As a participant in this campaign, here is my opinion on this discussion. I'm not at my desktop, the internet is a bit weak at the moment, so I won't quote and specially edit the text.
First of all, Royse, I have to commend you on the initiative to shake things up a bit and try to raise the management of signature campaigns and their quality to a higher level.
If you ask us (participants) what is the best payment rate, I believe that it would be ideal for us to keep the same limit of 25 posts, but for it to be worth $250. OK, I'm exaggerating
The first thing I would like to point out, if we are talking about the payment rate, I must mention the latest changes in the Mixero campaign. It is currently the campaign that pays the most to an individual but at the same time the worst paid campaign. There we have three members who can earn $250, while the others are paid "only" $2.5 per post (Legendary rank), which is one of the lowest rates.
That they can reach the full $125 with a larger number of posts, which is currently average or just above. I would say that such a payment rate is aimed at spamming and worse quality. For example, the Stake campaign (which is definitely the worst in terms of the ratio of cost and what is gained) promises more with a similar payment rate. With the current competition in campaigns, for that money, plus a large number of posts, the most that can be expected are spammers, valuable members, certainly not.
What do I see as the epilogue of that campaign?
Three prominent members, no matter how good they are, will not be able to fully carry the entire campaign and in the end, it will not justify the money spent.
Also, even if this (Mixero) campaign has the best rates, member ETFbitcoin was paid $5 per post. At this point, I'm getting paid more than him ($6 per post), and honestly, I'm not even close to the quality of his writing. I'm a little sorry that he left Sinbad sig., a really good poster.
To return to the topic, payment rate and maximum number of posts in the Sinbad campaign.
If Sinbad prefers to assume a dominant role in the mixing industry, also here on the forum through a signature campaign, then the matter is clear. Best payment rate and maximum number of posts. Of course, a lot depends on the budget.
Here I would give an example of the best campaign so far, CM. They didn't start as the most paid campaign either, but over time everything rose to a higher level. As CM grew, so did the campaign.
I believe that it would be most realistic to start now with 35 posts max and the current payment rate (I'm talking about the green zone). So, it's about $210 max.
Over time, if the budget allows, you can increase the maximum number of posts.
As for merit rank, I agree with most of what they said in previous posts. With various contests like Pizza Bake Off and similar, threads like WO, users who have earned a lot of merit and do not leave the local board, I think that merit is overestimated.
Of course, it is not a unique rule, merit still serves its purpose. But I certainly wouldn't take earned merit as a basic criterion for selection in the campaign.
Here I will give an example, right from this campaign. User cryptofrka was accepted into the Sinbad campaign as a regular Legendary (non-green zone). He has just over 1000 merits (Sorry frka, I'm just too lazy to check exactly how much you have). According to the merit rules, this is only enough for ordinary status in the campaign.
But cryptofrka manages several threads in gambling, where it periodically publishes results and changes important for all participants of those threads. So all participants do not miss his posts, because they are informative for them.
So, a very valuable member, but he didn't earn merit, because the gambling section doesn't have much merit at all.
In the end, let me also complain about my pain, considering that I don't have 3k earned merit, so I'm probably out of here. I didn't expect it to end like this.