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That's the number I was wondering about, and even if it turns out to be twice that, it still doesn't seem anywhere near devastating to the forum.<...>
I think that is based on users that have received sMerits and not sent out any. We cannot, as far as Im aware of, derive the total initial airdropped sMerit to forum members that have not given any out on an individual basis.
Nevertheless, theymos mentioned that the initial airdrop was around 600K. Distributed total sMerit since the beginning is 205K. There are therefore around 400K at least that is still in the initial airdrop recipients hands (more probably, since a lot of the 205K comes from merit sources and halved sMerits).
Reference:
Thats why i feel user education was a key part in rolling out this merit system. Many dont understand this and even not aware of what smerit is.
I personally educated few people about smerit concept and how they can use it. Most are afraid that if they give merit to others it will decrease their own merit, which is not true but they dont know what smerit is.
This data itself shows that power given to people is not in use, why to not revisit this and do something about it.
I supported this even it was launched just week before i could have become sn member, bcoz i felt its necessary to put something to stop spammers. But now we have enough data points to see that good actors in system are negatively impacted for long, however spammer will find some other way.
I propose that a constructive discussion should start to balance out good formula to get good actors motivated to be part of system.
When such system becomes inefficient in balancing the right mix, its time to reevaluate and re-calibrate.