[POLL] Top 5 boards deserve most merits

[The Sceptical Chymist]

1. Many of us just don't visit all the boards. I don't visit P&S or the boards in most foreign languages. I guess I'm not alone in this and such votes may distort the result. Also there's a good chance that certain areas have less merit sources than others.

I probably don't visit 90% of this forum if you include every local board in that statistic, and I even have most of the English-section boards on ignore as well--including all of the altcoin ones. 

I don't have a top-8 in my head as far as which sections do or should earn the most merits, because that's not how I organize things in my mind.  Some sections are better than others.  Altcoin Discussion and the rest of the child boards are, in general, pure crap.  Basically, they're where bounty hunters go to shitpost.  Now and then there are some really good posts made by dedicated members, but if you look at the rest of the posts in the thread, you'll see stupid one-liners that have no value whatsoever--and yes, I used to visit the altcoin sections, so I'm familiar with them. 

Unfortunately, Bitcoin Discussion is another popular dump site for the trash from bounty hunters/campaign shitposters, and you'd think it'd be the section where a lot of merits are earned--but it's not.  Meta is populated by a lot of older members who actually care about the forum and/or participate in the drama between the personalities they're familiar with.  Not surprisingly, a lot of merit sources also post there, too, so that's probably why a lot of merit gets distributed in that section.  Too bad that many members with nothing to say have figured that out and create threads just to earn merits.  That's been happening since the beginning of the merit system, by the way.

[LoyceV]

I hope we do not have an influx of new threads in the selected boards from members after this poll, in an attempt to grab a little from the merit spree.

At least on the tech boards, shitposts don't receive Merit and are quickly removed after reporting them. Some try, but it doesn't earn them anything.

[Welsh]

I'd say the reason behind the merit circulation in the Altcoin section being less than the main Bitcoin sections is most merit sources seem to be concentrated on the Bitcoin sections, and there is some sort of stigma towards the Altcoin section, I know there's several users who have that section on ignore, and I'm not really blaming them for doing it. However, I've been saying it for years; the Altcoin section despite having more spam than the Bitcoin sections, still has some very good discussion. It would be brilliant if some merit sources could concentrate on these sections a little bit more.

Although, aside from that I don't think there's anything particularly surprising about the circulation of merit. Generally, the more technical oriented sections tend to encourage more in depth conversations, and therefore the merit flows there a lot more. Altcoin sections are probably considered a lot less technical than the main Bitcoin sections. I must admit that the Development section is one of the best places on the internet, when it comes to discussion about the technical aspects of Bitcoin.

[JayDDee]

Altcoin technical discussions tend to get more clueless lazy newbies, often punted over from the bitcoin section.
I'm not suggesting all newbies are clueless and lazy but I am referring to a subset of newbies who are.
Posting an altcoin question in the bitcoin section is an example.

Entering a technical discussion usually involves some technical interest. I am reminded of a sign a coleague
had posted at his desk: "if you want a better answer ask a better question". Altcoin gets all the "I know nothing
technically, don't want to learn, and just want to start mining, help me" questions.

My point is I don't think this has to do with merits. It's just the natural order of things that altcoins are second
class. A few may not deserve it based on markets, and for technical mining discussions SHA256D altcoin
mining has more in common with Bitcoin than with "alt-algos". But that's the way it is.

I spend most of my time on the altcoin mining board, for obvious reasons, so I don't see all the financial scams.
They get deleted for being off topic on the mining board. It doesn't get all the shitcoin spam either. But there's no
shortage of malware spam. There are a lot of new phish in the pond and it's attracting a lot of phishing.

I don't think merit helps much with that either. Most malware is posted by newbie accounts. If that's not a big
enough red flag for the "best mining software in the world" the presence of lack of merit won't make a difference.

Senority and reputation play a bigger role in technical discussions. It's less about the post and more about the user
who posted it.

Just my 2 Sats.

[Welsh]

Senority and reputation play a bigger role in technical discussions. It's less about the post and more about the user
who posted it.

I disagree, and think this is a misconception of sorts. I think it's reasonable to say that the longer you've been here, and the more experience you have with Bitcoin, the more knowledgeable you are likely going to be about Bitcoin. Also, due to your longevity here, you'll likely be somewhat respected or hold some sort of higher rank here. So, it's far more likely that a seasoned user here is going to be talking about technical things, than a newbie is. At least, with any sort of accuracy. However, there have been examples of a new user or a newer user than expected does come, and talk quite in detail about the technical aspects of Bitcoin, and they usually get showered in merits.

There's also quite a few users that frequent the technical sections that have more merit than activity/posts.

[JayDDee]

However, there have been examples of a new user or a newer user than expected does come, and talk quite in detail about the technical aspects of Bitcoin, and they usually get showered in merits.

There's also quite a few users that frequent the technical sections that have more merit than activity/posts.

I don't disagree, but I'm suggesting the merits don't add a lot of value not already present by other factors I mentioned.
One instance where it would help is a newbie software developper trying to get a foot in the door. Newbie software is usually
avoided, but merits from respected senior members can help relieve some of the apprehension. The attitude of a newbie
offering technical advice should reveal something about their credentials. Are they suggesting a magic "pill" with outrageous
claims or are they providing the technical reasoning for their advice.

It's just my subjective point of view, you may disagree, but I haven't typically looked at merit when assessing the quality of
a post or user. I've just seen it as a way to give a thumbs up to a particularly interesting or insightful post without replying
with a low value post like "Well said!!!". Perhaps I'm just playing devil's advocate in a way to explain a possible reason for the
central issue of this thread.

[aysg76]

I hope we do not have an influx of new threads in the selected boards from members after this poll, in an attempt to grab a little from the merit spree.

At least on the tech boards, shitposts don't receive Merit and are quickly removed after reporting them. Some try, but it doesn't earn them anything.

That's a good point in technical boards because if you are going off topic and posting irrelevant knowledge which have no link with the ongoing discussions then the post is reported directly but on other board this thing is less frequent and many members spam fill the thread with such posts and giving up the same replies just to increase their post count.But in technical discussion if electrum wallet seed phrase or any other technical discussion is going then you cannot say business doing this or that and other philosophical things which don't add up to that discussion.

[Mpamaegbu]

I voted in this order:
Politics & Society
Beginners and Help
Bitcoin Discussion
Meta
Trading Discussion

My reason for picking Politics & Society ahead of others is because whatever we do in life revolves around politics and society. Whether we want to admit it or not, it's politics that has kept Bitcoin away from mass adoption till date. It's because some countries still find it difficult supporting Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies that makes the skepticism towards it elaborate. For instance, if all the governments of the world should toe the line of El Salvador on Bitcoin, we know what Bitcoin will become over night. It will be a mad rush for cryptocurrencies. I think those posting there and keeping the thread alive should be encouraged with merits.