After signing up to this forum only today i have a few comments to make regarding the ranking system.
Never bothered to make an account since you could read everything without having one, and as soon as you make one, you start asking about the ranking system. I wonder what that makes you look like.
is it possible for people to rank up on here still?
Look for yourself. You can find some examples of ranked up users even in this thread of yours.
To gain enough merit without being a well known or already established user of the forum would take such a considerable effort that any user would also need a stroke a pure luck to even reach member rank now.
A user making considerable efforts does not require any luck to reach any rank, and the ones making zero to no efforts would reach nowhere no matter how lucky they are since this is a manual distribution system and isn't a kind of a lottery where a user can get any amount out of luck.
The chances of being merited even a few times are very small let alone gaining hundreds of merits.
That totally depends on an individual and the efforts they are making for the community. There are users who had earned more Merits to rank up to higher ranks then they are right now.
LoyceV and
DdmrDdmr are the brightest examples of that.
If you are already of a high ranked position then most likely you like the recent stricter rules as you don't need to jump through the hoops yourself to claim merit and be able to rank up anymore
I'm not of a very high ranked position, but I still like the recent rules as they are for the betterment of the forum. As far as the rank is concerned, I believe I can reach the rank I deserve to and there is nothing that can stop me if I have the ability to reach there.
Hopefully there will be some loosening of these rules or an entirely new system implemented sometime in the near future so new users are able to participate in all that this great forum has to offer.
Why should the rules be loosened for the new users to be able to participate in things in here? No rules are stopping anyone from that. The rules or the new implementations are only to stop the useless posters and the ones who has done nothing for the community but are always looking to benefit from it without making any efforts, and there is no need to loosen the rules for them.