Quote from: Toxic2040 on January 16, 2019, 01:08:58 AM

I do wonder however if they feel they have earned the 2300+ merits that the community has bestowed upon them. I suspect there might be some doubt.

Oh I'm sure there a lot of doubt. I have no control over who gives me merits, though. Foxpup in particular seems to have a hard-on for my posts, but I didn't ask for them, I don't know him, and I don't think I've had so much as a single PM from him.

Quote from: Toxic2040 on January 16, 2019, 01:08:58 AM

My point is here are two well respected members telling other people how to think and act..

I wasn't trying to do that, but I'm exercising my own right to not merit OP's post and I'm just giving my opinion. I'm opinionated for sure, but OP is free to do as he pleases with his sMerits and I couldn't stop him if I wanted to. I tried to get across that I have no beef with him, but obviously I'm not communicating it well.

Quote from: Toxic2040 on January 16, 2019, 01:08:58 AM

It's to the point that I almost refuse to merit legendary members at all unless it is truly profound or cutting edge. I try and bestow what little merit I gain to newbies trying to gain a foothold so as to entice more participation as a whole or to member who I feel are close to ranking up a level.

I have said almost the exact same thing recently, that I do my best to favor the lower-ranked members who 'need' the merit to rank up, and if you look at my merit-giving history you ought to be able to see that I try to spread the love around as far and wide as I can. I don't think what you'll see is me constantly meriting the same members over and over. There's nothing I'd like more than to have a bunch of great posts by Newbie to Sr. Member accounts, but those are scarce in the sections I frequent.

When I try to find good posts in sections like Bitcoin Discussion or Economics, it's really tough. The sad fact is that most people just write one line responses to the thread's title, usually in terrible English, and often it's the more senior members who write the thoughtful posts--I see it again and again. But hey, glad you came by to voice your opinion which I considered thoughtful and thus (in my eyes) worthy of some merit. Everyone has their own standards.

Edit:

Quote from: Welsh on January 16, 2019, 01:35:07 AM

Which is actually odd. You would think that the Economics section in particular would be a great place for in depth analysis, and discussion relating to that.

Sometimes it is, which is why I read a lot of threads there. Hydrogen starts quite a few threads with interesting news article quotes and sparks the discussion with his input on the article. Sometimes I give him merits (he's a Hero member, BTW), sometimes not, but I'm always looking for relative newcomers who make good posts in threads like his--and those are kind of rare. The Economics section is one of the ones where a lot of garbage posters go to unload their one liners for whatever bounty they're in, just like BD but not quite as bad.

What can I say, I'm picky when it comes to giving out merits but I think I should be. That was the whole point behind the inception of the merit system. I'm pretty sure Theymos didn't create it just for shits & giggles.