Quote from: TheQuin on March 13, 2018, 07:01:29 AM

Having spent far too much time reading about merits lately I've noticed a tendency towards suggesting changes that would benefit the person suggesting them rather than benefit the forum overall.

[...]

Your suggestion is rather to change the ranking system to mark out exceptional posters (like yourself).

Your implication as to me was not entirely clear; I think you were disclaiming that your words were not self-serving as to yourself, and I dont wish to cherry-pick a few parts of what you said to turn it backwards. Nevertheless, for clarity: I should like to emphasize that my suggestion in OP is strongly against my own interests. Or at least, it is what most people would consider to be against my interests.

As of now, I could kick back, make one marginal post (barely above the moderators deletion threshold) every two weeks, and still be called a Hero starting on 12 March 2019. Also, I am almost two-thirds of the way to Legendary, insofar as merit is concerned. Yet I am advocating that I should be required to continue working hard here.

That said, I have sufficient pride that I dont consider a greater challenge to be against my interests. To the contrary: As I said in OP, I want for earning Hero rank (and higher) to be something to be proud of. That means it must be difficult to achieve.

Perspective check: If the first person below Hero rank to ever reach the Hero rank merit threshold says that the threshold is too low, then I should hope that others would consider that opinion.

Quote from: hilariousandco on March 13, 2018, 01:44:41 PM

Quote from: Flying Hellfish on March 13, 2018, 12:41:26 PM

Quote from: nullius on March 12, 2018, 11:53:04 PM

Dont simply be proud of these titles: Make them signify an achievement to be proud of!

What the fuck is with these fucking people... Dude its a fucking web forum. The rank achieved here is nothing to be proud of...

[Image: Potato balance with coins; ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY!]
https://www.jalilga.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Its-all-about-money-1-min.jpg

Potato.

Nailed it. Poh-tah-toh.

Quote from: hilariousetc on March 13, 2018, 10:23:11 AM

But you will be the glaring exception here. In fact, you're probably one in ten thousand or something. I can't really think of another user here who made such an impact in such a short time and for users like you the merit system will work as intended. Great posters will have no issue issue in rising through the ranks so I don't think it should be made more difficult, though the numbers could be adjusted slightly I guess but we'll have to see how things go. Poor posters will get nowhere unless they abuse the merit system but I do have some sympathy with average or even 'good' posters as they could take quite some time to get the merit points they need or deserve. It takes 4.5 months to become a Full Member and nearly one and a half years to become a Hero so lets see how people get on over time because it's certainly too early to say right now.

Thanks, hilarious. But at the high end, as for what you say, my concern is twofold:

0. Changes will become more difficult to make. For a hilarious analogy, consider the old Bitcoin blocksize. Do you want to try to design a Segwit to softfork rank requirements between old and new merit thresholds? Hahah. Seriously, we already saw enough strife over the grandfathering of merits based on rank at the introduction of the merit system.

1. As I said, the difficulty of achieving higher rank should not only increase, but accelerate at the top levels. Consider officer ranks in a military, or executive ranks in a corporation. Most users will never reach the top ranks, or even remotely approach them. If this forum is now on some level a meritocracy, then it would be sensible for middle ranks to have moderate requirements, and high ranks to have extreme requirements.

Quote from: Lovecove on March 13, 2018, 01:09:06 AM

The merit atmosphere is now very different. People are more stingy about merits because now they have a better grasp of what they are and what they can do in the wrong hands. They're aware of forum farmers and merit farmers, and etc.

I should hope so!

Quote from: Lovecove on March 13, 2018, 01:09:06 AM

People now understand that awarding someone a merit is almost akin to awarding them a Trust Rating. I've noticed that people with merits are actually looked upon with more respect in the Trading sections.

That said, I myself, have stopped myself from giving a decent post any merits even though I wanted to... simply on the basis that someone was a new member and I was not sure whether they were a scammer or a genuine poster. So I didn't give them a merit. I'm more apt to give someone a merit if they have a decent post history with no negative trust.

Merit is now becoming a quasi-trust system. And I can safely say that I would never give a merit to someone with negative DT feedback unless the feedback was nonsense (which it rarely is if it's DT feedback).

I like what Im hearing here. For my part, I have taken to checking post histories before I award merit to those Ive never seen beforeespecially those at the Newbie and Jr. ranks, and those in upper ranks who seem to have earned little or nothing above their grandfathered merit. Not a few times, I have backed away from the merit button after a glance at post history revealed bounty posts or other spammish behaviour. Also, I have recently developed a policy of never awarding more than +1 per post to a Newbie; since this is unfair, I have a very short list of posts to which I plan to return in a few months and add more merit, if I see evidence that the person still deserves it.

Quote from: Toughit on March 13, 2018, 02:53:41 AM

Sorry for the short post.

Length of a post is never a sole criterion of meritoriousness. I once awarded +5 to a post which contained a single two-letter word ok, excluding quotations. (In context, it was a meritorious action: Contemptuous dismissal of whining by a merit abuser who got red-tagged.)

Quote from: Jet Cash on March 13, 2018, 01:24:52 PM

I'm starting this in a bad mood, because a rapid scroll through the initial long arsed post killed my main computer. Windows had a wobbly, and I'm going to have to pick it to pieces to see what happened.

It is my fault that your computer is a piece of trash. I apologize.

Quote from: Jet Cash on March 13, 2018, 01:24:52 PM

So my first comment is - for god's sake stop posting books to start a thread. It will probably be quoted in various posts during the thread, and make the whole thing unreadable.

And thats my fault, too. It is not as if proper trimming of quotes were the responsibility of the person who is quoting another post. I never gently explain quote-trimming to newbies, and certainly never flame non-newbies to a cinder for failure to trim quotes.

Youre right: To avoid injuring you and your wobbly computer, or proximately causing hypothetical untrimmed quotes by others, I must desist from making long posts.

(By the way, didnt you say that you were a speed-reader?)

Quote from: Jet Cash on March 13, 2018, 01:24:52 PM

I think the posted suggestion would be bad for the forum. It might be good for self- aggrandisement,

How, exactly, would it be good for self-aggrandizement for me to place myself further away from Hero rank after Ive already earned it, at least insofar as merit is concerned? You seem to have not thought this through.

Quote from: Jet Cash on March 13, 2018, 01:24:52 PM

Nullius is fortunate in that he has a number of junior(ish) members who have the same posting skills and obviously have empathy for him, and who are able to award him merits.

Try checking my merit summary before you say such things. Yes, you will consider it long arsed; but you cant properly blame me for that. My very first merit on 2018-01-25 was awarded by a forum moderator; and that set the trend. Most of my merit has come from those with sMerit to give. Many junior(ish) members may like my posts; and merit awarded to me by junior(ish) members is all the more significant to me for how dear that sMerit is to them. But by the numbers, they usually dont have much sMerit. Furthermore, I see no evidence that anybody has ever awarded me merit out of empathya concept I abhor. Id throw it in their faces!

Quote from: Jet Cash on March 13, 2018, 01:24:52 PM

Isn't it time that we accepted that the merit system seems to be working at a basic level, and we got on with the business of discussing crypto-currencies in a rapidly changing world economy.

Like you do? Oh, right. Check post history.

Stop preaching to others what you dont practiceindeed, what they practice more than you do. And if you care about the merit systems integrity, by the way, I suggest that you drop the link currently in your signature and instead start red-tagging beggars. Listing beggars on your website will have zero effect, other than making you feel better. It does not help the forum. The same applies as for ignore-listing. Whereas Ive hurt merit-beggars sufficiently that Ive received a hate-PM advising me in fuck you! terms that I seriously hurt a wannabe spammer. Check my trust summary page, which is also long arsed compared to yours.

Overall: Jet Cash, I know that youre upset over how close you were to the Legendary activity range when the merit system was introduced. But that is no reason to both mischaracterize my posting and merit histories, and blame me for your wobbly computer being unable to handle texts longer than a Tweet. If you dislike my suggestion for any reason other than that it would place you about 2300 merits away from Legendary rank, I suggest that you argue on its merits (so to speak) rather than posting pointless ad hominem drivel. HTH.

Quote from: ACVinegar on March 13, 2018, 01:53:17 PM

Quote from: Flying Hellfish on March 13, 2018, 12:41:26 PM

Quote from: nullius on March 12, 2018, 11:53:04 PM

Dont simply be proud of these titles: Make them signify an achievement to be proud of!

What the fuck is with these fucking people... Dude its a fucking web forum. The rank achieved here is nothing to be proud of...

Holy shit people get a fucking life that isn't tied to this fucking forum... Go outside take a walk enjoy nature, get a fucking blowy (from a real person not some 15 yr old boy pretending to be a 19 yr old women on the webz), smoke a dube, have a glass of wine.

When you start saying things like"blah blah blah insult to the word hero" and "can you really call someone legendary". Hey dude it's a forum, guess what those ranks actually mean, NOTHING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LOLOLOLOLOLOL

A persons trust, merit, and rank are completely inconsequential because interwebz and also have zero bearing on the content of their posts.

Slightly bitter!!😁

Relax dude! It was only suggestion, don't worry theymos is the only one who make a decision regarding that matter.

Flying Hellfish is evidently sore because I calmly rejected his ridiculous high-handed preaching to me of sexual mores which I do not share. Thus, the string of F-bombs and low-brow insults. This is not an assumption; he underscored his point, fucking blowy (from a real person.

As for the advice to smoke a dube, no way! Recreational psychotropic drug use is against my moral values. I am strongly opposed to the use of marijuana, and very judgmental about it.