Airdropped legendary vs self-made legendary...

[Ambatman]

Yes, it is. Do you think / assume / have evidence that there is also payment-based merit sending? Like users paying others for earning merits.
I don't understand why these users exchange merits though. If I could (for instance) buy 10,000 merits and be a shitposter, would anyone look at me as a serious user? Would I be able to be a campaign member? I am sure not.

Many don't think the same
If there's a likelihood they can be accepted they will take it.
Besides all they have to do is focus on a board they are relatively good at.
But as time goes on it becomes easier to tell the merit were farmed when it's from a particular user or users.

[lovesmayfamilis]

This is exactly what I wanted to say. There are many talented people on the forum, but there are also those who, due to the number of alternatives, write nonsense or repeat the same thing from topic to topic, simply rearranging the words. I will not list all those from whom I see an exchange of merits; it looks very template. People rate posts that others find not only empty, but also difficult to read. From here we see high ranks, publishing nonsense, but despite this, are evaluated by the same as they are.

For example:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=663136
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=667920
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=662950
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=815243

I think it's pretty hard not to notice the unique posting style, which is very similar to those who rate the same posts.

Yes, it is. Do you think / assume / have evidence that there is also payment-based merit sending? Like users paying others for earning merits.
I don't understand why these users exchange merits though. If I could (for instance) buy 10,000 merits and be a shitposter, would anyone look at me as a serious user? Would I be able to be a campaign member? I am sure not.

You haven't looked at their posts. This is one person who writes something like "really" day and night, everywhere where it is necessary and not necessary.
I try to read the posts of many users, but this style, oddly enough, is unique and similar for these few accounts. Merits are not sold; they are transferred to their accounts, which, as it turns out, is not punishable, especially without strong evidence.
One word, "really," tears my eyes out and causes an allergy; it appears so often in their posts because it is very difficult to read.

In addition, you see that all of them, one way or another, participate in signature companies.

[apogio]

If there's a likelihood they can be accepted they will take it.
Besides all they have to do is focus on a board they are relatively good at.

I was referring to campaign managers who could simply deny to accept members who do merit abuse.
As far as the "board you are good at" is concerned, I don't think it's necessarily bad to have a specific board where you mostly frequent. I am mostly active in the bitcoin related topics, but I am casually looking most of the new threads to find topics that I may be interested in. If I don't write in other topics, is because I may not have any valuable knowledge to add. I think we share the same opinion here, but I am clarifying it to be sure.

You haven't looked at their posts. This is one person who writes something like "really" day and night, everywhere where it is necessary and not necessary.
I try to read the posts of many users, but this style, oddly enough, is unique and similar for these few accounts. Merits are not sold; they are transferred to their accounts, which, as it turns out, is not punishable, especially without strong evidence.
One word, "really," tears my eyes out and causes an allergy; it appears so often in their posts because it is very difficult to read.

In addition, you see that all of them, one way or another, participate in signature companies.

No I haven't read their posts to be honest, but I guess I will because you caught my interest. Merits not being sold is, at least, a good thing. It would be a disaster if users had found a way to sell merits.

[Lucius]

I hope the OP's curiosity is satisfied, although I don't see much point in such things. Things were set up differently before, at one point it changed and new members had to make an honest effort to reach a new rank - and I think that in any case it is better that since the introduction of the merit system we only got 300+ new Legendary members who deserved it (mostly) than that we got x10 as many and most of them are spammers.

I know this isn't a topic about whether someone deserved airdropped merits, but time has shown who deserved it and who would never reach a higher rank in the new system.

[LoyceV]

Yes, it is. Do you think / assume / have evidence that there is also payment-based merit sending? Like users paying others for earning merits.

It has happened. But there's this:

If you have to pay $20 per merit plus a risk of getting red trust, then that's a situation that doesn't concern me at all. I'm not going to lose sleep over people going to ridiculous lengths to buy merit, since only a small number of people will be willing and able to do that.

As long as merit sales are a black market, I'm happy, since that makes it far more difficult and expensive to buy merit. If that's the case, then the small volume of black-market merit trades don't themselves bother me much, and I think that it does more harm than good to get too witch-hunty about it.

If I could (for instance) buy 10,000 merits and be a shitposter, would anyone look at me as a serious user?

I think it's more like buying a single Merit to reach Jr. Member and continue bounty spamming.

[apogio]

It has happened. But there's this:

If you have to pay $20 per merit plus a risk of getting red trust, then that's a situation that doesn't concern me at all. I'm not going to lose sleep over people going to ridiculous lengths to buy merit, since only a small number of people will be willing and able to do that.

As long as merit sales are a black market, I'm happy, since that makes it far more difficult and expensive to buy merit. If that's the case, then the small volume of black-market merit trades don't themselves bother me much, and I think that it does more harm than good to get too witch-hunty about it.

I think it's more like buying a single Merit to reach Jr. Member and continue bounty spamming.

Sounds like the rank requirements could get higher? I am not necessarily speaking about merit, but also activity. In a way in which none of these 2 attributes can give significant advantage to the users on their own, but only combined.

[BenCodie]

Being active is easier than being high quality, and that's why the merit system is partially good, it reduces spam and creates a more challenging metric to rise in the forum ranks. The partially bad part is that it introduces politics to the ranking process, as now ranking up doesn't just depend on quality, but also other people's discretion. The other negative is that it also helps account farmers who have been farming for a long time (especially if they control merit source(s) or a large amount of merited accounts).

I think the question is different for each person. For some, a "self-made legendary" is someone who just spammed in a gambling thread being merited by their buddies/alts or the wall observer thread. For others, it was a long time of high quality posting and activity. There is no definitive answer, each case is different.

I don't care with airdropped legendary nor self made legendary, the most important point they shouldn't shitposting.

Once in a while a Legendary account with exactly 1000 Merits wakes up, and most of the time they'll be shitposting. It's either a hacked account, or an account farmer from back when that was still possible.

I'm curious, are you saying that you believe account farming is no longer possible/does not happen anymore since the merit system?

[Pablo-wood]

~Snip~

Although this might be a question for Ddmr Ddmr. I thought the merit system started in January 24th 2018, whuch implies pre-merit system should be before merit system was introduced and post merit system after January 24th. I just needed clearity on this:

Ranked-up needing Merit (click item to filter) 
Note: Currently Heroes ranking-up to Legendries with 1k initial Merit airdrop are not detected.
Note: New Era Newbie: First Merit >= 17/09/2018; Old Era Newbie: First Merit < 17/09/2018.
Note: Subsection filters ranked-up users with at least 1 received sMerit in the selected Subsection.

2. June 18, 2013 - January 23, 2018: Activity requirements

3. January 24, 2018 - by now: Activity requirements + Merit requirements

My question is the New Era Newbie are they those users in the pre-merit system and Old Era Newbie are they users in the post-merit system because the filtered date is a bit confusing.

[LoyceV]

Sounds like the rank requirements could get higher?

That would mean punishing good users because of bad users.

[KingsDen]

According to stats in the "Ranking-up Pipeline" tab, there are a total of 2050 Legendary accounts, so 2050 - 338 = 1712 Legenaries pre-merit system.

I'm guessing most of these Legendaries are currently inactive.

If there is a way to know active numbers of legendary users out of the 2050, it will be close to getting the real numbers. However, with this data, pre-merited legendary members should still be higher than the self-made legendary members.

[Hazink]

I'm curious, are you saying that you believe account farming is no longer possible/does not happen anymore since the merit system?

It's still possible, but from what I understand from the above statement, it was more possible and less stress-free back then, where most of the things you needed to do were just post whatever garbage that you could just to get the required activities, and you would be ranked with such a method before the merit system.

It was very easy to farm as many accounts as they could compared to the merit system in place, where you need to farm merit before you can succeed in farming accounts. No system is 100% accurate, but it's clear what the merit system has done.

[BenCodie]

I'm curious, are you saying that you believe account farming is no longer possible/does not happen anymore since the merit system?

It's still possible, but from what I understand from the above statement, it was more possible and less stress-free back then, where most of the things you needed to do were just post whatever garbage that you could just to get the required activities, and you would be ranked with such a method before the merit system.

I asked as the quote below insinuates that it doesn't happen anymore/is not possible:

or an account farmer from back when that was still possible.

It comes as no surprise that he didn't double down on his statement.

It was very easy to farm as many accounts as they could compared to the merit system in place, where you need to farm merit before you can succeed in farming accounts. No system is 100% accurate, but it's clear what the merit system has done.

Do you think it would be fair to say that the only people who could possibly farm accounts would be merit sources and those with a lot of merits already, or an account farm that was never caught? Do you think that it happens, and if so, do you think that it's a problem? I'm asking as I've been researching the topic and I'm interested to hear opinions from other members.

[Cryptohygenic]

This post raised my curiosity, which is the reason for this thread.

Keep in mind that vas majority of legendary members became legendary before merit was introduced. And back then you only needed activity.
Nowadays its much harder to rank up due to merit requirements, and with good reason tbh

When I was a newbie, I was told that the majority of legendary members got their ranks before the merit system. I have become a legendary member and likewise many other persons, yet someone still believes that airdropped legendary members are still more than self-made legendary members.
Any data to compare both?

The whole processes on ranking now that it depends on merits earned in the struggle of creating constrictive posts has been so hectic and challenging for the forum members.
I did not meet that time which only activity counts determines members rank up but what I can say about it is that it was very easy to earn the ranking up to the highest level then.
It is really sadden that I have been accountable of 308 activity counts and I am still a member rank despites all my efforts in creating constrictive posts as best as I can and the merits is not flowing and I am still not regarded in the forum just because of my lower rank as a member.

And at most signature campaigns, lot of members who passed through difficulties to earn merits to specific ranks are being underrated just like the junior members, members and now signature campaigns managers are adjusting to neglect the full member ranks without considering the hard times times faced to reach that level.
So during then that ranks were obtained by a common airdrops activity counts and now ranks are self made with the stress on earning merits, don't you all think my member rank account with the total accumulation of 20 merits with 308 activity should even be regard ahead of those legendary ranks obtained before merits was implemented?
Just curious because the investment of knowledge to earn merits and  rank up this time is far ahead contributing more qualities of posts to the forum than when airdrops was invoke.

[Findingnemo]

So during then that ranks were obtained by a common airdrops activity counts and now ranks are self made with the stress on earning merits, don't you all think my member rank account with the total accumulation of 20 merits with 308 activity should even be regard ahead of those legendary ranks obtained before merits was implemented?

I don't think a legendary who didn't even earn 20 merits since the implementation of merit system will find a place in any campaign, but hypothetically, if we have to choose the legendary with zero merit and member with 20 merit then legendary has a reason to be given chance which is their signature space.

But they will not likely get a spot in the BTC paying signature campaign since manager prefer the users who earned merits in the last 120 days or whatever to apply and eligible for the campaign.

[SamReomo]

But they will not likely get a spot in the BTC paying signature campaign since manager prefer the users who earned merits in the last 120 days or whatever to apply and eligible for the campaign.

I agree with you, even if someone who get legendary status as airdrop won't be a good participant for a campaign. The legendary member has some advantage when it comes to signature space but that doesn't mean that anyone with such status is also a good poster.

The campaign managers only select the members in a campaign who are active posters and who continue valuable information and their own personal opinion via their posts.

[Lafu]

I agree with you, even if someone who get legendary status as airdrop won't be a good participant for a campaign. The legendary member has some advantage when it comes to signature space but that doesn't mean that anyone with such status is also a good poster.

The Legandary Rank is just a Rank as any other Rank , it only shows others in the first way that you longer on the Forum as others.
If you a good poster or a shit poster dosnt care , there are still some shit posting Users that are more usefull as other Users.
Ranking up just for getting a better spot in an Signature Campaign is still in my opinion the wrong move and idea to be good a User.

When the Merit System was implemented i got the Hero Member Rank and at this time i wasnt in any Signature Campaign.
It depends all on your opinions and what you want here on the Forum.

[Mrbluntzy]

Regarding what OP wrote, it means that users can become hero and legendary even when the forum didn't have merit system. If that's true, what was the reason why merit was then introduced as a means to enable new members to rank up? I start on this forum when merit has already be enforced on and I don't have any information as for why the merit was introduced. Another thing, why was already legendary members (when there was no merit system) given airdrop merit instead of being allowed to earn it on their own?

[Cryptoprincess101]

Ranked-up needing Merit (click item to filter) 
Note: Currently Heroes ranking-up to Legendries with 1k initial Merit airdrop are not detected.
Note: New Era Newbie: First Merit >= 17/09/2018; Old Era Newbie: First Merit < 17/09/2018.
Note: Subsection filters ranked-up users with at least 1 received sMerit in the selected Subsection.

My question is the New Era Newbie are they those users in the pre-merit system and Old Era Newbie are they users in the post-merit system because the filtered date is a bit confusing.

As you can see the sign <> indicated in the dates between the new era newbie and the old era newbie so it is to tell you the difference is before and after the aforementioned date (17/09/2018;) which means that the new era newbie is those that registered after the introduction of the merit system while the old era newbie is those that register before the merit system. Don't know if am wrong, someone can still correct me

[SatoPrincess]

Regarding what OP wrote, it means that users can become hero and legendary even when the forum didn't have merit system. If that's true, what was the reason why merit was then introduced as a means to enable new members to rank up? I start on this forum when merit has already be enforced on and I don't have any information as for why the merit was introduced. Another thing, why was already legendary members (when there was no merit system) given airdrop merit instead of being allowed to earn it on their own?

Merit system was introduced to make it difficult for shitposters to rank up. Before the introduction of the merit system, you could increase your rank by just shitposting and spamming the forum. Lots of high ranked accounts were farmed back then, Theymos had to come up with something to curb the decline of quality discussion on the forum and viola the merit system was introduced to the community. You can read all about it by using the forum search engine.

[criptoevangelista]

The old legendaries are like bitcoin. No one knew what the forum or even the currency would become, so in my opinion, they all have their value. It's unfair that a count is considered inferior simply because of the airdrop, no one knew that this would be implemented.

According to DdmrDdmr's Bitcointalk Merit Dashboard, so far 338 accounts have ranked up to Legendary since the time of the merit system implementation, as of March 28th -- check the "Ranked-up" tab.

According to stats in the "Ranking-up Pipeline" tab, there are a total of 2050 Legendary accounts, so 2050 - 338 = 1712 Legenaries pre-merit system.

I'm guessing most of these Legendaries are currently inactive.

Also kind of interesting is that there are 3,683,404 total accounts on the forum according to the forum statistics page. So that means Legendary accounts make up just 0.056% of all accounts.

This data is very interesting. From what I've seen, the merit system was implemented in 2018, which means that on average there are about 48 legendaries per year. This shows how difficult it is to rank up an account honestly, whether with activity or merits.