Meriting Your Alt is allowed?

[Crypt0S0ul]

I saw a lot of drama in this forum regarding meriting alt accounts. I saw some people also got tagged because they merited their alt accounts. Forum members believe this is not a good practice. I can gather up a lot of harsh replies from the community when someone merited their alt account. But, I will not spend my time there since almost everyone thinks the same. As I also noticed, Meriting alt is not a merit abuse according to forum rules. But, Moderators discourage users not to doing this.

When you check Bitcointalk Stats From Here,

You will see that philipma1957 Is the Number 1 Top poster on this forum. He has made over 39241+ Posts in this forum since his registration date (With this account only). He is an DT1 Member. He is Top 2 in the Most Recognized Member. He is Number 21 On the Most Trusted Member list. He is number 17 in both Most Activity and Most Merited members.

He already has four accounts (5 from now)

• philipma1957 DT1
• Philipma1957cellphone DT2
• Philipma1957onvacation
• philipma1957laptop
  

With the philipma1957 account, He included his cellphone account on his trust list which makes his cellphone account DT2 (I guess it's allowed).

philipma1957 Trusts these users' judgement:
26. Philipma1957cellphone (Trust: neutral) (125 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)

He also merited his cellphone account from his main account.

Merit received by Philipma1957cellphone (Trust list) from January 24, 2018 until May 27, 2022 (source)

   21. Fri Aug 28 14:51:58 2020: 1 (44) from philipma1957 (Trust list) (history) for Re: WTS S 17 pro ASIC -
   10. Tue Nov 26 19:00:45 2019: 2 (28) from philipma1957 (Trust list) (history) for Re: Well the 2018 btc diff jumps are over so what will 2019 bring us?

That was too old Story.
Today, I noticed he created another account named: a1 Hashrate LLC2022 and self-verified -

I am  a philipma1957 alt. I will be using this newly formed account.
I will verify with philipma1957 in 1 minute.

I am  a philipma1957 alt. I will be using this newly formed account.
I will verify with philipma1957 in 1 minute.

Yeah this is me and I am going fully formal and will use the business account  a1 hashrate LLC2022

A few minutes later he made another post and Merited his this alts too.

With due respect, I know He is a great contributor to this forum. Almost 40K posts are no joke.
But, My question is- When a low ranked user gets caught by others meriting his alts, I see DT members give harsh replies and expose them in a toxic way. Some of them Added them to the Distrust list and also some DT members tag them.

No offence to philipma1957. But, I want to see how they react when it comes to the Top Contributor of this forum.

[Apocollapse]

This should be handled case by case and not only looking by "merit sharing" only, you're correct meriting your own alt is merit abuse, but you need to look more deeper, does he got benefit after meriting his own alt? I find nothing.

1. AFAIK he's never joining any signature campaign, usually most users meriting his own alt to make his alt merit history is high, so his alt will high likely to get accepted.
2. He's also not a scammer and high likely wouldn't become a scammer based on his record.
3. He didn't give merit to his newbie alt to rank up to jr.member to avoid cost of copper membership.

However what I find interesting he's "self scratching" his own alt

Trust list for: Philipma1957cellphone (Trust: neutral) (125 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP) (created 2022-05-28_Sat_05.06h)
Back to index

Philipma1957cellphone Trusts these users' judgement:
1. philipma1957 (Trust: +37 / =0 / -0) (DT1! (12) 3431 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)

Philipma1957cellphone's judgement is Trusted by:
1. philipma1957 (Trust: +37 / =0 / -0) (DT1! (12) 3431 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)

Although he did on a purpose

I WILL give all my positive feedback with this account. Also it is used for security when I am on the road.

But he is still using his main account to give positive feedback, this user got three positive feedbacks from his main account and his alt. I don't think this is correct use of trustlist and trust feedback from my understanding so far.

[mindrust]

No matter what your excuse is (which is likely going to be a bullshit excuse), you shouldn't merit your own alts imo. Maybe he didn't get any benefits from doing so but it is still not right.

On the other hand, who knows how many others lurking around with multiple accounts, creating fake threads, boosting his army of shills... When you think about it, Philip's mistake looks innocent. It is only 3 merits if I see it right, pretty much nothing.

On a few occasions I forgot which page I am on, and merited the wrong post/user. Maybe he did that.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Show me the account of the person who gave merit to their alt and, in the meantime, told everyone that it was his alternate account.

Everyone probably understands this. Someone who passes merit to their alt is unlikely to admit to managing two or more accounts. And it immediately becomes clear that a person is lying for some personal purpose.

Your example is a completely different case. I think that Philipma1957 is often in different places, but because of his love of the forum, he tries to always be in touch with different devices. For me, this is normal. I don't see a problem here.

[Crypt0S0ul]

This should be handled case by case and not only looking by "merit sharing" only, you're correct meriting your own alt is merit abuse, but you need to look more deeper, does he got benefit after meriting his own alt? I find nothing.

I agree with that.

who knows how many others lurking around with multiple accounts, creating fake threads, boosting his army of shills... When you think about it, Philip's mistake looks innocent. It is only 3 merits if I see it right, pretty much nothing.

Well, While some reputed well-known members used their alt and they informed the community that- This is my alt, At the same time a lot more people using their alt and maybe they also meriting their alts. But we don't know until they get exposed. I am not accusing him of merit abuse, and I am not expecting a harsh reply. I want to see how the community react when it varies from person to person.

Show me the account of the person who gave merit to their alt and, in the meantime, told everyone that it was his alternate account.

I guess most of them are exposed by others.
While I am not accusing him of merit abuse, I also don't understand why he needs to merit his alts since he is not participating in any signature campaign.

[NeuroticFish]

But, My question is- When a low ranked user gets caught by others meriting his alts, I see DT members give harsh replies and expose them in a toxic way.

When a newbie does this, he's doing it for farming accounts, for using multiple users in whatever bounties or campaigns (usually against their rules) or for conducting scams.
Also in most cases those are not newbies, are established users' new accounts (btw, I guess that this is not your main account also, so you should know this kind of details).

On the other hand philipma1957 has proven already well enough that he's not interested in scams and these accounts have a clear purpose (you will see that at least Philipma1957cellphone is inactive now).
Plus his alts are clearly stated they're alts.


So it's by far an exception, in the good way. I would have not done that in his place (and if I would have had alts) even if that would have been meaning that for example I would not be able to post images, but being harsh on him for this would be really silly.
Hence I don't know why you are so keen to create this unnecessary drama.

[lovesmayfamilis]

He already has four accounts (5 from now)

Have you looked at the latest activity?
Can this be called five active accounts?

[Crypt0S0ul]

Hence I don't know why you are so keen to create this unnecessary drama.

Why do you think I created this drama while I already said:

I am not accusing him of merit abuse, and I am not expecting a harsh reply. I want to see how the community react when it varies from person to person.

He already has four accounts (5 from now)

Have you looked at the latest activity?

No, I didn't check. It's not the point here. I just wanted to see the community reaction.

Can this be called five active accounts?

Where did I say five Active accounts? No matter if they are active or not. The accounts are counted.

[NeuroticFish]

Why do you think I created this drama while I already said:

I am not accusing him of merit abuse, and I am not expecting a harsh reply. I want to see how the community react when it varies from person to person.

Well, you did create this topic and have tried to put some sort of "guilty" tag on his back.
So no matter what you claim/declare afterwards, some harm (and drama) is done.

Even more, I find your "innocent" (lol) question rather insulting. You have too much of politician material.

[yahoo62278]

I dislike users making accusations or trying to sling mud from a newbie account. Basically a chickenshit scared they will get tagged. Have some balls, it's not illegal to ask a question even if it might piss off a DT user.

With that being said, I do not think it's right to merit am alt account. If the OP were to do it, I'm sure some DT would tag him/her for it. I don't feel like Philipma sent merit to abuse the system as it was only 1 merit. Maybe so when he hit Jr he could post images, who knows.

I also think it's wrong to include your alt in DT/trust lists but there are multiple DT users that have done so I think. Hilariousandco is the only 1 I specifically remember.

Whether I feel any of these actions are right or wrong, it does come down to a case by case thing. Older established members with nothing to gain will not get tagged, whereas newbie or lower ranked members will likely not get the benefit of doubt.

[dkbit98]

Considering he don't join any signature campaign and high frequency of sending merit (at least 2503 times[1]), it's likely he made mistake rather than intentionally sending merit to his alt account. While it's rather rare, i have also made similar mistake (e.g. sending wrong amount of merit, sending merit to one post below/above on post i want to merit).

Seriously?!
We are not talking about trained monkey who is using keyboard to make multiple ''mistakes'' like this to his alt accounts, and add them to his trust list.



Meriting your alt accounts and including them in your trust list is crazy and immoral behavior, but OP why don't you use your main account if you wanted to talk about this?
Most of philipma1957 alt accounts are inactive for years, however, problem is that he continues to do the same thing with his new alt accounts now.
I see no reason why DT member in his position should be able to do something like this all the time without any explanation.

@philipma1957 you have something to say about this?

[GeorgeJohn]

It's obvious that some of the account merited each other and it's unethical for the forum, but the factor we have to consider is the life existence of those of the accounts, some of them is really inactive so therefore i dont think since they are inactive any penalty is holding any of them, if you cross check the differences of the activeness of the accounts and you will understand that some of them has stopped operating for injuries of time. And we should remember this op account used to prosecute these, is a someone alt...so in summary i will say it's a mistake that occurs when it doesn't know fully the doctrine of the forum.

[Poker Player]

Well, aside from all that has been said, let's remember that theymos only cares about whether merit has been bought/sold. I too would like Phillip to give some explanation, as I think he most likely did it so he could post images with his alts, or something, but his contribution to the forum is more than positive and this is a minor issue.

The most Phillip could get would be a neutral tag, and in the unlikely event that some DT let him get a red tag as sometimes happens, it wouldn't affect him, as AFAIK he has never joined a signature campaign, and being the 21st most trusted of all the forum, I don't think people who trust him are going to distrust him because of this.

[rozak]

OP, actually you don't need to create a new account to create an accusation thread like this. with your main account, I believe you will be more appreciated.

I don't understand the mindset of @philipma1957, it does look weird when he publishes ALT accounts, tags, and share merit. as I see, he is not using the ALT of the account he has to cheat in the signature campaign.
I think, @philipma1957 is a very discussion person and loves forums. what is clear is that he always publishes his ALT account. like the latest, @a1 Hashrate LLC2022

I just created an llc with forum member buysolar.

so I made an alt

“a1 HashRate LLC2022”

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3482040

[LoyceV]

I'd say theymos' "I'm not going to lose sleep over people" more or less applies here. My own personal opinion: it's 3 Merit, it doesn't matter. The Legendary user has earned a thousand times more than that already, and he's not even using an avatar or longer signature on his cellphone account. I don't know the reason why he Merited his own alt, and in my opinion it's better not to do that, but in the grand scheme of things, it's insignificant.

But he is still using his main account to give positive feedback, this user got three positive feedbacks from his main account and his alt. I don't think this is correct use of trustlist and trust feedback from my understanding so far.

Agreed. Nobody should bump someone's feedback score by more than one point (up or down).

[LoyceV]

We are not talking about trained monkey who is using keyboard to make multiple ''mistakes'' like this to his alt accounts, and add them to his trust list.

If you ever try to send lots of merit at once, you might understand what i meant. It's different case for adding his alt. account into trust list.

I've made mistakes, like sending 40 instead of 4 sMerit. Twice.
It happens.

[dkbit98]

I've made mistakes, like sending 40 instead of 4 sMerit. Twice.
It happens.

You sent that to your alt LoyceMobile?  
I am not saying just entering wrong number or zero, that can happen to anyone and it happened to me as well.

it's insignificant.

It's obviously not insignificant when we have a topic about this, and he is giving bad example to newbies and lower ranked members.

If you ever try to send lots of merit at once, you might understand what i meant. It's different case for adding his alt. account into trust list though.

Check out my merit history, and you will see that I can send lot's of merit, so it's no misunderstanding.

[LoyceV]

You sent that to your alt LoyceMobile?  

Nope.

I am not saying just entering wrong number or zero, that can happen to anyone and it happened to me as well.

Meriting the wrong post has happened too Luckily, it wasn't a bad post, and it wasn't mine. It happened when I scrolled back up while reading, and didn't check carefully enough.

It's obviously not insignificant when we have a topic about this

Lol. I've seen many topics about insignificant subjects

[The Sceptical Chymist]

It is only 3 merits if I see it right, pretty much nothing.

On a few occasions I forgot which page I am on, and merited the wrong post/user. Maybe he did that.

I agree with the first statement above, and as to the second....eh, maybe.  In the end, I doubt there's anyone on DT who knows Philipma1957 that would tag him for giving a few merits to his alt accounts--regardless of the reasons for which he did so.  It's not a good standard to set for newcomers, though, because when they (or anyone else for that matter) see a long time member getting away with something that they themselves might get tagged for, it just gives the impression that there's a class of members that's above the rules.

And it shouldn't be that way.  Everyone ought to be held to the same standards, with the caveat that each case should be dealt with individually and all factors taken into account.  Come to think of it, when was the last time DT members tagged anyone for merit abuse?  I thought that was kind of a thing of the past.

[Poker Player]

I just sent a PM to philipma1957 to let him know about the existence of this thread in case he wants to comment.

I think it's quite likely that he didn't even realize that this thread is about him, especially when his nickname is not in the title, because although he came to the reputation section to post his last alt in Timelord2067's thread, he spends a lot of time in the WO thread and in the mining section but I don't remember once seeing him comment here.