I did do a quick glance through the previous posts that you made on the topic (the ones that you linked above), and I see that I gave you two merits for your very first post on the topic (at least the one you linked here), and part of the reason that I merited you was because the topic was still new, yet you still seem to want to linger on such a topic that really seems to be beyond your control and your level of influence.
This is not about me attacking your or trying to denigrate you, but for some reason you want to assert that you have some kind of expertise on the topic, and I doubt that anyone gives a ratt's ass about your expertise because the ideas that you present should be convincing within the post, and belaboring people with a string of your earlier posts seems to be more of a distraction about you rather than about the substantive strength of your ideas. Furthermore, the fact of the matter remains that this whole fucking merit matter is discretionary with theymos. He can do whatever the fuck he wants, and then attempt to measure whether it is having the desired effects in terms of quantity and quality of users and quantity or quality of posts. So your non-substantiated assertions about the quantity and quality of posts is likely to have little to no resonance with theymos.. even if you repeat your little to no substantiated assertions 1,000 times or subsequently attempt to substantiate points that you have failed to make clearly and concisely in earlier posts on the topic.
On the other hand, maybe you will get lucky and theymos will decide to consult with you on the topic because you bring so much insight, but the way your presenting the matter, I doubt such a consultation is likely to occur... I could be wrong, but based on what I have read so far from you on the topic, I doubt it.
I would also like to say that just because I've been predicting the (since failure is too strong of a word for you) lack of great success in the Merit system deployment....
I don't see how it matters whether you use the word "failure" or you use the expression "lack of great success." The point seems to be that you have not provided evidence to show such measures, such as a decline in membership or a decline in the quantity of posts or some other measuring indicator that either theymos would agree to being important or that he has asserted to be important to him.
just because I've been predicting that for months does not also mean "then likely you are neither attempting to look at the matter objectively..." Really? Or...maybe I know what I'm talking about.
I think that part of the point that I was attempting to make was that your merely repeating the same criticisms over and over (maybe you added to your criticism, perhaps?) does not add up to convincing evidence, and your repeating the same thing over and over might tend to undermine rather than bolster your asserted position about the matter. Maybe others will consider such a matter differently, but that was largely what I was asserting there.
And to the rest of your statement "...or to attempt to see how matters play out." Yes...I don't think experimenting with BitcoinTalk is a good idea to just let play out. That's how you destroy something like BitcoinTalk. So I would absolutely not recommend the wait and see approach. I think enough data is there today. I think enough was there day 30...see my first post.
Again, you are not providing evidence, and many of us who comment on this topic are humble enough to concede that 1) we do not necessarily know all the variables that are being considered by theymos, and 2) acknowledge that a considerable degree of discretion remains in the hands of theymos regarding whether or not to tweak or how much time he needs to see how things play out. Your assertion remains unsubstantiated that "play out" rises to the level of taking unnecessary risk or that irreparable damage is being done to the forum.
You brought up data, asked me to support my assertions with data. Man, I would love to! Give me access to the data and I will give you analysis that shows what is wrong with this Merit system (regardless of if that supports my preconceived ideas)...again, see my earlier posts. I told whomever reads these, where to look, and even what this or that analysis result would indicate. I don't know what data they track on here or who has access, but there are a lot of smart Tech people involved here and I'm just assuming access to data for the people touching the servers is not a problem.
You are pretty much conceding that you do not have evidence.. and your main evidence remains your opinion, which is not a very strong way to support an argument.
Again...I would be happy to run the analysis if anyone cared enough to let me have access to the type of data I would need. But believing that would happen is ridiculous.
If you had the data, then you would "run it".. O.k.. great.
I'm not sure what you have against people with professional industry training or years of experience who are trying to apply those skills/experience to helping the crypto world, but that's 100% what I am attempting to do with my many, many posts above.
I don't have anything against you or anyone else. I have just been responding to the assertions that you made in your posts. Even though you might be an "expert", your posts don't seem to demonstrate such alleged expertise... but hey that is just my opinion, so you don't need to take my opinion seriously, and you can keep making your argument(s). Good luck.