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That is your point of view or opinion and I can't change the way you think about it. If you have issues with the other users here then you can have a choice either starting a thread dedicated for them and say everything you wanted to say.
In my case, merit system works fine. Piles of shitposts in major boards is a disaster to read. It somehow lessen whe merit and rank system was implemented. It add also the scam project they promote that relatively destroy the bitcoim system. Let just hope that shitposting or this kind of activity will minimized to desired percentage or will be eradicated in the future.
I can't say anything about trust system except that it is useful for those utilize the system correctly. For abuses, I do not know about it and if there are abuses of the system hope not to get involve in that particular.
Anyway, I am seeing a big use of local board in the future. As bitcointalk community grows it will be directed to their local boards and discussn all about cryptocurrency independently about cryptocurrency and high chances that major boards for bitcoin and altcoin discussion will be removed for it will be moved to every local boards.
The benefits or negatives of the merit system can not be assessed without considering the trust system. The both are tied together.
You see it is not a matter of opinion. If there are clearly disadvantages and holes that are there to be exploited,
Evidence they are being exploited and undeniable incentives to exploit them.
Then there is no point in quoting anecdotal experience as a refutation to those independently verifiable pieces of evidence that demonstrate both systems could provide some benefits by killing free speech and turning the forum into a echo chamber that is openly exploited by proven scammers to scam with impunity. When those disadvantages were not there before.
Best to read this thread and see if you can refute the points made there, nobody else has been able to.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5088852.0If not then just accept that your individual experience is only that.
Also even if we accept your claims that all of the spam and scammy promotion of certain alt projects that gave anyone a financial reason to attempt to promote them was crushed by the merit system I'm not sure it is possible to say this was conclusively positive for this forum or bitcoin or the strong alts. Sure it made it more readable and less chaotic for real enthusiasts.
Even if we could prove that it was there is nothing to say there are not far superior ways to deal with the same issues without the insoluble problems and negatives the current systems have brought with them.
Read the link if you find holes there then mention them but remember the thread starter made this before the monster mistake of conflating earned merit with trust. That opened a far more serious bunch of issues which he warned about before it took place.
May be you're new and just want a few merits or maybe you're powering up another alt or you just want to come to meta to really help improve the forum. Who knows. Best to do a lot of research before posting an evaluation of the systems in place. They are dangerous and the benefits could easily be achieved by other methods.