Was the forum better before without Merit or is it better now with Merit?

[Rruchi man]

Members, reputable members. Was it better before back then when this forum was without merits or is it better or even much better now with merits? Please explain your answer so users like me can get an idea how it was and what you prefer.

What do you mean better? Has useful information stop being spread here? are there not still very many helpful topics created by still very quality writers? The forum is good, and it just strikes me that if the merit system was added to the forum when it was not a part of the original plan, then it means it was meant to make the forum better as an improvement. At this stage I the forum where things has remained like nice and running with the merit system, the forum will feel odd if the merit system is abolished.

[uchegod-21]

Without asking, you will understand that even with the merit system, there are good evidences of alt accounts and possibly account farming by some individuals. You have to imagine that if with the presence of the merit system, some people are still trying to spam up their accounts by posting low quality posts, and trying to buy merits and do shady activities to grow the account.
If this is like this presently, what happens when there was merit system. This means a crusade of spammers and I understood it was worse somewhere 2018 and this made some quality posters exited the forum to have their sanity.

[Rikafip]

Every reader of the forum is required to immediately register on it or what?

Of course not (I personally first just passively read for a month or two before registering) but in your case it would mean that you were lurking the forum for 5 years befiore actually registering and based on your posting habits I don't think its true.

[panganib999]

I’d say that the merit system we have right bow made “positive contribution” real and quantitative, whereas before the system was imposed which I would say was fairly easy to get into, no form of real credibility can be seen. You can get yourself an account you’d post every week or so for a couple of days in a year and voila, you now get a senior member account you could easily use for signature campaigns.

Let’s face it, the advent of signature campaigns in this forum is what made this forum kicking. And thanks to merits, signature campaigns, and moderators as well as keen observers alike are able to quickly deduce who’s making posts for shit and who’s really passionate about making this forum a better site.

Plus, it’s way more rewarding to create and join in discussions that matters a lot to the industry, cause if yoi’re good enough to be able to contribute as much as an insightful opinion about certain somethings, people can merit you for it.

[Smartvirus]

Members, reputable members. Was it better before back then when this forum was without merits or is it better or even much better now with merits? Please explain your answer so users like me can get an idea how it was and what you prefer.

I can’t give you a perspective on a time when I didn’t exist but, I can as much give you an answer based on what the system was set to archive based on how far it’s gone to achieve that.
The merit system came as a way to boost quality in posts and push for more creative writing in the minds of users.

If you see the merit system to have been able to achieve that, then you can agree that, there is a good chance that the forum is far better now than it would have been before the creation of the merit system. If otherwise, then it’s up to you.

Of course there might be a down side to it but, I think the positive out weighs the negotiable and that’s how you measure it. Hardly anyone who seeks to be creative doesn’t expect a feedback and that means, the system is working.

[aoluain]

I dont think the forum has either benefited or suffered from the Merit system, I voted "No Difference"

IMO there is still the same amount of posts which are not needed, its mostly by low ranked members
who are trying to write posts primarily to get Merits, to rank up and get into a signature campaign, but
there is a finite amount of campaign positions anyway.

For me what the Merit system has done is put a -visual number- on everyones technical ability, Bitcoin
Knowledge and communication skills. Its a measure now of generally "how good you are" and its easier
now for the campaign managers to filter the applicants to their campaigns

There are still going to be people who are better than others and who are able to rank up quicker, that
was the case prior to the Merit system too.

[FatFork]

IMO there is still the same amount of posts which are not needed,
<cut>

I'm not so sure I agree with that. Take a look at this graph. The raw number of posts per month has dropped dramatically from over 1.5 million in 2017 to around 300 thousand (in December 2022, according to ninjastic.space). So, I would say that the merit system probably contributed a lot in that regard.

There are still going to be people who are better than others and who are able to rank up quicker, that
was the case prior to the Merit system too.

I don't think that's true either. Before the merit system, everyone could rank up on the forum at the same pace, as all that was required was activity and time. No one was able to rank up faster than any other member sharing the same activity.

[mr.smith]

Members, reputable members. Was it better before back then when this forum was without merits or is it better or even much better now with merits? Please explain your answer so users like me can get an idea how it was and what you prefer.

If the administrator forbids or no longer wants any signature campaign here will these merits matter, it's like working in a company you get a better position and pay if you have a lot of feathers in your caps.

For those who are into true discussion getting a merit is an incentive that they are doing good, but for those who are eyeing to make money through a signature campaign it is a ticket for a seat.

[OcTradism]

If the administrator forbids or no longer wants any signature campaign here will these merits matter, it's like working in a company you get a better position and pay if you have a lot of feathers in your caps.

Merit will still be matter for quality users because it is like forum member ranks. You received more merits, it is like a recognition of your contribution and value in Bitcointalk community. It is not true for all because earned merit can be easier or harder for different forum members but generally it is one of quality signals.

If I am a good poster, I will make good posts and I am sure I would feel a bit happy when I see someone drops their merit on my posts.

For those who are into true discussion getting a merit is an incentive that they are doing good, but for those who are eyeing to make money through a signature campaign it is a ticket for a seat.

There are good posters who make posts but don't wear any signature and they don't care to join any paid signature campaign. They will not stop posting, sharing idea when all signatures are disabled in Bitcointalk.

[aoluain]

IMO there is still the same amount of posts which are not needed,
<cut>

I'm not so sure I agree with that. Take a look at this graph. The raw number of posts per month has dropped dramatically from over 1.5 million in 2017 to around 300 thousand (in December 2022, according to ninjastic.space). So, I would say that the merit system probably contributed a lot in that regard.

Thats interesting for sure and is a perfect example actually of a change in general member/spam behavour,
I had to examine that graph again to figure it out.

There are still going to be people who are better than others and who are able to rank up quicker, that
was the case prior to the Merit system too.

I don't think that's true either. Before the merit system, everyone could rank up on the forum at the same pace, as all that was required was activity and time. No one was able to rank up faster than any other member sharing the same activity.

Thats actually very true, all things being equal ^{time spent on the forum and post count} the "rising
tide was floating all boats"

These points have changed my opinion on the thread title, I guess I was focussing too much on what I would deem
as low quality posts and useless threads.

[Shamm]

Members, reputable members. Was it better before back then when this forum was without merits or is it better or even much better now with merits? Please explain your answer so users like me can get an idea how it was and what you prefer.

If the administrator forbids or no longer wants any signature campaign here will these merits matter, it's like working in a company you get a better position and pay if you have a lot of feathers in your caps.

For those who are into true discussion getting a merit is an incentive that they are doing good, but for those who are eyeing to make money through a signature campaign it is a ticket for a seat.
[/quote
Merits is one of a key to rankup and we all know that merits are given to those users who are making good post not a spam or a shitpost. And also users who are aiming to rankup then they will make  a good post in order to receive merits from others to reach highranks. also like what older users said above that merit system reduced spammer and shitposter. So if a user enter here to learn and to share then that's a good thing he/she will reach to the top.

[EarnOnVictor]

Members, reputable members. Was it better before back then when this forum was without merits or is it better or even much better now with merits? Please explain your answer so users like me can get an idea how it was and what you prefer.

What do you mean better? Has useful information stop being spread here? are there not still very many helpful topics created by still very quality writers? The forum is good, and it just strikes me that if the merit system was added to the forum when it was not a part of the original plan, then it means it was meant to make the forum better as an improvement. At this stage I the forum where things has remained like nice and running with the merit system, the forum will feel odd if the merit system is abolished.

Regardless, the forum is better moderated by the merit system, we can't ignore that. Fine, the forum would still be informative before now, but I do not know by then, yet I believe that spamming and lesser quality posts would be more dominant then, this is normal. Especially when the moderators are overwhelmed by them.

This, I believe was the reason why the admin thought of a way that would naturally limit the nonsense here rather than putting the whole load on the moderators. Also, I would like you to reason that if there is no need at all, I don't think it would have ever happened. For me, this is wise and this is not the first forum where something like this has been introduced to curb menaces. There must be rules or ways to restrict excesses, if not people will misuse the free opportunity they have. There is still spamming at times, but little, and one thing that is peculiar to those who are guilty of that is that they do not ever grow in the forum. Who will merit the post of a bad poster? This is why many of them think twice before they write rubbish since they want to grow even as they desire to be in a campaign.

[348Judah]

If you truly understand the reason for the introduction of the merit system then you will understand that it was intended for something good and not bad, we don't need the spammers to get rankef up, the merits system will fight against them and ever since then, there have been moderation in times of dealing with these spammers and trollers, most of them were also confined to the altcoins sections then you could easily found on the main bitcoin discussion boards.

[pinggoki]

If you truly understand the reason for the introduction of the merit system then you will understand that it was intended for something good and not bad, we don't need the spammers to get rankef up, the merits system will fight against them and ever since then, there have been moderation in times of dealing with these spammers and trollers, most of them were also confined to the altcoins sections then you could easily found on the main bitcoin discussion boards.

Exactly and it's also difficult for account farms to grow because it's difficult to rank up anymore unlike the last time where they can just create more and more account and then apply it to signature campaigns but most obviously it's for spammers and at the same time make sure that the contents in the forum grow to a much higher standard because those who do good with their posts are given merit so they're more inspired to do it more. Merit system is actually a good way to prevent abuse and exploits in the forum and I've seen a lot of games and forums do measures against spams and so far, this is the best that I've seen or heard.

[aioc]

Members, reputable members. Was it better before back then when this forum was without merits or is it better or even much better now with merits? Please explain your answer so users like me can get an idea how it was and what you prefer.

I voted better with merits now, with merits we will know who is serious about contributing and being an active member of the forum, it weeds out spammers and more farm accounts, there are members of this forum that only post here for bounty without contributing to the forum, if there is no merit we will see legendaries with no contribution but bounty reports and this is not good for the activity and reputation of the forum.
With merits, it stopped creating high-rank members with no contribution.

[ineedhelpplease]

I wasn't around when this came but you present an interesting question.

Makes me wonder;

When was merit first added to the forums?

What were the old ways of ranking up?

[TheUltraElite]

When was merit first added to the forums?

A little bit of searching around the forum and from help of search engines or by reading the threads started by theymos you can find this out yourself, let that be your homework.

What were the old ways of ranking up?

By being active you would attain a activity of 14 every 14 days. Now read the rank requirements and just remove the merit requirement from there and only activity remains. That was what determined rank at that time. To get that activity people used to post, but that posting became spam because it was easy to rank up many accounts owned by the same person.

[bakasabo]

Hard to calculate if the forum became better or not when merit were introduced. People manage to spam anyway. But, it definitely decreased the amount of spam or low quality posts. It is better to say that with merit introduction forum was separated from users who registered here only to get money, but never to learn, to create or to share, from those who care not only about how thick is their wallet.

[criptoevangelista]

With merit, the quality level of the forum increases significantly!

I have always participated in forums all my life, before registering I always appeared here just to read what people wrote.

One thing I can say, all or almost all internet forums with this layout are dead. What keeps this forum very busy and with quality is largely due to the merits system, which is a valuable part of an entire ecosystem that works alone in favor of quality.

And the person who invented this deserves congratulations, the result is incredible.

[ineedhelpplease]

A challenge? Shouldn't be too hard. Time to go searching  

When was merit first added to the forums?

A little bit of searching around the forum and from help of search engines or by reading the threads started by theymos you can find this out yourself, let that be your homework.

What were the old ways of ranking up?

By being active you would attain a activity of 14 every 14 days. Now read the rank requirements and just remove the merit requirement from there and only activity remains. That was what determined rank at that time. To get that activity people used to post, but that posting became spam because it was easy to rank up many accounts owned by the same person.

Hmm. I see, thanks