Hey guys...did we lose a ton of merit sources or am I hallucinating?

[Zoomic]

...Honestly, I never had the slightest doubt that it would happen and I'm glad it did because it obviously means a lot to you.

Obviously, you were so confident about my ranking up. I already projected that it will happen before the end of 2026 Q1 but your positive energy attracted the favour.

Now you need to change your personal text and embark on a new adventure towards Legendary rank

I already changed my text, but for the legendary adventure, lol... It's scary to even take a step.

[Ultegra134]

I'm not a merit source but now that we're discussing the merit distribution, I've also neglected doing my part to the community, as I'm not distributing the smerits I've acquired. I will agree to an extent with @Alani123, I don't see too many quality posts from newer users, but just how Lucius pointed out, there's no way there aren't a handful of them that actually deserve to be merited; not necessarily with 50 points, I believe that's too much, but in general. And if my memory serves me right, there are a couple of users who have recently been approved as merit sources.

[GeorgeJohn]

I'm not a merit source but now that we're discussing the merit distribution, I've also neglected doing my part to the community, as I'm not distributing the smerits I've acquired. I will agree to an extent with @Alani123, I don't see too many quality posts from newer users, but just how Lucius pointed out, there's no way there aren't a handful of them that actually deserve to be merited; not necessarily with 50 points, I believe that's too much, but in general. And if my memory serves me right, there are a couple of users who have recently been approved as merit sources.

They're numerous quality posters in the forum, what i feel that is making some merit source not to observe some quality posters, maybe is as results of the boards They post, I observed that some merit sources doesn't consider a suggestion or a reply as quality post except that there's a new thread created.

[Lucius]

...Honestly, I never had the slightest doubt that it would happen and I'm glad it did because it obviously means a lot to you.

Obviously, you were so confident about my ranking up. I already projected that it will happen before the end of 2026 Q1 but your positive energy attracted the favour.

This is not the first time I've seen a case like yours, and every time there has been a case like this, the same thing has always happened. If you are a good user who is simply less visible and does not take too many initiatives, you will remain unnoticed.

Now you need to change your personal text and embark on a new adventure towards Legendary rank

I already changed my text, but for the legendary adventure, lol... It's scary to even take a step.

Why would that be a scary step? You need less than 500 merits to reach Legendary rank, and in one year that's quite achievable. On average, you need a little more than 1 merit per day, which is by no means an impossible mission.

[LoyceV]

Merits is like a river wave, if you are not on its lane, it will not touch you.

It's more like: I read what I like to read, and if you mostly post on other boards, I can't Merit your posts. I've Merited you only twice, and I think this can apply:

But undoubtedly some people got screwed by this, and if they have decent posts, by all means, give them the 250 or 500 merit that they need to rank-up.

I wonder if some merit sources who have some unspent smerits could finish meriting a post and get curious to check the person's post history to know if they deserve a few more merits.

It happens. But that takes more time than asking you to post some of your good posts in Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source so I can easily Merit them. Please do this

[Zoomic]

Now you need to change your personal text and embark on a new adventure towards Legendary rank

I already changed my text, but for the legendary adventure, lol... It's scary to even take a step.

Why would that be a scary step? You need less than 500 merits to reach Legendary rank, and in one year that's quite achievable. On average, you need a little more than 1 merit per day, which is by no means an impossible mission.

You are very correct, it's possible... Just as I could get lucky on a special day and receive more than 1, just like LoyceV extended my merit count. It seems my lucky moments have started, just for encountering you. This will remain memorial to me.

I wonder if some merit sources who have some unspent smerits could finish meriting a post and get curious to check the person's post history to know if they deserve a few more merits.

It happens. But that takes more time than asking you to post some of your good posts in Report unmerited good posts to Merit Source so I can easily Merit them. Please do this

Thank you very much. I will use this thread from henceforth. I feel real good this season.

[SamReomo]

um, no i disagree.

at least for the kind of forum members and posts this place needs (or should rate, as its pretty much the birthplace of bitcoin) anyway.

quality poster gonna post quality posts no matter what reward or acknowledgements they may or may not get.

Well, here I agree fully with you, those who're thankful to this forum and are happy to be part of it will try their best to make quality posts even if they don't get much acknowledgement or merits for the posts that they make. Their main aim is to be as optimistic on this forum as possible because this forum is very important for most of us and if we don't visit it a day or two we feel quite unsatisfied.

There're many good members who give proper time to write the posts and do very high quality posting and very helpful discussions on the forum but still they don't get as many merits for their contribution but still they enjoy being here and for them being here as a member is more important than getting any rewards, and if they get any rewards that of course makes them happy but if they don't then that won't make them unhappy as they enjoy the forum and love to spend time here.

[GeorgeJohn]

um, no i disagree.

at least for the kind of forum members and posts this place needs (or should rate, as its pretty much the birthplace of bitcoin) anyway.

quality poster gonna post quality posts no matter what reward or acknowledgements they may or may not get.

Well, here I agree fully with you, those who're thankful to this forum and are happy to be part of it will try their best to make quality posts even if they don't get much acknowledgement or merits for the posts that they make.

Actually quality posters will continue to make a quality posts even though they posts is not been merited..But it's discouraging if you're posting without earning merit, you will be imagine if you're post quality is good or you're posting a shitpost...if you earn a merit in what you post, it will encourage you to post more quality than the one you have posted.

main aim is to be as optimistic on this forum as possible because this forum is very important for most of us and if we don't visit it a day or two we feel quite unsatisfied.

They are some people who does not post often in the forum, but they go through almost all the boards especially Reputation, Meta And Technical boards and ready and a new thread.

There're many good members who give proper time to write the posts and do very high quality posting and very helpful discussions on the forum but still they don't get as many merits

But they earn small amounts of merit, the problem is that, you will be making a post for two to three months without earning merit, it will discourage you, If you're a quality poster.

[nutildah]

But they earn small amounts of merit, the problem is that, you will be making a post for two to three months without earning merit, it will discourage you, If you're a quality poster.

If you can write 40-60 posts in a row without getting a single merit, you're not a "quality poster." That seems to be the problem here is people are overconfident about the quality of their own posts. Quite often, people don't have time to use their brain beyond 10% of its capacity because they are writing posts for 3-5 different accounts, or more. So I don't think these people should be complaining about not getting enough merits. The same overconfident people are the ones who will tell any lie after being associated with a red tagged account, so I don't think their opinion is worth very much.

[SamReomo]

But they earn small amounts of merit, the problem is that, you will be making a post for two to three months without earning merit, it will discourage you, If you're a quality poster.

I won't say that quality posters won't get any merits for two to three months unless they post in boards with way less merit distribution like gambling boards. A quality poster will always get some merits per week or per month, or at least get a few merits per month. The recognized members of the forum with high reputation get more merits of course, but one should not get discouraged even if he/she doesn't get as many merits as others.

I've noticed there are 100's of members who've already reached activity requirement for their next rank and they're also regular quality posters and yet they don't get any merits for months. Of course there are merit sources like TSC, JJG, vapourminer who send merits to such dedicated members, but still they don't get as many merits as they deserve. Surely, the merits on this forum makes every member happy especially if they give proper time to make quality posts.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

You're not hallucinating, just a tad slow

I never discount the latter being the case.  Don't yet look like a turtle, but give me 10-12 years and presented with my picture, one might not be able to tell the difference--but I've already got the glacial pace mastered.

I count 74641 Merits in 3 months, so about 25000 per month on average. I'd say that's enough: there are much less posts than when Merit was introduced, while good posters aren't restricted by Merit for ranking up.

If there weren't any signature campaigns, this conversation would not exist, nor would the hundreds that have taken place in the past about ranking up.  There are fewer of them than there were in 2018 if my memory serves me correctly, and spaces in them are much more limited; so you're probably spot-on about that number of merits being enough for the whole forum; I hadn't considered that until today.  Certainly there aren't a lot of complaints about it being too difficult to rank up, get merits or any of that stuff that was common a few years ago.

[Amphenomenon]

If there weren't any signature campaigns, this conversation would not exist, nor would the hundreds that have taken place in the past about ranking up.  There are fewer of them than there were in 2018 if my memory serves me correctly, and spaces in them are much more limited; so you're probably spot-on about that number of merits being enough for the whole forum; I hadn't considered that until today.  Certainly there aren't a lot of complaints about it being too difficult to rank up, get merits or any of that stuff that was common a few years ago.

After the update on merit sources things became better but still falling off again. Merits like it has been explained here sometimes seem seasonal for many because posts might not be seen by sources or other reasons like:

• The post is something one have heard or is well aware of over the years but to the member or some others this might not just be the same.
  
• Merit source is a voluntary work and sometimes people get busy or zeal drops, and so are no longer as effective than before. While the workload increases for some others and maybe they have limited merit to distribute but later on, they become exhausted and can not spread their reach as they do at first.
  
• People can be petty and having an issue with them may make them avoid meriting such user post maybe as often as they ought.
  

To be honest, I have experienced my fair of merit drought a lot, that you then question if one is a quality poster especially when I was  still at Full Member and finally got the attention of some sources, I guess you were among them then. Now, while I experience it sometimes, I don't like to bother about things, since the merit season will come again or better still I increase my reach because to be honest, there are things one does to put themselves in a better position in order to earn merits effectively.