Could the merit system demotivate lurkers?

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Quality over quantity, if you create 1000 posts with low effort I don't think you will get any single merit

This. Quality is over quantity. Good posts don't have to be excellent posts. Admin assigns many merit sources and they are quite softer to give merit to posts that are acceptable in meaning and are helpful. In the meantime, forum members can give you merit too but because they are not merit sources, they will choose quality posts to send merit to.

If you want to maximize your rank, then you need to increase two statistics which are listed on your profile:

• 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.

[chr1stian12]

It actually don't prevent scammers. Or just maybe  some people post not for merits. Well we don't have to mind those.
We can enter as long as the discussion interests us.

[lovesmayfamilis]

If you say that you read the forum long enough and opened an account to ask an important question for you, today there are some users, mostly beginners, who do not read anything at all and from the first day create many identical topics,which are quite enough on the forum many.


What am I talking about? There are people who know what to say but prepare for it for a long time, and there are those who write simply without thinking about anything. Most importantly, they are not confused by the merit system.
So based on your smart posting style, getting merit just shouldn't be a problem for you, join again, you can generate good discussions.

[Coyster]

Why do you need money to own bitcoin, when bitcoin is the money?

Bitcoin is yet to attain mainstream adoption, thus there are few 'employers' that pay people in Bitcoin, but if you have a skill or you render one service or the other and get paid in Bitcoin, then you prolly do not need money to own Bitcoin, because you're paid in the currency, but the thing is, payment directly in Bitcoin is as yet not so popular for a lot of reasons. Thus it's Fiat currencies that people get paid In, both in their workplaces or wherever they earn a living, thus the idea of "you need money to own Bitcoin" is that, after you must have been paid in your fiat currency, if you desire to use Bitcoin, either as a currency or as an investment, then you go ahead and convert your fiat for Bitcoin. But when mainstream adoption comes, and Bitcoin payment become more popular, then we prolly wouldn't have to do that, I believe that's what The Pharmacist posited.

[Pmalek]

The merit system is excellent as it is in my opinion. It prevents spammers and scammers from creating accounts and flooding the server with unwanted messages.

This is wrong. You can create hundreds of accounts that can be used to spam or scam on the forum. The lack of merits doesn't make it harder or easier to spam.

As it is though could there be a possibility that it could demotivate a long time lurker and take away from the creative process?

Your posting ability isn't affected by the number of merits you have. You can create new threads or reply to existing ones in all sections of the forum expect Serious Discussion and the Ivory Tower. 

If someone has been lurking for a long time and has suddenly got a lightbulb moment where they have an excellent crypto related idea but they would have trouble sharing it because they can't easily do so, because of the high barriers to entry.

Again, nothing prevents you from discussing crypto with other members on the forum. You have limitations to the number of PMs you can send and there is a cooldown period in between posts.

Could there be a way to reward lurkers and other people who contribute to the cause while still differentiating them from spammers?

If you are just lurking and reading the forum without posting, how would anyone know about you to reward you? Merits are the differentiating factor between a spammer and a legit user. There are spammers with hundreds of posts without a single merit.

Maybe there can be some fun interactive quizzes or games that test how well someone understands the technology, philosophy and the economics of bitcoin? Would it be a possibility to earn some merit when playing these games?

You would surely get merits if you created such games and shared them with the community. It is possible to earn some from solving them as well, but it depends on if the OP or community believe what you did is merit-worthy or not.

Here is an example of Bitcoin crosswords that soliton used to make a few months ago.

[Bozza]

As it is though could there be a possibility that it could demotivate a long time lurker and take away from the creative process?

Your posting ability isn't affected by the number of merits you have. You can create new threads or reply to existing ones in all sections of the forum expect Serious Discussion and the Ivory Tower. 

Maybe there can be some fun interactive quizzes or games that test how well someone understands the technology, philosophy and the economics of bitcoin? Would it be a possibility to earn some merit when playing these games?

You would surely get merits if you created such games and shared them with the community. It is possible to earn some from solving them as well, but it depends on if the OP or community believe what you did is merit-worthy or not.

Here is an example of Bitcoin crosswords that soliton used to make a few months ago.

As long as there is serious discussion it is fine as it is. I thought that people who have more merit might be listened to more than others. I.e. a popularity contest.

That cross word puzzle is excellent! I like it! I was thinking that having games for all age groups can be an excellent and fun way to teach about Bitcoin. Let's be honest: A lot of the aspects of Bitcoin can be hard to understand for the general public.

I will be looking at making a few games. I will post those when I have something worth showing.

If someone else would like to make games feel free to message me. Graphic design, sound design, script writing, ui design and programming is needed to make games. I was thinking games that range from simple jump and run games for kids, educational games for kids all the way to adult games. The goal is to have games that teach while they are fun at the same time.

[Pmalek]

I will be looking at making a few games. I will post those when I have something worth showing.

If someone else would like to make games feel free to message me. Graphic design, sound design, script writing, ui design and programming is needed to make games. I was thinking games that range from simple jump and run games for kids, educational games for kids all the way to adult games. The goal is to have games that teach while they are fun at the same time.

You might have bitten off more than you can chew there. Making your own games is a serious undertaking. Do you personally have any of the skills to make them? If not, most people won't be willing to work for free, and you need time to create those.

Try to find an easier way to spread your message. I did something like this for example > Riddles and Brain-Teasers for Bitcointalk Members (Newbies – Members). Come to think of it, I haven't done one in a while, so I should probably think of something soon.