I respect the opinion of the creator of this topic and I believe that such people are needed by the forum, as they are trying to combat the trend of bitcoin, which is now on the way to centralization and turns into a speculative toy of traders. But I think that ignoring alternative coins is a mistake, because there are projects that offer much more in technological terms than bitcoin.

There is nothing wrong with the way OP is distributing merit.

https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/2827596.msg34192230#msg34192230

This is a few pages back but it explains the stance regarding how many merits will be handed out via this thread.

Very good thread OP.
I still have mixed feelings about the merit system. I almost used up all my Smerit and sometimes I see very worthy posts which I would like to reward with merit but then end up only giving 1 or 2 points for the above mentioned scarcity.
I think the drawback is also a tendency towards circlejerking/centralization.

One thing I would suggest to consider implementing is a demerit system where unworthy merited posts (e.g. circlejerking, merit sales, loopholes, etc) can be downmerited by users sending their sdemerit points.

Just my 2 sats.


EDIT
One good example of a thread where utterly useless and silly posts get merited in a shitfest of favours is https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/178336.0;topicseen
90% of the posts are completely off topic or shitposts.

Wow this is half a year old thread! But hey, if it's not locked yet then I guess I'm not too late, right?
I'd like to take you up on your very generous offer @QuestionAuthority.

I'm following the trend about a year now, but I created an account here after the merit system was implemented, therefore I worked my way from 0 merits to 29. The next step looks very distant and lately I feel like people have stoped being generous with their merits, maybe the users started to dry up?

So as you requested, here are some of my latest posts BUT it's not all about BTC, I'm supporting BTC and 4 altcoins, I hope I'm not out of the criteria.

A bit indirect, but the last sentence of the post kinda proves my plans to save up on BTC (and altcoins) in order to use them for purchases in the future, but I repeat it's indirect so moving on...
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/825087.msg38048488#msg38048488

My bullish analysis for BTC on 22/6 for a final price crash (and then bullrun) to bellow 6.000$ which was reached 7 days later and until now it seems to be the bottom.
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/178336.msg40643748#msg40643748

Similar to the above with a humorous image (but written in greek),
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3288558.msg39870249#msg39870249

Then some general, not-BTC-specific posts,

Assisting people who might have been infected by a specific "fake" wallet by pointing them to a removal tool,
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/1649695.msg42293906#msg42293906

Guiding someone to the information he was looking for,
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/1649695.msg42282866#msg42282866

Minor technical advice to someone looking to build an FPGA mining rig,
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3459858.msg42270670#msg42270670

I reported to the devs of an exchange a bug they had on their front page, we then took the conversation off the forums where I provided them with chrome's console log files, but whatever,
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/1921439.msg42231207#msg42231207

Nothing special, just informing a new users about a coin they were intrested in,
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3238497.msg42018996#msg42018996

I just remembered you asked for our posts that shows we're intrested in learning, so I guess posts like this,
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3688965.msg42016883#msg42016883

My personal tips about how to avoid scum projects,
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/2353282.msg38499980#msg38499980

You can try your luck in other giveaways. Op has mentioned the terms of this giveaway very clear in the thread.

There are some members who will appreciate your contributions in alt coin section as well. Or may be you can come up with some comparison between bitcoin and leading alt coins and apply again if still interested. Good luck.

And OP, I really liked your comment where you mentioned "I do not consider Bitcoin cash as Bitcoin". Only if the investors being fooled had same consideration.

A demerit system has its own problems. That would create gangs of like minded people that would crush individual thought.

Not too much if the demerit can only remove merit given in a specific post.
I.E. if a post hasn't been merited, it can't be demerited.

Hello QuestionAuthority,

I would appreciate if you could look through my post history. I would like to hear an objective opinion on the posts I write.

https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/4731468.msg42758810#msg42758810
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/4638321.msg42715609#msg42715609
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3034891.msg42530272#msg42530272 - explaining why merit was introduced
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/4691767.msg42336330#msg42336330
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/4638321.msg42315441#msg42315441
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/4592050.msg41443147#msg41443147
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/4578719.msg41296182#msg41296182
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/122438.msg41078247#msg41078247
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/2185809.msg40930971#msg40930971
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/4522825.msg41070907#msg41070907

It took me some time to rank up from Member. Merit was introduced one week before I was supposed to be a Full Member and actually, I am glad that it happened.

Uh Oh, did you tap the "back" button.
20 became 40.  Good thing you have lots to go around, and that you like their posts.

Thanks again for doing this you did help me start on my way, and I carried forth and got my "Senior Member" status.