In reality it will just reinforce older privileges, lead to farming like that, and make bitcointalk less atractive for new users.
I added some edited section...
Edit: I am in support of merit system to improve the content quality of the forum. Bringing merit on the table is a really very good step by the theymos. The way the spammers were using the forum, for theymos - he had no choice but to do something to make it a better place.
The issues we are seeing with merit are not actually the idea is wrong, it's actually the same spammers/scammers are trying to abuse it finding its holes. It's completely normal for a idea which is new and every idea needs improvisation after implementation. Merit needs improvisation on how the users will use it (application level). People are misusing it because it is directly related to rank.
And since it's directly related to rank so I believe some of the twist (if possible) taking in consideration will stop (make a big difference) abusing it.The farming will stop once we the users will start finding (adds little help to the moderators) who they are. I'm not if these accounts will be banned or what will be their consequences but whatever (may be putting them into your ignore list or giving them red trust with the evidence of their abusive connection, the best is only admin or moderators can confirm or warn their activities with 100% confidence since they will have all logs to prove them guilty) it is, at-least people will know that these account holders are abusive and dangerous for the community.
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Exchange of merit doesn't really prove anything, especially if the amount of merits is small.
- Small means 1? 2? or? Accounts on original post are larger in numbers.
It would anyway cease once the smerit handed out to accounts during the roll out of the merit system dries up.
Over time, the cycle of merit exchanges from senders to receivers and back will come to the end because they will finally lose all of their sMerits. And after that point, if they can not contribute to the forum, they will hardly earn more merits. Therefore, they won't have more sMerits to exchange each other.
- It really is a poor hope where we can do something about it to fix the issue. Appreciate your feedback.
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I appreciate your efforts but there is a thread for this stuff:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2896910.160 You can post it there with the same format or just link this thread there. However not much will happen, they are usually not tagged or anything but I will give you some merit for your effort.
When I was writing the original post I really looked for some topics which is already talking about the same. Then again I though I may not find the same format that I feel comfortable. So I decided to create a new post for it. Thanks for the credit for my effort.
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I tagged the first two of those idiots, who are quite obviously engaged in merit abuse.
- How do you do it? Can someone else like me can tag them as well?
But let's knock 'em down one by one. Thanks for identifying these guys.
Thank you and yes this is exactly what I am trying to achieve from this post.