A system where they themselves and people who they like rank up. Other high ranking members are eliminated from the scenario for reasons mentioned above.At the end of the day, we have only these high powerful members and their friends in the higher ranks of the forum.
I can only really speak for myself, but take a look at the merits I've given out. I'm a merit source and happen to be in a signature campaign, btw. I take my position as a source fairly seriously, and I do make an effort to help lower-ranked members earn enough merits to rank up. And let me tell you, it is no easy task, because most newbies nowadays come here
only to make money, and they tend to be lazy posters with nothing interesting to say. Before you say that's too broad a generalization, let me mention that I've learned this fact through 4 years of experience on bitcointalk--4 years of reading constant shitposting by newbies who can't write English and couldn't compose a coherent sentence to save their life.
I'm not trying to hold anyone back except the garbage posters, but that's a good thing. That's why Theymos created the merit system in the first place.
If you don't like signature campaigns or think they're inherently unfair for whatever reason, you're free to not join one. In fact, you're free to find another forum if you don't like this one.
It looks like cryptohunter's alt, I'll stop talking to his user.
Could be. He certainly has the cryptohunter-type prolix down pat.