An Alternative to Merit

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit, I will have no option than to slide on.

Sendable merits will be sent to good posts but the fact is not all good posts will receive smerit and not all merited posts are good posts.

Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.

Some members use their sendable merit as Like and the forum does not need official Like button. Bitcointalk Like button, I don't support this idea.

If you had searched, you would have found many similar topics.
Merits = Likes, the new standard?

If you use Facebook or Twitter, do you think liked status or loved tweets are actually good ones, in quality?

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[UserU]

As a newbie,

I gave you enough merit for you to get promoted to a junior member.

Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.

Some kind of waitlist for posts that deserve merit would be nice. There is a thread that you can report good posts that deserve merit that is monitored by many merit sources. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5093271.0

Jr Member? He's reached the Member status

If you use Facebook or Twitter, do you think liked status or loved tweets are actually good ones, in quality?

Hardly. One simple word from an influencer and all the simps will like/ RT.

[Daniel91]

I think adding more positive things to this forum is needed.  So much time and effort is spent by members of this community on negative added value items like trust flags and negative feedback.  It would be nice to see members as proud of how much positivity they've spread or how many members they've been able to help.  Merit seemed at first like it would be a decent addition, but it's been mostly hijacked by merit circles seeking to control who gets to be in DT.  Adding something fun and positive without any negative association seems needed on this forum, even if it is functionally worthless. 

I agree with you.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to watch all these ugly arguments and conflicts on the forum and it would be nice to see something that would have a positive effect on the forum.
Sometimes it seems that everything designed to improve this forum and its quality, as a DT system and merits, has already been abused many times and people are arguing too much about it.
It would be really nice to have something that will inspire people and motivate them to act positively on this forum and that's why I like the idea of OP and I support it.

[FatFork]

...Adding something fun and positive without any negative association seems needed on this forum, even if it is functionally worthless.  

...It would be really nice to have something that will inspire people and motivate them to act positively on this forum and that's why I like the idea of OP and I support it.

I think both of you make valid points here. Even if the functionality is worthless, as OgNasty pointed out, it could contribute to a positive impact on the forum and spark new interest among young members.

Reddit and Quora have "upvote" buttons, which are similar to Twitter's and Facebook's "like". But, bitcointalk can have a simple "Thank you", just as many other forums already do.
Unlike merits, thankyous don't need to have any effect other than to acknowledge posts that are helpful, interesting, humorous, or otherwise catch your attention. In this case, I don't see any conflict with the existing merit system.

[UserU]

Reddit and Quora have "upvote" buttons, which are similar to Twitter's and Facebook's "like". But, bitcointalk can have a simple "Thank you", just as many other forums already do.
Unlike merits, thankyous don't need to have any effect other than to acknowledge posts that are helpful, interesting, humorous, or otherwise catch your attention. In this case, I don't see any conflict with the existing merit system.

Actually they're a nice complement to one another but then we'll have purists saying it taints the whole Merit system as a whole

[Rikafip]

This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.

What about "dislike"? I mean, if you want to have "like", why not to have dislike too, seeing so much bs being written all over the place. I know that de-meriting was proposed too, but that would probably be too drastic, but dislike would be nice addition, especially if post that gets enough dislikes get hidden, so something similar to reddit.

[KingsDen]

@lovesmayfamilis, I am trying to understand how the forum works, I didn't even know I was merited, not until I saw the post and checked my profile. I promise I'll learn.
@Quickteller I am definitely going to work harder.  I have learnt to report good post for it to be merited. I also learn to copy down the post link in a notepad pending when I have sendable merit.  Thank you all, I am grateful.

[notblox1]

Alternative for giving someone merit that you don't is very simple, just write a post saying that you agree and like specific post or you don't like it.
I don't want to see any additional like or dislike buttons that can all be abused with multiple accounts.

[Welsh]

I'd like to see some quality of life features added onto the existing merit system, such as a button to potentially alert merit sources on a post being good. This could potentially be abused, but maybe it should be restricted somewhat to certain ranks or a limit per day etc.

A like system would probably be okay, I don't see any major drawbacks, and maybe as a result of having a like button we will see less users giving merit because they agree with a post. Since, in my opinion a like system is completely different to the current merit system, which sometimes gets treated as the same by certain users.

What about "dislike"? I mean, if you want to have "like", why not to have dislike too, seeing so much bs being written all over the place. I know that de-meriting was proposed too, but that would probably be too drastic, but dislike would be nice addition, especially if post that gets enough dislikes get hidden, so something similar to reddit.

I feel like this would just create unnecessary feuds, which don't get me wrong we have already, but would be exaggerated with something as simple as a dislike button. Right now, to show that you disagree with something, you actually have to come up with a decent counter argument on why you disagree with them, a dislike button means it'll be abused to attack certain users. Of course, it doesn't really mean anything, but to the person posting it might. A like button, being only positive, and doesn't actually have any bearing on the post means its mostly for fluff, but doesn't really do any harm either way.   

[GeorgeJohn]

As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit,

Lol, sendable merit, it's right as you read through the posts of senior colleagues, i think it will give you insights to make a quality post in order to earn merit and also have a sendable merit to give out, because from the scenario of merit if your not awarded merit definitely you will not have Smerit to award another user, so earning merit is via proper research and hard working.

Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.

Shall the policy is good, but is not like that in community and it will be very rigid to adopt such, but in the aspect giving Smerit to any user, if you notice a post that deserve your merit, you have to write the topic and the board or you mark the Username anytime any day you have Smerit you slide to the user profile and merit the post, no time merit is been given to user that is wrong, it depends when you earn merit and couple with Smerit.

[Delightcrypto1]

Your Idea may seems right but sometimes if you approach your topic from another angle of reasoning you will realizes that way encourage lazy forum user from being diligent. And also will increase the level of spamming and plagiarism post.

[Ebede]

A very good idea, I wish the management will see it and do something. Most time you will not have merit and don't have time to begin to type and reply. You will just like the post and move. Anybody can give it at anything. It will  not be hard to include it in the forum. It will not be abused because it will not be used to replace merit

[Quickseller]

A like system would probably be okay, I don't see any major drawbacks, and maybe as a result of having a like button we will see less users giving merit because they agree with a post. Since, in my opinion a like system is completely different to the current merit system, which sometimes gets treated as the same by certain users.

A like system without limits on the number of likes that can be sent would result in people using sockpuppets giving likes to their alts. Look at this thread, someone has many accounts that were always logged in, why would you think that someone wouldn’t use zero post accounts to give many likes?

[Mpamaegbu]

I understand quite well what the OP is driving at and now that it's mentioned again I think theymos could look at it this way — enable a like bottom for newbie to member ranks only. Once a user crosses the member rank they lose the ability to use the like button. I know what it's like to read a helpful or reasonable posts but not being able to hug the poster (that's what merit literally does, isn't it?). Yes, one could report the post to appropriate threads to be merited but believe me it's not every time one reads a post that one has the time to respond to. Again, there may be newbies who don't even know how to report such. A like or hug feature for those ranks won't be asking too much.

I think this should be looked into, especially as the call for it repeatedly is coming up now and then. We all need to review our stand on this.

[OgNasty]

As a newbie, I read many posts that has quality. After reading the posts I'll feel like to merit the post, but as a newbie, I might not have a sendable merit, I will have no option than to slide on.
Assuming there is an alternative to merit just like "Facebook like" along side merit, it would favour me.

Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.
This proposed "like" might likely not be used by admins, or neither shall it determine ranking, but it should just be a mere appreciation for a quality post when merit is lacking.

As an alternative, I would propose that all users be given a regular amount of smerit like we are all merit sources. The amount you get could be based off of some metric like account level, signup date, post count, or some formula, etc. That would seemingly make things as decentralized as possible, although the alt account issue ever looms.

[UserU]

A like system would probably be okay, I don't see any major drawbacks, and maybe as a result of having a like button we will see less users giving merit because they agree with a post. Since, in my opinion a like system is completely different to the current merit system, which sometimes gets treated as the same by certain users.

A like system without limits on the number of likes that can be sent would result in people using sockpuppets giving likes to their alts. Look at this thread, someone has many accounts that were always logged in, why would you think that someone wouldn’t use zero post accounts to give many likes?

No doubt that is still abusable, but I think the likes wouldn't carry as much weight as the Merits though.

I mean, the person could always use sockpuppets but in the end the BS would still be smelled out by other members sooner or later.

[Quickseller]

A like system would probably be okay, I don't see any major drawbacks, and maybe as a result of having a like button we will see less users giving merit because they agree with a post. Since, in my opinion a like system is completely different to the current merit system, which sometimes gets treated as the same by certain users.

A like system without limits on the number of likes that can be sent would result in people using sockpuppets giving likes to their alts. Look at this thread, someone has many accounts that were always logged in, why would you think that someone wouldn’t use zero post accounts to give many likes?

No doubt that is still abusable, but I think the likes wouldn't carry as much weight as the Merits though.

I mean, the person could always use sockpuppets but in the end the BS would still be smelled out by other members sooner or later.

I guess I would ask if there are many posts that deserve merit that have little to no merit? If so, the number of sMerit that sources have should be evaluated or the number of sources should be evaluated. I don’t think adding a “plus 1” would add much value. In addition to the potential for abuse I mentioned above.

Automating notifications to merit sources may also be a good idea as was suggested above by Welsh. Sources could set their own criteria as to who they are willing to receive notifications from. 

[Pmalek]

Atleast if I don't have merit to give, I will just click like and move on pending when I'll have merit to award the user.

You can still come back to the posts you want to merit later on when you have sMerits to give. You don't need likes for that. Just bookmark the post or save it to a new document that you keep on your computer for posts you intend to merit later on. When your stash of merits goes up, find a post you like from your saved history and merit it.

I believe we should start worrying about the merit system when established members who have received thousands or merits start speaking out against it. If they deem it unfair or bad even after having received so much, then we have a problem.

[KingsDen]

Your Idea may seems right but sometimes if you approach your topic from another angle of reasoning you will realizes that way encourage lazy forum user from being diligent. And also will increase the level of spamming and plagiarism post.

Please sir, can you enlighten me on how the introduction of likes along side merit will increase the level of plagiarism in the forum?

[qwertyup23]

Your Idea may seems right but sometimes if you approach your topic from another angle of reasoning you will realizes that way encourage lazy forum user from being diligent. And also will increase the level of spamming and plagiarism post.

Please sir, can you enlighten me on how the introduction of likes along side merit will increase the level of plagiarism in the forum?

I highly suggest that you ignore his reply as it does not make any sense at all.

What you suggested may sound good on paper, but in reality, it kinda defeats the purpose of the merit system. As what many have already mentioned, the purpose of merits is to reward users who contribute quality posts in the forum. For every two (2) merits that you earn, you are rewarded with one (1) sendable merit that allows you to merit another post in which you find valuable. The reason for this is clear and obvious- which is to prevent abuse.

To solve your problem, you can always save the post in which you find valuable, then merit it later on once you receive one.