.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Same here, guess I'll start sending 3 - 5 merits at once from now on.

I might do the same thing, or I might just start looking for more posts to merit, though I don't plan on lowering my standards any.  I did just check my sMerits and I'm glad to see I just got around 200 more.  Thanks, Theymos.  There are certainly a lot of shitposters who don't deserve to rank up, but there are a lot of members who do deserve it, and their posts go under-merited for whatever reason.  Sometimes even really good ones don't earn any merits, and that's a needless impediment for the people making good posts.

Edit: there are now 98 merit sources and it looks like the total source merit decreased so some sources were removed.

Huh.  I hadn't looked at that number in a while.  Weren't there something like 120 merit sources at one point?

[tranthidung]

Huh.  I hadn't looked at that number in a while.  Weren't there something like 120 merit sources at one point?

Your memory is correct but the total merit sources was at 120 at two points at least: on 17/9/2018 and 22/12/2018.

Here you go (I posted link to this thread in my above post but it seems you did not notice it.)  
The all time high of total merit sources is 131 (from my sparsely observation but it could be wrong).

Time-series plot:

Updated data:

Code:

. list id day month2 year date meritsource smerit, abb(30)

     +-------------------------------------------------------------+
     | id   day   month2   year        date   meritsource   smerit |
     |-------------------------------------------------------------|
  1. |  1    24        1   2018   24jan2018            35     8125 |
  2. |  2    26        1   2018   26jan2018            49     9025 |
  3. |  3     1        3   2018   01mar2018            57    11975 |
  4. |  4    12        3   2018   12mar2018            77    17650 |
  5. |  5    22        3   2018   22mar2018            80    17800 |
     |-------------------------------------------------------------|
  6. |  6    18        5   2018   18may2018            80    18500 |
  7. |  7     6        7   2018   06jul2018            82    18900 |
  8. |  8    11        7   2018   11jul2018            83    19100 |
  9. |  9    17        9   2018   17sep2018           120    23045 |
 10. | 10    17       11   2018   17nov2018           119    22045 |
     |-------------------------------------------------------------|
 11. | 11    22       12   2018   22dec2018           120    22055 |
 12. | 12     5        1   2019   05jan2019           123    20735 |
 13. | 13     6        2   2019   06feb2019           122    20835 |
 14. | 14    15        3   2019   15mar2019           130    20605 |
 15. | 15    27        6   2019   27jun2019           131    21045 |
     |-------------------------------------------------------------|
 16. | 16    30       10   2019   30oct2019           130    20895 |
 17. | 17    14       11   2019   14nov2019            90    18821 |
 18. | 18    15       11   2019   15nov2019            98    21671 |
     +-------------------------------------------------------------+

[Quickseller]

Edit: there are now 98 merit sources and it looks like the total source merit decreased so some sources were removed.

Not only this. Total merit sources decrease 24.6% whilst total sMerits allocated to all sources each 30 days increase 3.7%.
Details:

Code:

. di (130-98)/130*100
24.615385

. di (21671-20895)/20895*100
3.7138071

Additionally, please see.

For theoritical increase of 30-days sMerits for each source, let assume each source receive same sMerits before and after the latest changes.

Code:

. di 20895/130
160.73077

. di 21671/98
221.13265

. di (222-161)/161*100
37.888199

From the above calculation, each source was allocated 161 and 222 sMerits before and after the latest changes, respectively. So it means each source theoritically received around 61 more sMerits or 38-percent of increase for their 30-days allocated sMerits.

You wrote this

Mine was increased as well. The adjustment is based on the last 6 months of sMerit sent including both source merit and personal merit and the amount was multiplied by 175%.

So the assumption above is wrong, it is just for fun to give us a kind of estimation.

If 175% of the average merit you have given out over the last 6 months is less than 10, you were removed as a merit source, so if you haven't been giving out much merit recently, your source merit was removed. It is also possible someone was quietly caused doing bad things with their source merit and were removed.

[hugeblack]

Can anyone tell me how I can calculate my source for each month? I spent all my sMerits a few days ago and today I received this message^[1], I checked Merits and found more than 300. Can anyone tell me how many sMerits are per month or a simple tool to calculate them?


[1]

The average amount of merit you sent per month (including both source merit and personal sMerit) in the last 6 months was computed, and your new source allocation was set equal to 175% of this amount. However, if this would've caused you to have a source merit of less than 10, then you were removed as a merit source

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

Whatever your message stated yesterday after the adjustment is your new baseline. After and adjustment, you quota is replenished to the top. If you saw 300 sMerits, then that is your new quota.

We will therefore be sending sMerits over the next 30 days, with no micro refills over that period of time (not due until the 31st day onwards for a rolling refill to a topped-up quota).

[Jet Cash]

I feel so inferior - I got fewer than 200 added to my bag. I guess it is because I was only awarding 1s and 2s. I'm still ambivalent about awarding larger amounts. However, it does encourage me when I get  few merits for a post or thread. What I find discouraging is the mass of merits that go to the providers of statistical info, and other post about the forum mechanics. All these services are useful, but they don't help to build the forum into a Bitcoin discussion hub. I try to award merits in the tech support posts, and it saddens me to see the paucity of awards in them.

[Halab]

Can anyone tell me how many sMerits are per month

As a merit source, you have 343 sMerits to send per month.
If there are others who want to know the exact number of smerits they have, send me a PM.

[Jet Cash]

As a merit source, you have 343 sMerits to send per month.
If there are others who want to know the exact number of smerits they have, send me a PM.

Thanks for clarifying that. So we are likely to get replenishments over the next month as our renewals become due.

[El duderino_]

I can see from your (micgoossens') sMerit distribution that for months in a row you're out of sMerit before the end of the month:

Merit sent by micgoossens (Trust list) from January 24, 2018 until November 01, 2019 (source)

After this first month, you can keep your source as close to zero as possible all the time to maximize the amount you can send.

Yeah I knew, but the amount that was given wasn't very low, but I just had some good posts at that time and when there was merit available... I just didn't hesitate using it, if i'm out early I don't mind and I'll wait or complain 

But still main reason is to empty the merits on good posts and I just don't calculate it out 

Now with this increase I'm provided much better as before obviously

I won't complain the first two months I bet .... But gonna be more online in different topics etc So gonna see where it go's