Quote from: goldkingcoiner on June 01, 2025, 08:28:36 PM

But I do wonder what made you think that there was a need for an alternative to the merit system? Are there any problems it is addressing and what are the solutions that this tool brings?

The distributions of smerit might be too "controlled". I could perhaps agree with that. But would that necessarily mean that merited topics would be differently ranked with this new system? After all, a good topic is a good topic. The better a topic the more merits. Would a different ranking system look much different, aside from a few topics that have gained a disproportionate amount of merits due to being buddy buddy with higher-ups?

What about a system that ranks topics/posts on the amount of people from which the merits were received instead of a new ranking foundation, or the amount of merits received?

That's a great question - I didn't design this as an alternative to the merit system, I designed it as a successor to the Alexa toolbar, which used to rank websites. Since I am here all the time, I coded it around this website while including functionality for the web as a whole. The merit spin is just good timing?

This is not meant to replace merit. It does not affect anything on the forum, and it will never have the reach the merit system does. However, it should mimic smerit given to content, assuming the merit system is open and fair. I have a unique ranking system that hinders cheating and even though it's so simple I have not seen it anywhere. You can see what I mean if you are interested in testing (are you?) but if a normal user visits twenty different websites, they do not consider them all the absolute "worst" or "best". Nor do they have time to adjust old ratings as time passes.

I feel Theymos has all but retired - he has more than enough $ for generations so why put up with the politics? You can jury rig whatever type of pretty facades you want over a rusty foundation, but I don't think the merit system has a future without fair distribution.