I'm glad you did this and it's going to help a lot but I still don't think it goes far enough. Why can't we remove signatures from Juniors as well and require ten merit to get one when they become a Member? Those who have farmed dozens or hundreds/thousands of accounts will just buy or trade the merit or purchase a Copper Membership because when they're making thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars from farming bounties/campaigns this is just a minor inconvenience. Making them get ten merit per account is significantly more difficult and expensive and abuse would also be easier to spot. A lot of one merit abuses will just fly under the radar.
One reason that I was hesitant to do this before is that there are an awful lot of newbie restrictions, and I don't want the forum to be unwelcoming to good newbies. I'll think about tying some of those to activity instead of rank in the future.
I don't think it is unwelcoming and good posters won't have much issue in getting ten merit. A truly great post or two could get you that alone. I understand the reasoning that we shouldn't be putting restrictions from actually
posting, but removing their signatures or requiring more merit doesn't effect that at all. The issue here is one merit still isn't difficult to get and I'm not sure how much it will dent the people who are doing the most damage here. I think the huge farmers will just cough up money for the Copper Membership or trade merit between themselves if one is all they need. Is there a place that lists all new Copper Memberships purchased? That would be helpful to keep an eye on as if we see hundreds of users purchasing it abuses will still be easy to spot.
Yeah, I understand that it feels a little bit too harsh to implement this new system. However, it helps to contain the current spam problem.
One merit is harsh? It's not harsh enough. It effects a person's ability to post here zero and the worst of abusers here will still just find a way around it.
I think you should consider the ability to buy merit for yourself. You can already effectively do this by way of purchasing a copper membership. Based upon the fact that well under 1% of active users have received a single merit, there need to be additional ways for people who do not post garbage to rank up.
Further, if people are buying access to additional features such as signatures, they have an added incentive to not post crap, and the cost will serve as a deterrent to those who have ranked up from posting complete garbage.
I would be against buying merit or ranks, but as I have mentioned before buying the benefits of ranks via things like Silver/Gold Memberships should still be considered and would be beneficial in numerous ways.
I think you should consider the ability to buy merit for yourself. You can already effectively do this by way of purchasing a copper membership. Based upon the fact that well under 1% of active users have received a single merit, there need to be additional ways for people who do not post garbage to rank up.
Buying merit or normal ranks is like buying yourself a bunch of trophies to put on your shelf. It's stupid, and it's an insult to everyone who achieved it legitimately. I can't see ever doing that. I don't particularly mind letting people pay for some of the
privileges of these things, such as with copper membership, but it should be a parallel system.
As I just said above, I agree, but why not extend this logic to people buying accounts as well? If that's ok then I think we should add the additional Silver and Gold Memberships as there are numerous benefits to this and it significantly reduces the account selling/scamming market. If people can buy accounts here then let them buy the benefits of them from the forum instead which is win win. It's going to happen anyway so why not make it safer for everyone and drive down the demand for farmed and hacked accounts in the process?
Copper membership is good. Now, if you want to participate in signature campaigns, you can either pay the $10-$20 for copper membership or accomplish the herculean task of making one good post. I don't think that it's unreasonable in either case.
I think it's too cheap though. I think we should make Copper Membership as just some sort of basic whitelisting function ie you can post images and post a little faster, but not allow a signature. Then if you want a signature buy the more expensive Silver and Gold Memberships. If you're earning tens of thousands here then paying $10-20 isn't much even over your dozens to hundreds/thousands of accounts, especially if you can make that back with a few posts on a signature campaign.
If people are making good posts but are still struggling to get merit, then that's a problem with the merit system and should be fixed on my end. Demanding money in order to bypass a broken system would be really bad. But AFAICT the merit system actually is reasonably effective at identifying good posters.
Adding more merit sources to meet demand over time will fix this, but you can still either earn merit and ranks the natural way or cough up money to bypass that. You'd still be a zero-merit/activity whatever member so it's not like they're buying ranks but I think buying a bigger signature should be an option, especially if we allow users to do this by buying accounts anyway which is such a shady black market already where scamming is rife.
Buy a Copper Membership or get the merit.
It is difficult to receive a Merit from members who have merit. If I say that there are many people selling their merit, do you believe it? .There are people who post hundreds of content but they do not receive any merit.
If you're making hundreds of posts and never get merit then the issue probably lies with you so take a look at your posts and those of others who are getting merit and try work out where you're going wrong.
not all jr.member spamming, but why are we generalized to a newbie, even though many of them are late trying to make good posts, but it's hard now we get merit, are they the ones we fear if many get merit they will feel Compared to the bounty program, I feel that those of us above are worried that if many of us get merit, the amount of prizes from the bounty will decrease because the bounty cursed the pool system, therefore many members here are trading merit and accounts, is this fair, many of them 1 person who has more than 1 account, this is not fair
Boo-hoo. Nobody said all Juniors are spamming. If you can't earn a merit then either buy a Copper Membership or go away.
not all jr.member spamming, but why are we generalized to a newbie, even though many of them are late trying to make good posts, but it's hard now we get merit, are they the ones we fear if many get merit they will feel Compared to the bounty program, I feel that those of us above are worried that if many of us get merit, the amount of prizes from the bounty will decrease because the bounty cursed the pool system, therefore many members here are trading merit and accounts, is this fair, many of them 1 person who has more than 1 account, this is not fair
I quite agree with you, most merit holders don't want to share because they don't want more people competing with them on signature bounty campaigns
Oh do shut up. We don't want people like
you who have ruined the forum by copy and pasting content over god knows how many accounts:
The EOS and TRON platforms are shaping up to be great platforms in the crypto space, EOS (EOS) and TRON (TRX) are great blockchain projects that could go on to deliver great results both for their community of investors and the public. EOS seeks to transform and decentralize the cryptocurrency trading industry by providing a platform that makes it easy and cheaper to trade and exchange crypto assets, for me EOS looks a better proposition for now
https://stocksgazette.com/2018/05/01/eos-eos-vs-tron-trx-which-one-should-you-add-to-your-portfolio/The reason why altcoins exist is because the original bitcoin software was and is open source, so people made their own varients of bitcoin. Whether or not we need all these altcoins is irrelevent.
https://www.reddit.com/r/altcoin/comments/6gtd10/why_do_we_need_altcoins/Focus on a consistent process and Growing size If you can become consistent in your trading process in terms of executing your edge and your money management, and you have a positive trade expectancy sizing properly is essential for growing your trades. Some traders trade too big too quickly, which causes inconsistency and usually a large setback.
http://www.staceyburketrading.com/5-ways-improve-trading/YOU are the reason for why we need these restrictions and why it should be more than just one merit because I'm sure someone would have given one of your copy and pasted posts merit eventually.
I want to add! Cryptocurrency is made for decentralization and the forum should be the same, and with your new rules you make your forum centralized!!!
Oh, it's very decentralized. It uses the VWYF algorithm (
now with added blockchain) to ensure complete decentralization. How it works is very simple: if you don't like it,
go make your own forum.
Admins!!! What you have done will lead to the fact that now massively will sell merit and who will not share it! Or you are interested in it themselves( to sell merit)? What you have done I believe is illegal! Think again, while the community has not found another forum!!!
Illegal? LOL. Theymos, please look into all this whiners. I'm sure these will be the idiots with hundreds to thousands of accounts.
That means, that i need to buy merit, just to rank up?
I been doing a lot of post, but never had a merit.
What should i do?
Make good posts
profit
PMSL. Someone create one to petition theymos to either require more merit or remove signatures altogether. In fact, lets remove signatures completely until you get an insane amount of merit (500+). Then you really will have to sing for your supper. You people are pure cancer.
Respected bitcointalk admistratior and moderators how about the member (Jr member) who turns into jr member before 1 September remains Jr member but who create account after 1 September required at least 150 or 200 activity point to promote into Jr member this is just my suggestion please think about it.
How convenient, Mr
I Registered Before 1st of September. 
I think this is good, bring fairness to the active members, and join in for a long time.
I only regret that I joined Bitcointalk too late.
It's never too late to get merit.
I totally understand the move because of so many shitposts that people place to make the signature requirements. Only why not just change the option to wear a signature to members+. So with 10 merits or more?
I am a BountyHunter, trying to build up a little portfolio of cryptocurrencies because I truly believe in the blockchain. Since I have no money to invest and missed the 2017 hype, Bountyhunting is the only way for me to do so.
Because of the demotion to Newbie, I cannot enter most bounty campaigns anymore and seriously reduces my ability to earn some crypto in a fair way.
Another thing I noticed in the merit system: almost all merit goes to people who already have merit. It's like in society, where rich people, like to be around rich people and help each other getting richer. If a newbie (or poor guy) comes up with something he/she often does not get the credit for it.
I would have given you a merit until you started with the
rich get richer bollocks. Make good posts and you'll get merit. Nobody gives a fuck here how rich you are. All we care about is cleaning up the forum from the shitposting scum that have ruined it for everyone. Make posts with effort and people will give you merit.
merit=salvation.
