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...Meta, Altcoin, Altcoin, Bounty and bounty poster.. what on earth makes you think you deserve merits when you only post in places that are full of retards? Even if you are a great quality poster you wont be seen in the shit subs as the merit sources don't go there..
I agree with you that on other boards users award more merits, quality of discussion is higher and there is a bigger chance to be noticed by influential members but sometimes you just need altcoins section. I invest in ICO's and 80% of my time I'm reading there when researching projects. This subforum is flooded with spam.
Lately, I started reported them. Sometimes I see 60 or 70 "good project", "wish you luck", "best ICO" kind of posts in a row. All from new or junior member accounts already registered in a bounty campaign. When I look at this accounts posts history there are only short spam posts or bounty reports.
No wonder Theymos introduced merits. We can't allow this spam because it's simply impossible to read this forum lately. My eyes are burning sometimes and I need an hour or two to report this amount of spam. This isn't what the forum is about to write some nonsense, only about the exchange of insights, information and discussion between people with similar views and interests.
Think for a second that the next step, if the merit doesn't work, it may be removing or suspending signatures.
Merit is a necessary evil. PERIOD.