There's enough merits, if hoarders aren't selfish.

[nutildah]

I think I'm going to, if only because I'm a cranky old curmudgeon who'd discontent with the way a very old-school internet discussion forum is being corrupted by AI after already being massively corrupted by incentivized posting.  I like to bitch until steam comes out of my poor listeners' ears, but as I said I also have a fondness for bitcointalk and see its decline and possible end coming sooner rather than later.

I feel the same way except I don't think Bitcointalk will ever disappear, at least not before Bitcoin itself fades into obscurity, which is gonna be a long while from now, with any luck.

Satoshi's posts are too important to the internet for this forum to fail, and even though there's been controversy due to the URL change (among other things), this is the best place to view them... in their original context, just as they were 13-14 years ago.

[Rikafip]

I really don't get why the obvious spammers get such a soft treatment nowadays.

Maybe it's related to declining activity on the forum, so even those spammers are seen as a necessary evil to keep the forum active. Beggars can't be choosers.

[Ultegra134]

I feel the same way except I don't think Bitcointalk will ever disappear, at least not before Bitcoin itself fades into obscurity, which is gonna be a long while from now, with any luck.

Satoshi's posts are too important to the internet for this forum to fail, and even though there's been controversy due to the URL change (among other things), this is the best place to view them... in their original context, just as they were 13-14 years ago.

To be honest, I don't think the post quality has dropped as much as @The Sceptical Chymist is mentioning. There are certain boards that have huge megatopics that suffer from inferior quality, and it's basically all about quantity, which is the gambling board and the bounty sections. The first is a result of signature campaign requirements on the board. Even though I also have a 10 post requirement, I refrain from replying to megathreads that have no reason for existing. Some are so badly written that I'm annoyed as well, such as this one: "Double your money and quite". They can't even spell the word "quit."  Why even bother replying to this topic? Yet, it has over 40 pages of replies.

[Adbitco]

Bro is missing all the fun on gambling board, who's going to tell him.

I know those who doesn't post in the gambling board always sees those who are active posting there as spammers hence leashing out their merits could be a cold stone inside an ice block. I think they should start looking into gambling board to also enjoy the cool fun going on there, we hear lots of stories.

[LoyceV]

Maybe it's related to declining activity on the forum, so even those spammers are seen as a necessary evil to keep the forum active. Beggars can't be choosers.

If theymos wanted spambots to keep the forum active, he could just as well make them by himself. I doubt he's into that.

Why even bother replying to this topic? Yet, it has over 40 pages of replies.

Spam megathreads work great for reaching post quotas. That's 800+ posts about nothing, read by nobody, but all being paid.

[nutildah]

I really don't get why the obvious spammers get such a soft treatment nowadays.

Maybe it's related to declining activity on the forum, so even those spammers are seen as a necessary evil to keep the forum active. Beggars can't be choosers.

I don't think the forum necessarily needs any activity at all... But the bar for what passes as 'conversation' is so low on certain boards, singling out certain posts as "spam" almost seems like a futile effort.

Spam megathreads work great for reaching post quotas. That's 800+ posts about nothing, read by nobody, but all being paid.

Its truly a weird phenomenon that it is still somehow deemed a good idea to pay such posts... I don't completely understand the intricacies of it.

[LoyceV]

Its truly a weird phenomenon that it is still somehow deemed a good idea to pay such posts... I don't completely understand the intricacies of it.

Casinos must just be loaded with money. They don't care, as long as their name is out there.

[Ultegra134]

Spam megathreads work great for reaching post quotas. That's 800+ posts about nothing, read by nobody, but all being paid.

That's true, but someone who has a little respect for his profile won't be replying in one; at least that's how I see it. Not all megathreads are awful, such as tournament ones for Euro 2024, the Champions League, etc. However, there are many threads similar to the one I quoted earlier, and people keep posting again and again. It's intriguing. In my opinion, the worst of all is created by some selected campaigns that have massive post quotas; some of them were paused recently, though.

[libert19]

Selfish for what? As if smerits have any other use case besides spending them.

As for me, I don't keep track of my smerits, whenever I come across any content that I find helpful, I spend smerit right away, though I'm still frugal with them because I know my merit earning rate, so most of times I spend 1 at a time.

[Alone055]

Selfish for what? As if smerits have any other use case besides spending them.

As for me, I don't keep track of my smerits, whenever I come across any content that I find helpful, I spend smerit right away, though I'm still frugal with them because I know my merit earning rate, so most of times I spend 1 at a time.

It's not about people who spend their smerits on posts that are worthy of them but it's about people who don't spend their smerits at all and keep holding them mostly with intentions of maybe meriting their alt accounts with them so that they can grow in ranks as well in the future, some might do it because they have set very high standards for quality posts in their mind that they don't find posts that are quite good but aren't the best merit-worthy.

So if you are spending your smerits on random posts from different people and have no other intentions with them, you are not a merit-hoarder or selfish with your smerits, but you can't deny the fact that things like these do happen and it's nothing hidden anymore. It might not have other use cases but it can be used in different ways and for different purposes.

[Rikafip]

If theymos wanted spambots to keep the forum active, he could just as well make them by himself. I doubt he's into that.

True, but there is an obvious change in how plagiarism has been dealt with on the forum. Previously, users were permanently banned for a single copied sentence, even if it happened years before being caught (which was imho the wrong approach). Now, spammers are not being banned even after multiple plagiarism cases and this coincides with decreased forum activity.

If you have to speculate, what would you say is the reason for this change?