sMerit faucet, maybe?

[snipie]

No that will be the answer probably and the first reflex of most members, but I will share my thoughts anyway.
It doesn't happens frequently but sometimes I want to give 1 merit to someone helping me or for a quite good helpful post but since "I" (many) am under the merit poverty line, I simply cannot.
My request is simple, can we (owners of less than 0x smerits) claim 1-2 (s)merit per week for example to give it as a reward to good posters?
I will not deny the efforts of merit sources but it isn't that ideal too. Such thing will be noticeable once they are off from that circle and if the rewarded smerits isn't exchanged between them in a legit way obviously (small size to avoid unnecessary discussions about this).
Having a topic or an additional button to alert sources about a good post aren't that good ideas since it will be flooded and spammed.
The limited "faucet" I suggested could be restricted to specific ranks (full members and above for example). If a member is/was busted abusing the merit system then he will be unable to access it...
Feel free to share your ideas. I am asking for a way to help others and not begging here. Thanks for understanding and reading this

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[hd49728]

I don't support it. Because if there is faucet merit, it will allow shitposters rank up again. With faucet merits, their rank up process will keep going and only be slower when there was no merit system.

Claiming free smerits will probably cause smerit abuse.

Merit sources have done their works very good. Help good posters rank up and keep shitposters stuck at low ranks. That's fine and nothing should be changed.

[Upgrade00]

One of the criteria for becoming a merit source is being a somewhat established member, an smerits faucet would give smerits to lots of members who do not meet that criteria and It would be very difficult to check every member above a certain rank for merit abuse, and we would likely see a lot of them waking up to sell off their weekly smerits.

If a member is/was busted abusing the merit system then he will be unable to access it...

This would put all merit transaction under scrutiny and discourage some members from sending them.
Theymos has hinted that he doesn't want to encourage members to check merit abuse and thats a grey area a transactions involving one or two merits would rarely pass for abuse as quality is subjective.

[shield132]

Sounds nice!
I think this can be a better model than having merit sources. Just faucet isn't a good idea but if there is something like this: Once user A spend smerits, didn't receive new one and now has 0 on balance, he/she will automatically receive 2 smerit. But if his balance becomes 0 again during 7 days from receive, he won't get anything for 7 days. If his/her balance is higher than zero, he/she won't receive any smerit. Automatic top up happens once user reaches 0 smerit and 2 smerit is the max that he/she can get automatically from faucet.

[Lucius]

I understand your frustration that you can't reward a good and useful post with merit, but the idea of faucet has very little or maybe no chance. The system is designed to allow the distribution of merits in only two ways - to be a merit source or to be rewarded with merits for your posts with ratio 1 merit/0.5 sMerits to your account.

The sMerit allocation system through faucet would certainly activate a lot of sleeping accounts that would see this as an opportunity to reward their alt accounts - or to put such sMerit on the black market. It's just my opinion, which isn't worth much - in the end it's all in the hands of the admin who makes decisions about things like this.

[marlboroza]

The limited "faucet" I suggested could be restricted to specific ranks (full members and above for example).

That would be abused, perhaps faucet for users who earned more than x amount of merits (1000 or so)?
Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to implement some kind of faucet for merit sources who often don't have smerit.

[LoyceMobile]

Have you considered applying for merit source? Theymos selects who gets a smerit faucet, keeping some form of oversight limits abuse.

[NeuroticFish]

My request is simple, can we (owners of less than 0x smerits) claim 1-2 (s)merit per week for example to give it as a reward to good posters?

No. The merit sources are getting their sMerits replenished and that's all.
You can apply for merit source and if you'll be considered worthy and accepted, you'll have plenty of sMerits afterwards.
Replenishing everybody faces high risk of abuses, hence creating more problems than solving.

[Nellayar]

Maybe this will make things for the side of moderators and hunters of merit abuser. Imagine, if a user will make 5-10 newbies per week and give some merits to the main account every time there is a smerit collected in faucet. It will become easy for them to manipulate the system.

OP`s suggestion is helpful for the side of users who are dedicated in giving merits to the useful post but on the other hand, it may be a problem to those who are looking for the order of this forum.



If ever this suggestion may push, I suggest to have a limit for merit earners. Just like:

Newbie - will never get any smerit
Jr member - 0.1 smerit
Member - 0.5 smerit

something like that.

But for me, current condition of the merit system is the best right now. No need for modifications, if you want smerits then do not depends in faucet rather make also quality post.

[sheenshane]

I feel the same as yours and I understand your frustration, sometimes we want to give reward to those good threads and those who helped you but you have nothing to do because you lack sufficient sMerit or out of juices. In my mind, let the merit source will take action but they can't cover all you wanted to give merit.

Tend to agree with the vast majority, it might possibly be abused. Probably additional allocation of smerit in all merit sources and if you (we) are a good earner of merit, that isn't a problem at all.

snipped-
perhaps faucet for users who earned more than x amount of merits (1000 or so)?

This might be good, give faucet to those good merit earners. Because not all members can apply as a merit source, they are limited.

[thanhloancvn]

In my opinion if a member reaches the high rank as a Full member but gives Merit to others indiscriminately, even if the later posts he wrote is good, he will receive more Merit but the ranking will not increase.

[snipie]

Thanks everyone for your replies. As I said first i know the idea won't be easily accepted as it but maybe with more ideas we can find a better solution, which may or may not be accepted by admins after all  

Have you considered applying for merit source? Theymos selects who gets a smerit faucet, keeping some form of oversight limits abuse.

Merit source = reading +100? topics per day in several sections and select the best posts to reward = requires a lot of work and time which unfortunately cannot guarantee permanently (may be active now then less active next month, depends from my work) so I will be considered as a bad source (by myself at least) who is also taking the place of someone else who can do way better than me.
All I need is few smerit to reward people sometimes if possible. Even 1 per week should be fine. Don't know what other members think about this. If that is possible it'll be good or else fine I am already in my ivory tower

BTW, I like marlboroza idea.

[Pectivark]

Perhaps I can formulate the idea by having a link to the following:
Show unMerited posts since last visit< You can see all the topics that did not get the points of merit. You can also add more filters.
Reading Merit requests from friends, and through it you can read requests from friends or any account you add to friends who want to get points of merits.
faucets seem a good idea but require tasks that may turn out to be offended.

[iamsheikhadil]

It will lead to chaos.

Getting 1 smerit a week will simply mean you can turn a newbie into a full member in two years without any quality post from that account and it will be severely abused in that way. Although your intentions are good, it will lead to abuse.

[actmyname]

Why not just use the [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source thread in Reputation?

We can direct attention to quality posts rather than sending the merit to the posts themselves: this fixes the problem of abuse and still brings forth attention to good replies when you don't have any merit to shower. If anything, merit sources might take a look here and there if they aren't already doing so and may create a backlog of sorts when necessary.theymos did say that abuse wasn't a huge thing to worry about but I imagine this change would be a little too drastic.

[snipie]

Why not just use the [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source thread in Reputation?

We can direct attention to quality posts rather than sending the merit to the posts themselves... -snip-

It is a nice initiative from Loyce but I will be honest, I don't have much time (depends from months/seasons) searching that topic and following a format to point source(s) to a post that I think is helpful and he/they may disagree with (they may disagree between each other whether a specific post should be merited or not and how much...) + have no intention to post in self moderated topic (with all respect to LoyceV and other good members).
I am just asking about a simple fluid way to merit other members if possible.

It will lead to chaos.

Getting 1 smerit a week will simply mean you can turn a newbie into a full member in two years without any quality post from that account and it will be severely abused in that way. Although your intentions are good, it will lead to abuse.

Assuming your calc is accurate. 2 years to become full member doesn't sound really chaotic and abusers will be linked to each other easily. I am not fully up-to-date when it comes to rank / merit stats but I think there is way less abusers in high ranks especially legendary and hero members. Maybe requiring an additional minimum merit requirement to claim that 1 smerit / weekly could be a better choice? (if done ofc).

[guigui371]

I'll repost what I wrote in January about a lottery.

~
What about something automated? A lottery with "sent smerit" condition of entry? 

Imagine the following :
User A  earns 50 merit in a 30 rolling days ( gets 25 smerit).
If in the same rolling period he has sent >90% of smerit then he becomes eligible to get some extra smerit the next time he is meriting someone. But how ?

UserA earn 50 merits (25 smerits),  [so User A is a quality member, earning 50 merit in 30 days is somehow proof of quality posting, can be updated on a rank basis]
Once he has sent 20 of that smerit, he goes into a lottery.
Once in the lottery if he sends smerit he has a lottery ticket. (1 smerit sent = 1 ticket if 5 smerits then tickets)
 winnings could be :  1 extra smerit (1/10 odds)  / 2smerits (1/20 odds)  / 5smerits (1/50)  and  10 extra smerits with 1/100 odds. 
If he wins some free smerit, They wont allow him to get new tickets for the lottery.
You only get smerit lottery tickets based on the smerit you send from the stack you have earned (not initial airdropped/won at lottery).

This will do 2 things: make smerit being used instead of hoarded.
Increase by a little the amount of smerit in circulation.

What do you think ? this is automatic, can't really be abused, the quanity (50 merits earned) can be adjusted depending on the current earned merit quantiy of user.

[20kevin20]

That would be abused, perhaps faucet for users who earned more than x amount of merits (1000 or so)?

This plus a few more requirements such as account age and time spent per day on the forum might avoid a larger part of the abuse.

But the way theymos has merit sources under control at the moment is way better imo than also having a faucet for multiple users. Would become a hard job for theymos to control who deserves a faucet and who doesn't.

I often find myself running out of sMerits too but having some out of nowhere might actually turn into unnecessary generosity for smaller ranks and in consequence easier rankup for undeserving members. I feel like when you have sMerits that you earned yourself, you choose wiser where to spend them.

[hd49728]

Getting 1 smerit a week will simply mean you can turn a newbie into a full member in two years without any quality post from that account and it will be severely abused in that way. Although your intentions are good, it will lead to abuse.

There will be abuse on the faucet.

Assuming your calc is accurate. 2 years to become full member doesn't sound really chaotic and abusers will be linked to each other easily. I am not fully up-to-date when it comes to rank / merit stats but I think there is way less abusers in high ranks especially legendary and hero members. Maybe requiring an additional minimum merit requirement to claim that 1 smerit / weekly could be a better choice? (if done ofc).

Instead of spending 9 months with enough posts and activities to become a Full member, with smerit faucet it will take 2 years. The forum does not need a new faucet that will require another police resource to discover abusers, nevertheless.

Good users will do rank up, without faucets. I see some merit sources say that they have many smerits in pocket and they still find good posts to send those smerits away.

[PrimeNumber7]

Why not just use the [self-moderated] Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source thread in Reputation?

We can direct attention to quality posts rather than sending the merit to the posts themselves... -snip-

It is a nice initiative from Loyce but I will be honest, I don't have much time (depends from months/seasons) searching that topic and following a format to point source(s) to a post that I think is helpful and he/they may disagree with (they may disagree between each other whether a specific post should be merited or not and how much...) + have no intention to post in self moderated topic (with all respect to LoyceV and other good members).
I am just asking about a simple fluid way to merit other members if possible.

I don't think it is necessary to use a particular format when reporting a post that deserves merit, just post a link to the post and state why you believe the post deserves merit.

I understand that many merit sources monitor the thread and will give merit to deserving posts as reported.