Spending smerits as you earn them.

[Poker Player]

I don't know if the same thing happens to you as to me, and this is something that I understand only happens to people who are not merit sources or top earners.

I have seen legendary members say that they have a hard time finding posts to merit. In my case it's the opposite, I have less merit than I would like to send. Sometime, seeing a post worthy of merit, I've thought: well, as soon as I get the next smerit, I'll come back to this post and give it a merit. What happens is that if time passes until I get it, days for example, in the end I don't come back. I have decided that when I get a smerit, instead of meriting a previous post, I keep surfing the forum and give the merit to the next post I find worthy of merit.

Do you do the same or how do you do it?

[Quickseller]

I have seen legendary members say that they have a hard time finding posts to merit. In my case it's the opposite, I have less merit than I would like to send. Sometime, seeing a post worthy of merit, I've thought: well, as soon as I get the next smerit, I'll come back to this post and give it a merit.

If you are out of merit, and are aware of a good post without merit, you can report it to merit sources here. Many merit sources monitor (and contribute to) that thread, and if you report a good post, it will likely receive merit from multiple merit sources.

[LoyceV]

I have less merit than I would like to send.

You can apply to be a merit source:

If you want to be a merit source:

 1. Be a somewhat established member.
 2. Collect TEN posts written in the last couple of months by other people that have not received nearly enough merit for how good they are, and post quotes for them all in a new Meta thread. The point of this is to demonstrate your ability to give out merit usefully.
 3. We will take a look at your history and maybe make you a source.

I am especially eager to have merit sources in sub-communities such as the local sections.

It's been a while though since a new merit source was added, and several applications have been unanswered for a long time.

I have seen legendary members say that they have a hard time finding posts to merit.

It's all relative to how much sMerit you have to give.

If you are out of merit, and are aware of a good post without merit, you can report it to merit sources here.

@Poker Player: feel free to post some of your own best posts (with or without Merit) in Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source. You're not a bad poster, so I don't think Merit should be holding you back. But I don't have the time to read hundreds of posts, so please make it easy for me

[NeuroticFish]

I have decided that when I get a smerit, instead of meriting a previous post, I keep surfing the forum and give the merit to the next post I find worthy of merit.

Do you do the same or how do you do it?

Not at all. If I find a few exceptional posts I really want to merit and I can't, I bookmark them.
But most of the time I merit what I find appropriate as long as I have sMerit and afterwards I just not merit.
Of course, since I'm not merit source, I simply cannot be generous with merits and will usually award only 1-2.

If you do spend time to specifically award good posts, it could also be an option to apply for the merit source position, although you're only Full Member and that could be in some eyes an obstacle.

[Charles-Tim]

If you do spend time to specifically award good posts, it could also be an option to apply for the merit source position, although you're only Full Member and that could be in some eyes an obstacle.

I always have many quality posts to merit, some people even make good posts while they correct me but at times do not have smerits to give, and I will not have option than to not give as I do not have at the moment. I wished to have applied for merit source when I got 1000 merits but there were many people that have applied and yet not given, to the extent I noticed TheBeardedBaby wrote 'When Merit Source?' as his personal text as it has been so long ago he applied.

People that feels the same way that think they are good poster could have just applied for merit source, but it has been very long since merit sources were choosen last, and there are some merit source that are no more active. For now, I think the best alternative which is effective but might not be satisfactory enough is to report the post as mentioned above. I said it is effective but not satisfactory because merit sources can still report good posts there too which is an added advantage.

[Lucius]

I have seen legendary members say that they have a hard time finding posts to merit.

This is something I have read many times on the forum since the merit system was enabled, and I think it is not always easy to find a post worth rewarding with merit. Some Legendary members (who are also merit sources) have preferred parts of the forum they visit and their merit distribution is limited to those parts of the forum. There are a lot of good posts that are simply cluttered with a lot of spam and there are few who want to look for something worth meriting at all in a pile of garbage.

What happens is that if time passes until I get it, days for example, in the end I don't come back. I have decided that when I get a smerit, instead of meriting a previous post, I keep surfing the forum and give the merit to the next post I find worthy of merit.

I don't think you should bother so much with the fact that you don't have a sMerit at one point - listen to the advice of others and save it in bookmarks if you think it really deserves to be rewarded. I will tell you that it is never too late to go back in time and reward someone. I will give you an example of how I got the merit for my 2015 post years after I wrote it

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1173044.msg12372803#msg12372803

[rosenbauer02]

Probably our set of standards are different. You might say that there was a quality post you see but for others it weren't.

Still being so active in the forum really matters as to get to see more posts and replies in the discussion that you were able to find those quality posts hat others are not. Anyway, giving merits is not our responsibility because the admin handed it over to the merit source. As the user has stated that we can still able to help by submitting it to a merit source or making a list of possible prospects posts to be merited in a thread and let the other members look into it and provide some merits if they want.

Due to a large number of user registered daily in the forum. The set of merits provided by the admin could not compensate or probably it is enough and calculated but the only thing is that a user may not able to get of it due to posting habit like shitposting. We could not blame the merit source for that instead the blame will be on the user itself for not making a way to contribute for the forum. Reminder that in order to get merits one must be helpful in a sense and that the merit source or even other members that will going to see the posts as a contributing factor will reward some merits. And that is what I think of the merit system for now.

[rhomelmabini]

Do you do the same or how do you do it?

I'm not, I let those merit sources decide their own judgment and I know they have different boards to merit and they know it but as what @Quickseller just said you may report it on that thread. If you think you find worthy of merits everytime you open your account why not apply to be a merit source, afaik to be a merit source doesn't discriminate on the rank of the account.

[Rikafip]

Do you do the same or how do you do it?

At first, I used to try to always have at least 5-10 merit to share just in case I stumble upon some really good posts, but later on I gave up on that so now I just spend as I get them so now I generally don't have merits to share for more than a day or two. Just see no reason to keep them.

I used to bookmark good posts too and merited them after I got some, but also kinda stopped with that practice as it's pretty easy to find merit worthy posts if you are active enough.

[Pmalek]

I don't find it hard to find merit-worthy posts. I find it difficult to decide sometimes which of the posts I want to merit should get it because I give them out daily and my personal stash isn't that big. Sometimes it's necessary to lower your standards a bit and understand that not all members are capable of producing extraordinary posts. This can be because of language barriers, lack of knowledge on the subject, experience, etc. The occasional merit-push could be the incentive someone needs to do better in the future.

@rosenbauer02
Merit sources aren't the only ones that are supposed to handle out merits, we are all. It's a whole system, and it needs as many working units as possible to operate properly. A person who receives, but doesn't award others with merits breaks the system, and makes it less efficient.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Never made any problem sending merits. I like the post, there is a reserve of merit, I give. If I like posts and I have nothing to give, I will not blame myself for not sending merit.
This is probably not a very popular opinion, but I treat merit as a liking on Twitter.
Seeking and rewarding merits is the fate of merit sources, for ordinary users it should not be a problem. The only thing I am against with all my hands is to transfer the merits to my alternative accounts.

[Findingnemo]

I never hoarded merits, I would like to spend as soon as I get them but merit becomes more scarce and also distribution is getting limited to particular boards so yes it is hard to get them so I can't merit lot of posts which I wanted to in the recent days.

Reporting it to the merit source can be the alternative but I am not such kind of person because everyone have different standards to merit a post so its highly subjective, I just want everyone to spend their merits, don't keep your standards too high and the circle too low, just grow together as a community is a healthy for the future of bitcointalk.

[The Cryptovator]

For me, I feel sad once I can't send merit in a good post according to me. I don't know others but I feel happy when I can help someone by sending merits. Because I believe we are a family and we need to help each other those aren't spammer at least. If others weren't helped me from the beginning today I can't achieve a Legendary on the forum. So I know how hard is to earn merits. However, now I am a merit source and before the end of the month, my source merit becomes empty. Also, my earned merits become empty most of the time. Many users holding smerit those aren't spending on the good post, I don't know what befits would bring to not sending merits to others.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I have seen legendary members say that they have a hard time finding posts to merit. In my case it's the opposite, I have less merit than I would like to send. Sometime, seeing a post worthy of merit, I've thought: well, as soon as I get the next smerit, I'll come back to this post and give it a merit.

That exact same thing used to happen to me before I got tapped to be a merit source, and I was earning a pretty decent amount of merits back then, too.  But once I (or anyone else) became a merit source, I had both my earned and source sMerits to use, and believe me you get plenty if you're a source. 

I do have a relatively hard time finding meritable posts on my own, and I try to use DmdrDmdr's "ranking up" thread to guide me by pointing out members who need merits to rank up.  I also think I may have lowered my standards a fraction.  My standards for giving out merits used to be incredibly high, but now as long as a post is on-topic, of a decent length, has decent grammar, and is (hopefully) made by a member below Legendary I'll give some merits out.  And I do end up meriting Legendaries a lot of times, but I try to give lower-ranked members priority.

[Daniel91]

You probably don't have a lot of merits available, so it's not difficult for you to spend those merits as soon as you get them.
When you have a lot more merits available it's sometimes harder to find enough quality posts that deserve merits.
I solved this problem by opening a topic in my local section where local members can report their quality posts that deserve merit in their opinion.

[Quickseller]

I have seen legendary members say that they have a hard time finding posts to merit. In my case it's the opposite, I have less merit than I would like to send. Sometime, seeing a post worthy of merit, I've thought: well, as soon as I get the next smerit, I'll come back to this post and give it a merit.

That exact same thing used to happen to me before I got tapped to be a merit source, and I was earning a pretty decent amount of merits back then, too.  But once I (or anyone else) became a merit source, I had both my earned and source sMerits to use, and believe me you get plenty if you're a source. 

I only get 100 source sMerit to give out each month, and I am often finding myself being out of source sMerit and earned sMerit. Over the months, I tend to give out a lot of merit at one point during the month, so I often have either no merit, or a lot of available sMerit to give out.

[Findingnemo]

I only get 100 source sMerit to give out each month, and I am often finding myself being out of source sMerit and earned sMerit. Over the months, I tend to give out a lot of merit at one point during the month, so I often have either no merit, or a lot of available sMerit to give out.

You can appeal for more allocation, because lot of merit sources can't able to complete their quota of source merits given to them each merit so Theymos can consider reallocation who are often stranded in a situation with out of smerit before the next time period begins.

[Quickseller]

I only get 100 source sMerit to give out each month, and I am often finding myself being out of source sMerit and earned sMerit. Over the months, I tend to give out a lot of merit at one point during the month, so I often have either no merit, or a lot of available sMerit to give out.

You can appeal for more allocation, because lot of merit sources can't able to complete their quota of source merits given to them each merit so Theymos can consider reallocation who are often stranded in a situation with out of smerit before the next time period begins.

I had sent theymos a PM when I ran out of source sMerit years ago, and posted on one of the threads for merit sources to ask for more merit. Theymos has not adjusted the source merit allocations in a long time, and has not appeared to have adjusted merit sources in a long time, even as merit sources have become inactive.

[SFR10]

I have seen legendary members say that they have a hard time finding posts to merit.

That was the case when it was first introduced but after a brief ^[ish] hiatus, I decided to lower my own standards for giving out merits ^{[best decision ever]}.

Do you do the same or how do you do it?

I used to go back to meritable posts ^{[if I'm able to find them; I know I should've bookmarked them instead]} as soon as I have some sMerits but from now on, I prefer using my sMerits for bookmarked posts ^{[I'll start saving them]} that haven't got any merits yet or just reward new merit worthy posts.

[Timelord2067]

The merits I receive are usually one or two at a time, so I'll just merit whatever I happen to be reading at any given time.  Having said that however, I usually check to see if I have previously given that person merits or not and if I have, I'll usually just go on and find something else to merit by a user I haven't previously merited.

I feel merit sources shouldn't merit Legendary or Hero members more than one or two merits at a time and should instead search out posts by users below Hero rank.