Hope these posts merit some sMerits :

1.

Quote from: allahabadi on March 15, 2018, 03:01:54 PM

Quote from: Jet Cash on March 15, 2018, 09:22:13 AM

One persons oppressive regime is another persons bid for freedom.

btw - which country is stll a democracy? It certainly isn;t the UK, the US or the EU.

The answer very much depends on the definition you apply for a democracy and the context that you use.

I see shows like Our Cartoon President and feel that US (I'm not from USA) is still a democracy where you can criticize people freely in a justified manner, irrespective of their stature which is not available in the Asian/African countries.

Quote from: allahabadi on March 15, 2018, 02:08:20 PM

This

Quote from: digaran on March 15, 2018, 01:31:02 PM

We should find them and have a review of their posts and merit them if they have merit worthy posts. not everybody here has a few merit source friends to notice their contribution.

This

Quote from: squatter on March 15, 2018, 01:31:04 AM

Why should someone lose signature privileges because they don't post very often? Or because they're inactive for a while? Or because there's not enough merit to go around? Or because they're not in a social group that customarily merits each other (like Default Trust cliques, the Wall Observer regulars, etc)? How do you even know that merit distribution is adequate to begin penalizing those who don't earn it?
-snip-
And you can be damn sure that no matter how meritorious a post is, you will not receive merit if your opinions are not agreeable. Nobody hits the "like" button when Debbie Downer is bringing everyone down. But this is a fucking forum. How popular you are (or the extent you're willing parrot popular opinions) shouldn't decide whether you can display a signature. It's fundamentally problematic to penalize people on such an uneven, subjective basis. That's the opposite of what a forum should be.

And This

Quote from: McWorse on March 14, 2018, 06:50:16 PM

I think, that I am not the only one:
I did not receive a single merit since this new system started.
Maybe its because I am not making friends here. Maybe I am posting in the wrong threads. Maybe my postings don't reach that high quality which is needed for earning merits ... I don't know. I don't take care about it. It doesn't matter. In the meantime, I have said goodbye to the idea of being able to ascend again at all.
Again: That doesn't matter.

But getting a spammer's stamp on my account ... nah ... that matters.

So please take care, that you don't hit the wrong members when you try to solve a big (yes! it is!) problem here.

Regards!
McW

edit:
You should take a look here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3121688.0

It is very hard to earn merits. And when you let them drop every months, you will leave a lot of frustrated members behind...

Possibly I've been wrong, but most merits are distributed among coteries and groups. The posts that tend to belittle others and point fingers are the ones that have been receiving merits as well. Posts like ICO ANN and Bounties ANN by Bounty managers are receiving merits( WHY Huh

).

I've rarely tried to please people and have also tried to increase the quality of my posts in the past months, but I've rarely received merits from unknown sources, just people that know or those I have merited (dunno if it was a gesture or anything but I never asked them for it).

A lot of people have been harping on the Sig campaigns thing. Here are a couple of things:

Q1. Why do companies have Sign Campaigns?

A. To
(a.) To grab eyeballs so that people know about them and invest or use those services.
(b.) To pay posters who make good posts on BCT.

I think it's the (a.). (Correct me if I'm wrong or have a wrong notion anywhere in this post.)

Q2. Do people make decisions to invest in ICO or use a service based on the Sign Holders?
A. I've seen people wear the Signature of a Mixer, I have looked into the service and it looks AWESOME. I wouldn't care if a racist half-wit is wearing that signature and spamming endlessly (actually someone racist is wearing it), I have and will use the service.

I've also seen many good posters wear the sign of a Mining company and I have looked into it again, will I invest, HELL NO!

Q3. What's the use of merits and such regulations then?
A. I hate to say it, but the winners are ICO Bounties that need to pay less (Sorry Satoshi, but Centralized Institutions are winning), because people won't rank up. I think the only useful system is the TRUST, that too when u are trading and not proselytizing your political opinions. As for rest, all Ranks and Merits should be abolished and each Bounty Manager shud be made to count posts and assess the quality and pay for them. ICOs are happy to have 100 Jr. Members Shit-Post and say Good Project while grabbing attention to their projects, because that also is a form of marketing. Why do the PAUL BROTHERS and their gangs have Millions of views when all they make is SHIT, because even cringe is appealing and makes for good marketing.

Q4. What's my proposed solution?
A. Read the BOLD part up.
EDIT : Initiatives such as SMAS list by Lauda is a good reference point and I applaud them, although I'm on the list (Rightly so!) and believe that it has little utility in term sof marketing. (Again grabbing eye-balls is more important !)

My 2cents : All of us can agree that Sign campaigns pay well, but why do they pay to make good posts or to grab eyeballs. If it was to make good posts, add that in Article Bounties. I hope someone points out valid loopholes and assumptions that I made.

Thanks.

P.S. Can some marketing veteran point it out that my logic has fallacies, but remember that most investors in ICOs are extremely clueless and not a reformed crowd that they would care for quality of adverts or advertisers. We also have instances in the past to prove it. MIOTA raised a small seed on forum and was being called a SCAM all the time. The marketing was shit, but most of us can agree that the project is doing good today.

Quote from: allahabadi on March 10, 2018, 02:01:22 PM

I was reading the whole thread expecting this viewpoint, but failed to find or overlooked it. Huh

The person might be a revolutionary or radical activist waging war against some imperialist nation or oppressive govt. and hence resorts to these measures.

Also, these crimes aren't immoral unless u state the context as well.