Advantages and disadvantages of keeping Smerit

[Zilon]

From my understanding merit system introduced in 2018 became a way of adding value to our posts making the system more real and competitive. Upon this development many improved in their quality of posts and others tool to researching new topics daily. This has made bitcointalk forum more interactive and has distinguished different users on the same forum making every member hungry for knowledge that would add value to the crypto space in respect to all aspect of life. Many specialized in crpto politics, others are into general crpto discussion, some specialize in the economic aspect, we also have people who are into gambling. All this features made the forum a favorable one for everyone. Irrespective of your area of interest making the forum an interesting and educative centre for scholars willing to explore the world of blockchain technology.

But come to think of it could there be any need to hold back an smerit if a post duely deserve it or is it been politicised that is given based on connection, influence, constant participation. I believe it is meant to be awarded irrespective of individuals. Quality posts deserve to be acknowledged with credibility so as to encourage participants on the forum to do more and put in more effort.

are there benefits of holding back smerits I would love to hear your opinion although I have a few advantages and disadvantages to share with my fellow elites:

Advantages
1. It compels members to add quality to their post
2. It makes the forum understand we are all here to learn
3. It builds confidence and triggers research
4.it makes you commited to the system

Disadvantages
1. It affect your confidence if you haven't found what interest you most on the forum
2. It makes you feel you are wasting your time
3. It makes you so desperate thereby neglecting the essence of the forum

I will still love to know your view on this we are all here to learn. Every one was once a newbie and came to their various ranks through dedication. I believe this should be a perfect avenue to encourage others so as to attain heights that would make them relevant to the forum and also improve their quality for the sake of knowledge and interactiveness

[1715577928]

1715577928

[Poker Player]

Your post has a problem: although you have taken some time to write, and it is well structured, it seems too much aimed at praising the merit system in order to fish some merit.

As for what you are asking, I will tell you what Bitcointalk says when you are going to send some merit: "There is no point in hoarding sMerit; keeping it yourself does not benefit you, and we reserve the right to decay unused sMerit in the future."

In my case I don't keep sMerit, on the contrary, I would like to have many more to send, because many times I see posts that I would like to give them merits and at that moment I can't because I don't have any to send.

[Charles-Tim]

You do not need to know if hoarding merit has advantage or disadvantage to members or the forum itself, the fact still remains that merit system is perfectly working good even while there are not areas that are faulty in respect to merit system. You do not need to think about this than also making research, know about bitcoin, other crypto assets and other boards of this forum that interests you and make quality posts. Members hoarding merits or not, good quality posts will stand out and be merited.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I love your train of thought. Let's not be cunning that many beginners come here not only to gain knowledge. Raising your rank plays a big role for these newbies. But at least I see that you are writing meaningful posts, you are not asking for merits, but you are taking some time to understand the entire functionality of the forum. I also noticed that after receiving merit, you do not accumulate it.
I also support this policy of not accumulating merit, and I think any accumulation and subsequent distribution of merit will look arrogant and ironic.
It should be simpler, if you liked the post, give it merit. You need to give motivation to people who you think are eager to learn.
But of course, I support the posts written above so that the increase in rank does not become the goal of being on this forum. It is necessary to combine everything qualitatively.

[FIFA worldcup]

But come to think of it could there be any need to hold back an smerit if a post duely deserve it or is it been politicised that is given based on connection, influence, constant participation. I believe it is meant to be awarded irrespective of individuals. Quality posts deserve to be acknowledged with credibility so as to encourage participants on the forum to do more and put in more effort.

Your post is a little bit confusing because there should be no advantage of keeping the smerit and not distributing it. If you just keep the smerits with you if will not only delay the progress of other quality posters ranking up but also it will discourage them to research and make good posts.

[Zilon]

But come to think of it could there be any need to hold back an smerit if a post duely deserve it or is it been politicised that is given based on connection, influence, constant participation. I believe it is meant to be awarded irrespective of individuals. Quality posts deserve to be acknowledged with credibility so as to encourage participants on the forum to do more and put in more effort.

Your post is a little bit confusing because there should be no advantage of keeping the smerit and not distributing it. If you just keep the smerits with you if will not only delay the progress of other quality posters ranking up but also it will discourage them to research and make good posts.

I agree with you. But if you look at it from another perspective nothing with disadvantage that doesn't have an advantage even negative influence.
People hoard back smerit for different reasons and this reasons is what I want to find out so that I can  learn on how to improve on my activities in the forum

[zasad@]

I am a supporter of the idea that smerit should not be stored for long. If the user does not reward other users with it, then smerit should be burned.
If Smerit accumulates over the years among users and is not passed on to other users for years, it has a bad impact on the forum economy.
It is better for a beginner to spend time learning new knowledge, and then the quality of his posts will increase, which will lead to the receipt of new smerits.

[GeorgeJohn]

But come to think of it could there be any need to hold back an smerit if a post duely deserve it or is it been politicised that is given based on connection, influence, constant participation. I believe it is meant to be awarded irrespective of individuals. Quality posts deserve to be acknowledged with credibility so as to encourage participants on the forum to do more and put in more effort.

Your post is a little bit confusing because there should be no advantage of keeping the smerit and not distributing it.

Looking at these topic sentence, is emphasizing on the major advantages and disadvantages of merit system and Smerit system, and I have no seen anything confusing in any point of op, because comprehending these its obvious that op wants to learn and is desperate to acquire knowledge, which is the elementary or basic thing who ever that wants to learn will do especially beginners, how assuming I have Smerit I would have appreciate this topic with merit.

[Coyster]

Of course quite a lot of users have their own diverse reasons why they hoard their smerits (not that they should), but imo, the two most sensible reason will be if such user doesn't have a large number of Smerits, and is just only being judicious with it, giving it to the post which reach his threshold in terms of standard and quality, though that subject is highly subjective, or a user doesn't fancy getting involved with the merit system as a whole.

But then, there are MS's, and AFAIK they do not have any reason to hodl their Smerits as it gets replenished by Theymos. There'll never be a hard and fast rule as regards merits due to its subjective nature and the axiom that users can do as they deem fit with their Smerits, until prolly the idea of burning/decaying hoarded Smerits is introduced in the forum.

[mersal]

Keeping sMerit neither have advantage nor have disadvantage as well because it is not going to help you in anyway. But advantages of having more sMerit could be helpful to other members, if you are seeing something useful for you or anyone else then you can merit them with the amount you want but maximum cap for a Post and a member is 50 by an individual.

[Taskford]

Never see any advantage for hoarding your merit since the one I see is disadvantage since you will not help any user here to rank up since you hoard your merit, Maybe think about giving your every merit to newbie good poster since for this you can help other who aims to upgrade and became a high tier member here.

[DdmrDdmr]

Perhaps the don’t hoard message had more connection to when the system kicked-off, and people received sMerits out of the so called sMerit airdrop. It’s still a valid message, but less likely to be a mover now than then.

Some people may keep sMerits for a while with a strategic hope to be able to merit an account and be merited back, especially when the account has few available sMerits, although these cases, I’d say, are far from being categorizable as hoarders. For that, you’d need larger volumes of sMerits. 

There are also people who do not care much or at all for the Merit System, earn a fair share, but don’t, or barely, award sMerits. There have been lists of these profiles here and there, but there isn’t really any need to list them constantly, since they are not really going to play the game.
I often encounter one such profile, which has good technical knowledge, and often comes to aid and answer people of this front. The answers he provides are way more valuable that whatever involvement he has/ doesn’t have with the merit system.

[BIT-BENDER]

I think there are members that have -not intentionally keeping smerit- and they aren't interested in any advantages or disadvantages it gives, it's just what it is, like me for example, I don't keep in my head the amount of smerit I have, I only know the amount when I merit or try to merit some post I find worthy, I don't research post to give merit, I think merit source does this, I search for my knowledge and knowledge that may benefits others,

Smerit should not be kept for long though and the forum says so too, but no one should be compelled to giving it away when they aren't satisfied with what post they are reading.

[Commie]

While holding Smerit hives no advantages and has no much sense in doing so I'd oppose to idea of burning it after a certain period of time. We all are just humans after all, people can take a break from forum for heaps of various reasons. Hey, there was a period when I myself haven't visited here for more than half a year.

[khaled0111]

are there benefits of holding back smerits I would love to hear your opinion

No, there is no benifit in hoarding smerits. Whenever you read a useful post or believe the op put some effort when he wrote it, just merit it.
If you come across a high quality post and you don't have enough smerits to merit it yourself, you can report it to merit sources from here so it doesn't go unnoticed.

[pawanjain]

~snip

Your post is quite confusing. I think you are talking about holding back smerit but are listing the advantages and disadvantages of smerits.
Holding back smerit means keep the smerit with yourself and not using them to merit other quality posts.
This is called as hoarding smerit which is discouraged by the forum as hoarding smerit for long time decays the merit.
So basically, holding back smerit does not benefit anybody.

[Trinx01]

I am just confused about your thread, the Smerit can gain from the merits that you will receive from other members, example if you have received 2 merits then you will have 1 Smerit but the thing here is that there is no sense in discussing holding your Smerit wherein fact it is up to you if you are going to give it to other member, but before you give merit you should also set your standard on what should be the post to be given the merit, on mine, I always give merit to that thread that lights me up and gives me unique knowledge.

[The Cryptovator]

Merit-seeking thread, I am not gonna feeding here. You are just making things complex. There is no clear explanation at all about anything. For me, there wouldn't be an advantage to keeping merits yourself. Not meriting other posts and holding your smerit means it's a disadvantage for the whole forum system. I always like to spread my smerits among forum contributors, so that they could circulate all over the forum. Everyone should think something similar and not holding your smerits.

By the way, please try to write a more constructive post rather than just making a very big worthless topic. The constructive thread would be one line as well.

[nullius]

Discussion of the merit system should be banned from Beginners & Help.  The off-topic merit system spam slides down threads about Bitcoin.  Beginners & Help is a forum for helping newbies learn about Bitcoin, NOT a forum for discussing the merit system.

Furthermore, as seen here, such posts are usually just idiotic spam fishing for merits.

[hd49728]

Merit & new rank requirements
Admin explains it

I'm hoping that this system will increase post quality by:
 - Forcing people to post high-quality stuff in order to rank up. If you just post garbage, you will never get even 1 merit point, and you will therefore never be able to put links in your signature, etc.
 - Highlighting good posts with the "Merited by" line.

While we will not be directly moderating this, I encourage people to give merit to posts that are objectively high-quality, not just posts that you agree with.

Do not beg for merit excessively.

And when I click on Merit, I see

You have received a total of 639 merit. This is what determines your forum rank. You typically cannot lose this merit. You have 42 sendable merit (sMerit) which you can send to other people. There is no point in hoarding sMerit; keeping it yourself does not benefit you, and we reserve the right to decay unused sMerit in the future.

And

• Activity, which is maximized by posting once per day on average. Posting more than that is useless in raising your activity.
• Merit, which is gained by making good posts.

If you make ten thousand posts in a week, your activity will be capped and you will still be a Newbie. If you make ten thousand useless posts over any period of time, you will gain zero merit and you will still be a Newbie. You can rank up only by making good posts consistently. It's quality over quantity.

When trying to write quality posts, a lot of people act as though they're writing a book report for school: putting facts that we already know into their own words. Nobody wants to read that, and you will not get merit for it. Moreover, the length of your post and the quality of your English are only minor factors. In trying to write a quality post worthy of merit, you should offer new ideas, personal experiences, or perspectives that other forum users will actually find new and interesting.

I think it writes enough about the merit.