One fault with the merit system

[FIFA worldcup]

There is one obvious failing in the current system, and that is the decaying of unawarded smerits given to sources. There are three reasons that sources award merits, and these are - to encourage members who are beneficial to the forum, to indicate approval of a good post or thread, and to help new members and alts to rank up. When there is a paucity of good posts or good posters, then it is harder to award merits, and this can lead to fewer merits being available in the future. Alternatively, if you are awarding merits for ranking purposes, then it is far easier to find suitable posts, and this can lead to an expansion of the merits available for this section of the forum. Bearing in mind that each source smerit can generate an extra merit in the rewarded community, then this can lead to future distortions in the quality of posting and thread topics.

Does anyone else believe that this is an issue we should be considering?

As i think you are saying that the fault in the system is because the Sources will not find quality posts to award merits and hence their smerit will decay ?
First of all there are many posts which diverse merit but are not awarded, secondly even if your statement is true, they can give more merits to the posts which are good ones. Instead of giving 1-5 merits per post 5 -10 merits can be given.

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[erikoy]

As i think you are saying that the fault in the system is because the Sources will not find quality posts to award merits and hence their smerit will decay ?
First of all there are many posts which diverse merit but are not awarded, secondly even if your statement is true, they can give more merits to the posts which are good ones. Instead of giving 1-5 merits per post 5 -10 merits can be given.

OP state about the fault of merits sytem with the way admin design that merit source will have their allocated merits will get decayed. As what it has beem implied by OP that with this design it will encourage merit source to send more merits so that it will not get decayed as a result it will going to reward on low quality posts and this will able to rank up the low rank members and their alt accounts.

In my opinion, I do not object of decaying given merits to the merit source because merits are design and allocated for the use in accordance to the ideal number of merits being provided by the admin. Aside from that the way of rewarding was to motivate the users to contribute helpful posts in the forum to share. If not for merits probably other users will going leave the forum due to the fact in learning that they could not grow in the forum without getting merit or limiting the merit to be awarded that would be more difficult to get.

For now, I am thinking of merit utilized well by the merit source if not then low rank could not rank up.

[Welsh]

This is not that far from truth, especially in the case of Bitcoin, and it's quite normal. Many possible problems users can have were already answered and I expect search engines point them directly to the answer to their problem. This leads to smaller number of legitimate questions, smaller number of users really needing help.

This is also something the community advocates for; Search up your issue before asking another question. I don't tend to have an issue with repeated questions, as I think I've explained before, but I know that some users tend to get irritated by the same questions over, and over. I think its natural for less technical questions to be asked, because of your reasons above, and the fact that Bitcoin may get simpler over time. Cryptocurrencies might not be as alien as they once before, and there's either better documentation right off the bat now, or technical issues have been ironed out, and simplified.

[Lucius]

The Merit system is not bad, there is no doubt that it helped make the forum a better place with less spam and fewer opportunities for those who had alt account farms. We recently had a discussion where we mostly agreed that maybe some changes should be made in terms of requirements for promotion in the ranks when it comes to the number of merits.

I think that some people are completely unjustifiably complaining that there are not enough quality posts on which they can spend their merits, and at the same time they put half of the forum on ignore. How a merit source can be effective (for the forum in total) if it is focused on just one or two boards, or if his primary criteria are not quality posts, but looks at some other things (which is again the right of every member of the forum).

Merit system is not perfect, but far more imperfect are the people who use it.

[Jet Cash]

How a merit source can be effective (for the forum in total) if it is focused on just one or two boards,

Merit sources are not paid staff. They were appointed to help to improve the quality of the threads, and thery can only do this responsibly if they are interested and understand their chosen boards. We have merit sources for local boards, and I suspect that some spend their time on just one board. There is nothing wrong with that, this is an international forum.

Once again, my point is that if you constantly reduce the size of the "bucket" of a merit source, then he is likely to reward fewer posts that he considers to be quality, and may reduce the time he spends on some boards. In fact, this doesn't really affect me, as I have a few hundred earned smerits that I can award. I started the topic because I would like to see more high quality discussions, rather than threads supporting the mass media agenda. Often starting such topics get you trolled by members like "Very Well Endowed" and Frankly, and I have them on ignore, and don't bother to open a thread if I see one of them is the last poster.

[LoyceV]

@Jet Cash: have you seen this posts?

~snip~ 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.
~snip~

Well the bucket analogy is not completely true, as the bucket starts off full, and as it is emptied, it is refilled. Extra sMerits are not added unless Theymos run a recalculation, and I understand he does this at regular intervals. The bucket can never overflow. but shrinks as 30 day old sMerits evaporate.

Let me correct you here: the bucket gets empty when you spend sMerit, and exactly 30 days later it gets replenished. If you don't spend it, it never leaves the bucket and can't be replenished.

This is what I do: If my source sMerit goes up, I send more per post. If it's low, I send less per post. If it's zero, I have my own earned sMerit as a backup. I've never been out of sMerit since the introduction of the Merit system, and I try to keep my source as close to zero as possible.

[Jet Cash]

Let me correct you here: the bucket gets empty when you spend sMerit, and exactly 30 days later it gets replenished. If you don't spend it, it never leaves the bucket and can't be replenished.

I understood that the replenishment date was based on the awarding of the merit, and not on the bucket creation. Also, I believe that the merit in the bucket has an award by date, and it is discarded if it is not used before that date. My merit refreshment flows in, it doesn't arrive in one monthly bang.

[Pmalek]

There are three reasons that sources award merits, and these are - ...and to help new members and alts to rank up.

Nice, good one. I hope this was a joke.
If you are having trouble finding new posts to merit, just go and check your merit history and award some additional merits to already merited posts. Many sources do this. I sometimes get surprised when I see I was merited for a post that was written +5, 6 months ago. When I connect the dots, I realize it is usually a merit source trying to empty his bags.

Another thing you can do is pop by the Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source thread and find something there worthy of your merits.

 

[suchmoon]

I understood that the replenishment date was based on the awarding of the merit, and not on the bucket creation. Also, I believe that the merit in the bucket has an award by date, and it is discarded if it is not used before that date. My merit refreshment flows in, it doesn't arrive in one monthly bang.

There is no "award by" date. If your source allocation ("bucket" capacity) is e.g. 100 sMerits per month and you don't spend any then your "bucket" will stay full with 100 sMerits in it forever (or at least until theymos recalculates allocations). sMerits that you already have are not discarded and your "bucket" doesn't really shrink, it just can't be filled beyond its capacity if you don't spend those sMerits to make room for a refill 30 days later.

[Lucius]

We have merit sources for local boards, and I suspect that some spend their time on just one board. There is nothing wrong with that, this is an international forum.

To be fair, some merit sources have specific boards to be targeted when they apply to be merit source and theymos approve it, so i don't see anything wrong.

This is quite clear to me, and it definitely makes sense for local boards to have their own merit sources and I don’t think there’s a problem with that. The problem is at least according to what I see less and less active merit sources in other parts of the forum, which is again related to the recently mentioned reduced activity of the forum.

The philosophy of some merit sources is that it's better for merit to expire than to give it to someone, which is actually one of the downsides of the merit system - but if we can call it a problem, it's something it's up to the admin to solve it by removing some old, and/or add new sources.

[mindrust]

The current merit system can't be a permanent fix.

It was just a spam delayer for a year maybe and it is already losing its effectiveness because many spammers have either become merit sources or they are trading their merits back and forth with their friends.

I see that people are back in the account farming business already.

[Jet Cash]

The philosophy of some merit sources is that it's better for merit to expire than to give it to someone, which is actually one of the downsides of the merit system

That is not completely true. It may be better to allow merits to expire rather than award them for posts that you feel are undeserving. Showering merits just because buckets are full is the equivalent of creating storms because clouds are full of water. Then end result is the drowning of the land.

[LoyceV]

It may be better to allow merits to expire rather than award them for posts that you feel are undeserving.

Based on theymos' last reorganisation of the Merit source amounts, where inactive sources got less and active sources got more, I think the total source amount is based on what theymos thinks the forum needs per month in total. If some Merit sources don't distribute all of their sMerit, the forum as a whole has less sMerit to spend. Eventually that Merit source will get less, and others will get more.

I don't give sMerit to posts that I feel are undeserving, but if they deserve it, I often base the amount on how much I need to get rid of, and not on how much I think the post really deserves.

[Jet Cash]

There seems to be a focus on quantity and volume, and not on quality. This seems to be true of many things at the moment. It is quite hard to find food thart is of the same quality as a few years ago. In part this is due to the lower food standards of the EU being forced onto the UK, but maybe the shift to online purchases is the major reason. As membership of this forum increases, and the more intersting and insightful topics are drowned by the newer members social posting, some members are resorting to making large statistical posts, and these seem to be gaining in popularity and reward, but contribute n, and not used to bloat discussions. I dkip over the posts if I am on the computer, but if I am on mobile, I have to avoid opening a thread that may contain such posts, especially if they are quoted.

In the end, the remedy is in our hands. We can increase the number of quality posts that we make, and this could be more beneficial than spending time on merit showers.