Ranks: The Coins Under Your Name

Every Bitcointalk user has a rank. It's shown as a row of coins (or other symbols) under their username. New users start at the bottom; long-time contributors are at the top.

Each rank needs two numbers: Activity and Merit. The ranks, from the bottom up:

You hold the highest rank for which you meet both numbers. An account with 300 activity and 40 merit has the activity for Sr. Member but only the merit for Member, so it shows as a Member.

Legendary works a little differently. The forum assigns every account its own activity threshold at random, somewhere between 775 and 1030. Two members with identical activity and 1000 merit can therefore become Legendary at different times.

Legendary is not permanent. Activity can fall if posts that counted toward it are deleted.

These figures come from hilariousandco's FAQ on activity, ranks, and merit, the thread members point newcomers to when this question comes up:

BTK-06 · Academy explanatory diagram

There are also special ranks:

• Donator — those who donated to the forum
• VIP — manually assigned
• Staff — moderators and admin

Copper Membership is not a rank. It is a paid membership bought with a Bitcoin payment. It lifts some of the limits that normally come with a low rank, and it leaves your rank itself unchanged — check the current membership thread for exactly what it includes.

What is Activity?

Activity measures sustained participation over time, capped by how much you have actually posted. Both halves matter: time alone will not raise it, and posting volume alone will not either.

The formula is activity = min(time × 14, total posts), where time is the number of two-week periods in which you have posted. Activity updates in two-week periods. Posting more than fourteen times inside one period does not add more than fourteen activity.

This is important: posting 100 times in a day doesn't increase your activity faster than posting fourteen times across the same period. The forum is designed for steady participation, not bursts.

BTK-07 · Academy explanatory diagram

Because each period adds at most 14, the calendar sets a minimum time for every rank. If you post at least fourteen times in every single two-week period, activity reaches each rank's threshold at these points:

These are the fastest possible times, and they cover activity only. Most members take longer, because they skip periods and because merit, not activity, is usually what holds them back from Full Member upward.

What is Merit?

Merit is a separate measurement, introduced in January 2018 to fight spam. We'll cover it in detail in the next lesson, but for now: Merit is given by other users when they think your post deserves recognition. It's the harder of the two requirements to reach higher ranks.

Why ranks matter

• Higher ranks = higher signature campaign rates. Campaigns usually pay more per post as rank rises, and many do not accept the lowest ranks at all.
• Trust signals. People are more willing to do business with higher-ranked users.
• Features. Rank affects signature length and styling, avatar and image permissions, and how often you can post. Copper Membership lifts some of these limits without changing rank.
• Reputation. A Legendary username carries weight that takes years to build.

But:

Reading a profile

Click any username. You'll see:

• Their activity number
• Their merit number
• Their rank
• Their post count
• Their join date
• Their trust profile (we'll cover this later)
• Their signature campaign (if any)
• Recent posts

BTK-08 · Current Bitcointalk screenshot

This is your toolkit for evaluating anyone before interacting with them.