Quote from: Jet Cash on September 22, 2018, 09:40:51 AM

Unfortunately the spambies are getting a merit. ..They are being given the merit by their puppet masters...

The interesting thing is that everything is done publicly and with records. It may actually unveil many of the spamnets out there and leave them open for the hunt. If I were a spam-hunter I would be looking directly in the merit awarded in ANN and Bounty threads.

Quote from: The Pharmacist on September 21, 2018, 02:28:19 PM

Quote from: paxmao on September 21, 2018, 02:20:45 PM

We all should start getting used to the fact that a merit is not a like and should never be used a such.

But it is pretty much a "like".
...

What I did was to set a criteria for myself to give merit an try to stick to it. So, it does not matter if I personally agree with the content or even if I think it is correct from a philosophical perspective. My criteria is related to the posts helping others, providing news or insights, humor (within reason), providing value for the Forum, etc. I try no to merit any "opinion post" unless it is based on specialized knowledge or non-trivial experience and conclusions.

I guess that what I mean is that I "like" the post, but not necessarily agree, as well as the opposite, I don't agree but you post is providing a well built argument or helping.

With the new changes I had to add another criteria a day ago. I will merit newbies only after at least 20 activity, once I clearly see that they are "humans", that they haven't spammed nor made activity rising one-liners and that they are trying to learn, help others and following the basic rules. At least I will make sure that newbies have given some value to the forum and at the same time they are encouraged by the built-in "gamification" of the forum ranks.

Quote from: Karisma Black on September 22, 2018, 11:50:48 AM

I see no point in giving merits to legendaries.

I think Theymos has mentioned that he might create another rank above Legendary in the future. "Mythical" perhaps? Wink