There are several campaigns that are now making increased payouts to members that have accrued x-thousand merits therefore it is an incentive for members (posting in any thread) to make their posts have some meaningful content and context as well as have some quality behind it. When it comes to the gambling board we know there are threads that are out of control with signature spamming going on at unbelievable speed.
You are right when you state that even if focusing merits in the gambling board will not reduce spam, it will (or should) at least have some impact on improving post quality. I would like to see that experiment happen.
As I alluded to in the previous post, what would be the possible effect of having one merit source in the gambling board actively giving merits to quality posts versus say for example those that do not care for anything except spamming in order to meet their signature campaign quote?
Regarding this - well, if there would be a merit source on the boards, people might be incentivized to open more interesting threads, with more content and maybe some interesting links in the OP - instead of just opening another 'what to do when losing' thread every few days.
It can't reduce spam, it can improve the quality though. Then increased quality brings more quality in the form of better replies etc. Gradually, it decreases the % of spam posts that have no value whatsoever. Well, hopefully at least.
The path on BTT is more or less defined - more merits, better account standing, better campaign, more money, better opportunities.
I would like to help members that write quality posts get merited more, so they can grow their accounts on the boards that are currently rarely merited.