Today, @Welsh wrote this:
It's definitely harder to rank up these days, and certain posts are more likely to get merit. For example, the statistics users are chucking out via data scraping, and all that will be more likely to receive merit, because its both informative, and out of the capability of many of the users here. There's been 3 stages of ranking up if I remember correctly here on Bitcointalk. First of all, ranking up was tied to amount of posts you had (activity wasn't implemented at this time) then activity got introduced, and there were a few moans, and groans about it. Finally, the merit system was implemented, and has had the most criticism, and impact on the forum. I personally believe its had a positive impact on the forum, and is the better system of all three.
I searched topic history of @satoshi, @theymos, @Cyrus, and @Sirius, but I have not found the first rank system of the forum. I do checked all @satoshi's posts, and did not find what I need. So, anyone knows it, please give me details.
I think this thread is helpful for forum users, old or new users, to have exact information on history of bitcointalk.org's rank system.
There are three periods, in which the forum has three different rank system and different criteria for it.
1. November 22, 2009 - January 22, 2018: Without activity requirementsWelcome to the new Bitcoin forum!I need help with more details on rank system within this period. Please help if you know it!However, that period existed, because I saw some complaints when the second rank system activated.
This is bullshit! I was less than 40 posts way from being a Hero, and now I'm not quite even Sr??!! That's it, I'm outta here.
Totally kidding. I much prefer this new system personally. People have always put way too much stake in the "Sr/Hero" titles... at least now only veterans will get them.
Thanks for your continued efforts upgrading the forum, theymos. Great stuff.
@Welsh gave me hands, but still need more details (official announcements from admins?)
Forum rankings, unless custom, are based on post-count alone.
Highest is Hero Member, followed by Sr. Member, followed by Full Member, followed by Jr. Member, followed by Newbie.
What are the numbers of posts for each ranking?
I believe it's something like:
Hero - 500
Sr Member - 250
Full Member - 100? (not sure on this one)
The activity number is determined in this way:
time = number of two-week periods in which you've posted since your registration
activity = min(time * 14, posts)
Rough summary of what this means: If you post once per day on average, then you will eventually get the maximum number of activity points that you can get. Posting more than once per day on average is useless for increasing activity. The maximum number of activity points you can get is 1 per day, but your activity score only updates every two weeks. Therefore, it will take about 100 days to get 100 activity if you post once per day on average.Activity is updated every hour.
The new membergroup limits work like this: (
Edit: Obsolete, do not use)
| Group | Requirement |
| Brand New | 0 posts |
| Newbie | (none) |
| Jr. Member | activity: 30 |
| Member | activity: 60 |
| Full Member | activity: 120 |
| Sr. Member | activity: 240 |
| Hero Member | activity: 480 |
| Legendary | occurs randomly between 775 and 1030 activity |
I'm not 100% sure that the membergroups work correctly. Tell me if you see any bugs.
Theymos wrote that announcement, but Cyrus wrote that one:
I added forum activity, changed the number of coins. Was kinda tired and that slipped away.
I still don't know who coded activity requirements / badges for ranks in this change.3. January 24, 2018 - by now: Activity requirements + Merit requirementsAnnouncement for changes:
Merit & new rank requirementsIn addition to activity, everyone now has a merit score, and you need both a certain activity level and a certain merit score in order to reach higher member ranks. The required scores are:
| Rank | Required activity | Required merit |
| Brand new | 0 | 0 |
| Newbie | 1 | 0 |
| Jr Member | 30 | 1 |
| Member | 60 | 10 |
| Full Member | 120 | 100 |
| Sr. Member | 240 | 250 |
| Hero Member | 480 | 500 |
| Legendary | Random in the range 775-1030 | 1000 |
Note that merit requirement on Junior member rank only implemented since September 17, 2018.
Enhanced newbie restrictions & requirementsDue to excessive garbage-posting, you now need 1 merit to be a Jr Member. All existing Jr Members who didn't meet the requirement were demoted. Also, newbies can no longer set any signature or personal text.
To sum up, from the history of forum rank system, it is clearly that we all do survive in the forum, whatever rank requirements used; and we (most of us) don't leave the forum due to new requirements on rank system.
Stop complaining, adapt, and rank up!
If you want to find out more about bitcointalk's history or want to become a bitcointalk historian, I have a few documents for you:
Satoshi's lessonBitcointalk history of MtGox and how a Bitcointalk post caught the MtGox hacker.Bitcointalk history of hacks and vandalism.The most iconic bitcointalk threads. History on Bitcointalk.History - signature campaigns and bounties on Bitcointalk