What you keep forgetting is that an average bitcointalk user doesn't have experience of running crypto portal for a couple of years (I think you mentioned somewhere that GazetaBitcoin is also Romanian crypto portal) and don't have adequate English level to translate texts to their native language, like you did for Romanian local board.
What might be easy for you, could be very hard for someone else without certain skillset.
The thing is, newcomers lack the knowledge of cryptocurrency which basically means the chances of them earning a Merit decrease substantially. [/quoote
Hence, ranking up
already is difficult imo. If someone has enough knowledge about BTC or does enough work for the community to earn the Merits required to be a Sr/Hero Member in a matter of months, that means they truly deserve it imo.
Indeed, I was not someone who did not know a thing about crypto when I joined this forum. Quite the opposite. Indeed Rikafip, you remembered well - I'm running a Romanian crypto portal. I'm still learning though, as many still do. But it's not
a fault to have a skillset, is it? Some people have this skillset and don't share it at all, what about them?
No offense to Gazeta (I truly mean no offense) but if this system can easily be gamed and it's unfair to have users "cheating" it, then it means you've played it too and got hundreds of merits in a relatively short time - why would it be fair for a new user not to have the chances you've had to rank up?
If someone has enough knowledge about BTC or does enough work for the community to earn the Merits required to be a Sr/Hero Member in a matter of months, that means they truly deserve it imo.
None taken, don't worry. However, you contradict yourself a bit with these two sentences. Either you implied that
I "gamed" the system, or if you talked in general, in the second sentence appears the contradiction. Because in the second sentence you state that the member who helps the community and earns fast merits for ranking up deserves them.
And about the possibility of "gaming" the system, no offense, but it's funny
I'm not even in the Merit Cycling Club; can't imagine what you would have said if I was a member of that select gang
Think of all the hours you've spent trying NOT to write nonsense and actively participating in as many topics as possible out here. All the hours you've spent translating other users' threads. You're probably one of the lucky ones who've enough free time and are willingly spending it on this forum. Do you really think it's unfair to receive hundreds of merits?
Did I ever say it's unfair? I just stated that seeing the generosity and the multiple possibilities of earning merits (giveaways, contests, predictions
plus, of course the well documented topics etc), they are earned a bit too easy. And there should be required more merits for ranking up. About the hours spent writing good posts and being active: that's what I stated in OP: "practically,
all you need in order to rank up is to be a honorable person and to wait. Honorable person means the following: to not spam, to not scam, to not plagiarize and post what you think is helpful here.
To act as a normal person. And users will appreciate your work. They will give you merits if you post useful consideration and if you don't try to cheat the system. So
merit barrier is not a real barrier at all if you act with good intentions."
EDIT: It takes me ~15 minutes to usually write a post. I write posts which take me at least 20 minutes
almost every day. Now remember I've received ~350 Merits since mid-January. Do I deserve them or not, considering I pretty often happen to write +80 posts/week which account for +18hrs/week spent ONLY on writing my posts?
I fully understand you regarding the time you spent for writing them; I also mentioned that in a previous post. That means you are a honorable person
Btw - just this reply post took me about 2h.
You can write a good post maybe in 1h (or 2h or 3h or 10h)
Btw, congrats on merit achievement, well deserved my fellow cinephile!
Thank you so much! You are my fellow cinephile as well
This is not entirely true.
You need to be really active. You are a heavy forum user. You spend hours and hours here each day. This is not common, this is not an easy thing to do. Most of the honorable people don't have time to do that.
Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate!
I don't know a single user who has more than 1000 earned merits and less than 1000 posts.
In my case, as I earned my first merit on Oct. 25th, 2019 (and also my first activity points), the activity system would allow me to become Legendary somewhere between Sep. 22nd, 2021 (when I'll reach 775 activity points) and Jun. 6th, 2022 (when I'll reach the maximum of 1030 activity points required for being Legendary). Taking as an example the minimum period for becoming Legendary in my case: since Oct. 25th 2019 and Sep. 22nd, 2021 there are almost 23 months.
Mathematically speaking, it would be expected to reach - theoretically - the half of merits at the half of the time interval - that is in Oct. 2020, after ~12 months. I reached the half of the merits in 5 months. And that was in a best case scenario, of 775 activity. In worst case scenario (1030 activity points) - from Oct. 25th 2019 to Jun. 6th 2022 there are 31.5 months. The half of the interval is ~January 2021 (15 months). And still, that would mean that I reached half of the merits in 5 months instead of 15.
Now let's take another example: did you take a look at
nullius?
He is the best example. Not to mention anymore that he also had a topic on a similar matter -
Suggestion: Raise merit requirements at the lower and highest ranks (@theymos). Let's remember some of his words from that time:
Starting with 17 merits awarded to some of my old Jr. Member posts by people who remember them, I reached the Hero threshold of 500 merits within 27 days, 8 hours, 16 minutes, 22 seconds of active posting. All in all, from the moment that theymos announced the merit system, it took me 32 days, 9 hours, 14 minutes, 51 seconds to go from zero to Hero
Meanwhile, nullius has 1517 merits and 1260 posts.
Posts, not activity! His activity is 280.
Getting back to his suggestion:
Here is my concrete suggestion for merit thresholds, with proposed changes set in bold. Discussion of my reasoning follows.
| ___Rank___ | Threshold |
| Newbie | 0 |
| Jr. Member | 10 |
| Member | 30 |
| Full Member | 100 |
| Sr. Member | 250 |
| Hero Member | 1000–1500 |
| Legendary | 3000–5000 |
I do think that the merit requirements for ranks through Member through Sr. Member are currently optimal. To rise in rank at the level permitted by activity currently requires earning merit at an average rate of just over +1/day. I think that’s a reasonable expectation for an ordinary intelligent person who spends a moderate amount of time engaging in generally pleasant forum discussions.
But “Hero” and “Legendary” are such strong words; and the substance of successful ranking systems always holds the highest ranks to standards which not only increase, but
accelerate.
Proud, unapologetic elitist though I am, I do not for one moment imagine that I be a superman. If I can merit
zero to Hero in four weeks, then surely any person who wishes to bear a rank and title of honour should be able to earn much more than a measly one merit per day.
And what's really the problem if people rank up by "being normal" and "not spammer" as you said ? xD
If the forum really needs tighter ranking up rules, I would say to delete the airdropped merits that people recieved as they ranked up before the merit systems were introduced and they got it by default. So many people who ranked up by virtue of their activity has never earnt a single merit after that and many of them are the real spammers and scammers!
Not a problem with ranking up by being normal. Just a bit too easy. About the deletion of the airdrops, I suggested that too in the past:
Your above mentioned details doesn't effect ranking in anyways as you would still need to wait for your activity to reach 500 to become a Hero.
Well, that's the problem, stated also in the OP - you have to wait. You reach already your merits (if you are a good contributor) and you wait. If more merits were required, you would be incentivized to contribute more and more, instead of just
waiting.
In addition, your post brings to the fore of a popular saying in my tribe, this I will loosely translate here - A man with a healthy penis doesn't know the travails of one with the elephantiasis of the scrotum.
Lol...sry, I didn't understand the saying it but it sounded funny. And somehow painfully. Can you try with other words, please?
