Topic: Is it possible to reach a high rank nowadays? (Read 1128 times)

Yes it is possible and if you are reading a lot then you should know it by now for there are threads related to ranking up. I can refer you to this thread [Merit Analysis] "Self Made" high ranked users based on earned merit provided by vlad230.

TMAN was right if one does not care about merits then why bother bubbling about getting merit? If you are no concern with ranking up then you can just leave your accounts on that rank and then enjoy the stay here in the forum with the cryptocurrency discussions. I bet there are some good topics that the forum could offer here.


However, if you really wish to rank up then it will be great to achieve in the hard way. The harder the sweeter achievement you will get. Just take is positively and get along with the members here by starting to make an apology with some of the members or admin that were being offended.

This is a challenge for all of the members here who wishes to rank up in this forum.

Yeah,  it is still possible even if we think that it is hard. In fact,  I saw one of the threads here before that congratulates those users that strive hard to achieve high rank.

Overall conclusion,  it is possible to all users that only deserved

This might be a good analogy because you often do the right things and not get merit, like with women.

it is possible, but spend a bit time

If you're here looking for high rank means that you're old player.
IMO, because of merit, it will be difficult because the forum no longer for you anymore.

Genuine poster is not looking for rank but quality.

When a newbie begins to weep about ranking up even from the first post leaves so much to be desired.

Definition of self-made rank seems to be open to debate as I saw on another thread, where there were confronted opinions as to whether the self-made rank should apply for those that got enough merits but not the required amount of activity. Rather than placing badges and more rank titles, an easier solution would be simply to place the merit counter as a dual entry or one slash the other. For example, “Merit: 130/100” would indicate that the profile has 130 merits, 100 of which were earned through sMerit TXs.

I don’t think either. There are too many proposed changes and theymos will implement the few of them that can benefit the forum. It would make sense if when the merit system was introduced, there was a reset, but having badges for merit earned and also ranks for merit airdropped+ merit earned+ activity it’s unlikely to happen. It is one system of recognition or another.

This could be interesting suggestion but think that wont be any time soon. Think that this suggestion could be good to send to Theymos or some other staff member as suggestion, and to see if they can do it or will they consider doing it. Its good idea after all when this system is applied many received this as default by rank and like you mentioned this could mean that someone with full member rank for example that is earn his merit is more better then the one who got this by default.

I cant agree more, and I think most of us also agree that there is a lot of high ranking members who could not pass Jr or Member status with new system but this is just consequence of the situation in this unique internet place.
You cant blame the new ran requirements since they are necessarily for keeping forum cleaner.

Maybe in the future we will see that high ranking users get some " punishment" for being shit posters as well.

But for now I think that there should be some kind of special badge that would indicate that user is self made rank member .
And I will explain why, not just because they are more worthy the rank because of their unique and quality posts but because it is beneficial for readers. For example,when i see member with odd number of merit, i often click on their posts to find cool content. But if this user has 101, 103 or 105 merits I do not click on his post history even if he had earned all 101 merits not just one . Reader cant tell if the user has earned 101 or 1 merit just by looking at the profile.

This was the latest instructions that Theymos gave to me. I'm doing the best that I can with my delegated responsibility.

Because what Op is doing as well as many other users here in the meta section, is to try to fish merits by posting things related to merits that may seem nice to see but that are useless as we are in 5 to really look at the merits, in 3 to report the abuers and 1 (now they have removed Lauda from the default list) to tag them.
So even if they merit things related can be cool to look 99% of these thing have no value since there is a diffidence of looking and seeing.

Look at this thread Merit abuser + abusing bounty with high rank and green trust, need DT a green trusted account CAN be envoled, but as you can see nobody care, 0 replies.

The answer is very simple and short: IT IS POSSIBLE

Taking only users who hasen't been airdroped single merit - all merits earned by their selfs (simpy saying - new or "fresh active" users)

Member rank (10 - 99 merit earned): 3.228 users
Full members (100 - 249)               :      63 users
Senior members (250 - 499)           :      12 users
Hero members (500 - 999)             :        4 users
Legendary (1.000+)                       :        1 user

Is it easy to become  Senior, Hero or Legendary (talking only about merit)?

Not as easy as before, but as you can see some people manage to do it in just 8 months

I don't get why those 2 members gave OP merits though. The post was really just a longer version of a complaint topic about merit.

In my opinion people are trying too hard to get spotted. They should stop thinking about merits and continue what they did best. Let the shitposters remain shitposters because they dont contribute anything expect their traffic to the sites finances. No good comes from them and so they dont deserve to rank up. Plain and simple.

Someone just got scammed of their 2 sMerits.

People really should stop meriting shitposters whining about merit in Meta. It just has a knock on effect so more people create a thread trying their luck and fishing for some merit. This guy is worse because obviously he has alts that he doesn't want to bring attention to and probably because they're all making terrible posts and his argument would have been shot down straight away for that alone.


I wonder how long it is before Meta is taken over by shitposters repeating the same thing page after page.

You seem to have gotten your first 2 merits easily enough (by making this topic). So you are your own proof one can make progress here.

Yeah, it's possible to rank up. If you know @theyoungmillionaire, he/she's great in doing quality posts and received 554 merits. If you're a dedicated person, everything is possible for you. Put some effort on it and make an extraordinary thing that's not a very common, It might attract some avid readers here and give you some merit for that information.


Same, it's very confusing.

@OP, please divide your whole content into paragraphs so viewers can easily read your thread.


Probably if a person is being conscious about his/her merits, then let's jump into conclusions that he/she wanted to do earnings in bounty. If a person only wants interesting knowledge and ideas, merits won't bother them since it's a useless factor if you really want to learn. I don't get it, why are they focusing on such things even they lack of ideas on how to start a quality discussion?

Yes, I can see that it's much more difficult to rank up now than it was before merit was added. It's very easy to get enough of it to become a member or even full member, but you have to really work for it and be lucky enough to get spotted and rewarded.
When I see people asking about merit or those who are getting discouraged I always ask them: why do you need it so much? If it's only because of the signature money then maybe you are exactly where you should be.

Its possible to rank up!
Merit is like women!
If you just want to get them on the easy way, you will not get them!
You have to do the right thing to get them!      

The simple answer is yes, it is possible ... But things are not Boolean, and a simple yes or no is deceiving. As can be seen on some of the referenced threads within this same thread, people are ranking-up, a few with no issue from the merit side. It’s when you compare the speed of the process of ranking-up before and after the Merit System that you notice that we’ve shifted from sixth gear down to first.

This is the key difference really, since even for those that make decent posts (I’m not talking about the best of the best, but second and third levels) the merit per day is often subpar with the 1 merit per day necessary (roughly) to rank-up at the same rate as before. Out of the people merited, 0,5% are on par or above. That means that for 99,5% of those merited, the expectancy is a slower than before ranking process.

Recently I wrote a post on this matter, and the projected dates to ranking-up we’re pretty far off in time (see Analysis – Personal merit per day, merit per post and ranking-up projections).

This is turning slowly in a megathread but I'll leave here my two satoshi.

Merit is not difficult to get, difficult is to build reputation among the valuable people here.
If you have the reputation the merit is no longer an issue.
How to distinguish yourself from the shitposters, thats another obstacle for the newbies, not the Merit (it will come eventually).

You don't need merit in the beginning, you need to be yourself here, be someone with opinion and a vision.

The merit is the final result of the combination of many factors.

That's the two satoshies of someone walked the whole way up from member.

Possible, you have to just make sure that you are not running after merit/rank. That's how it will be possible. You can have a look on the profile which has been upgraded. I want to request you to check the nullius and his merit history. Only then you will realize how easy is this.

I had to click on your profile since I have signature-view disabled, and yep you're in a campaign.  As has been stated, the only reason people care about rank here is so that they can make more money--so nobody here has any sympathy for anyone who's stuck at the Jr. Member rank.  All the whining in the world is going to do no good.

I highly, highly doubt that.  When people say shit like that, I just tend to think they're lying and they probably are.  I think most people who wear advertising in their signature space have multiple accounts, and especially those complaining about merits.

It's totally fair.  Bounty shitposters brought this upon themselves, and the problem doesn't lie in the hands of more senior members.  Yes, I'm sure there are some Legendary members who post complete garbage (looking at you, Amph), but the vast majority of spammers are low-ranked members with multiple accounts.

I think it is still possible when you apply a lot of your time. Merit givers look for intelligent posts or for post that need a lot of work to create.

Why do you talk about "we" when you have legendary rank and don't you need any merit?

OP, you signed up only yesterday, made few posts and you're already complaining about Merit system. Are you really new here?
You said that you don't need high rank, then why you're concerned about getting Merit? You can continue posting by being Newbie or Jr. Member without getting a lot of Merit. It's true that it's not easy to get Merit if you're not ecxeptional user, but I think it's fine - you need to put some more efforts if you want to get higher rank benefits, what's wrong with that? We want to improve quality of this forum and Merit is a motivation for users to improve quality of their content.
I think he is right in this case. If you have famous name or great reputation here, it's easier to get Merit even if you make some average posts. I don't want examples, but I see this trend. But I don't think it's something wrong.

You have made some valid points.

People that were grandfathered in, like me, had a very easy time getting high ranked accounts, and it could be argued that it's not fair.

This happens all the time in the world. An excellent example of that is bitcoin itself. The people who were here in the early days, could have mined 50 bitcoin blocks on their laptops.

The people who were in this forum back in 2010-2011, could have gotten legendary accounts by 2014 if they stayed active with not a lot of effort.


My position is that the forum rules are fair. Yes, there could be more merit to go around but we should be careful not to cheapen it. But as you are not owed bitcoins just for joining and being part of the ecosystem you are also not owed a high ranking bitcointalk account.


Yes, you'll have to work harder but you can rank up. I agree, there should be a lot more merit to go around. But ranking up always took some effort and so did bitcoin mining. (to use my analogy).


It's not like people back in 2010 showed up on the forum and were given a legendary account.

I'm not someone who puts a big effort into this forum and I'm not a bitcoin expert at this time and I've gotten a few merits here and there. The system is fairly new and merit sources are being added. I think you'll be able to rank up if you put an effort into your posts.

That’s exactly what happend to me, maybe if i joined here 2years or 3years ago, maybe im a legendary member right now. But merit is so hard to have nowadays, I don’t know what kind of post should i do to have some merits here, I think im stuck at jr. member forever.

Of course !! That everyone on this forum has the opportunity to have a much higher rank. The easy thing we do is to improve the quality of the posts that we have, make a post that is useful for others. So if you can give the best in this forum then you will get a reply and for anyone who does not contribute then they will not get anything.

So, that is an easy thing when you have the nature to be dedicated to the forum. The forum will get better when you provide benefits and you will get benefits by getting better trust responses from other users.

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.  


Look for yourself. You can find some examples of ranked up users even in this thread of yours.


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.


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.


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.


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.

Sure you can! But it is much harder than I expected.

For newbie - you must involve huge job to reach next rank.
You can´t post quality posts to get merit, unit you know something about crypto.
So first try to read, don´t rush with posting. Read successful post, make your own strategy.

Tip from me: mate, it is really hard to read your text. Try to make it a bit reader friendly.

But yet you're here on bitcointalk complaining about merits.

Heavily disagree. Can you give us any proof of some posts that aren't "anything special" that are given merit?

Sure you do.

Depends what you specifically mean by "the forum will suffer". If you mean suffer by forum activity in total, then sure it probably would due to less spam. But in exchange of what? Better quality posts. It's a no-brainer that the merit system is a huge step up.

"refuses to adapt to this increased userbase". What are you talking about. People can freely join the forum.

Also, competitors? LOL. Not even close. Take a look at bitcointalk's competitors and see how far bitcointalk is ahead.

I known that guy.
@DdmrDdmr is one of the forum's merit sources for now.
Nevertheless, before got acceptance for his application to be a merit source, that guy made intensive efforts and got hundred of merits.
He is one of the most impressive case-studies that users can still be able to rank up with merit system and new rank requirements via their good initiatives and continuously intensive contribution to the forum.

Correct. You do not need a high rank to read, post, discuss, converse or otherwise get involved in the forum. The only thing you need a high rank for is displaying a signature, and so the only reason to get annoyed about this is if your raison d'être for being here is bounty spamming.



And it does just that. Anyone can come to this open forum, gather information, learn, and present their views for discussion. Rank and merit does not change that in the slightest. Again, the only thing a higher rank provides is a signature.

---

This is all secondary to what has been pointed out multiple times already in this thread - ranking up is not difficult provided you aren't a shitposter.

OP, if you are going to make threads with a opening post of s huge paragraph resembling the 12mark essay question of an Ancient History paper, dont expect to get any merits. Some generous soul did give you some I can see but thats not how you can earn merits here. Here are some stuff that you would want to keep track of :
1. Keep your content short and simple - you dont need to over-exaggerate what you want to say and "Meta" is not the section for making blogs on your personal opinion. Use Medium/Steemit for that.
2. Try to read more than write. Learn more than what you say.
3. Do not post just to increase your post count or hoping to get merits. Post if you have  something constructive to say.
4. Last but not the least, stop refreshing your profile every 2 minutes to check how many new merits you received.

---

The last one goes out for all the newbies who are reading this. You guys are wasting your internet bills

It is true? do not be sad and discouraged, all have benefits, For you in achieving success many challenges and trials. The hard work needed and needed in achieving this success is totality hard work. But unfortunately in this struggle and hard work not everyone can run it to its maximum totality. To achieve perfect success, you really can't do it halfway, you have to run it with totality and maximum, especially in this forum. Only by hard work here is not enough for a member. So to achieve perfect success, you must be able to maximize it.

---

1. Plant in your soul the ultimate Clear Vision and Purpose.

2. Love what you do.

3. Do it wholeheartedly despite many obstacles.

4. Create something that is good and useful in the forum.

5. Do it without harming others.

6. Be patient and thankful.

---

Focused and consistent then the great opportunity to achieve success in achieving rankings will be wide open for you.

I just want to add some opinion in addition to all high-ranked member comments above. At first, it seems impossible to rank, but many high-rank members started from 0 merits. See this thread https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/merit-analysis-self-made-high-ranked-users-based-on-earned-merit-5039605

In addition, I have created a simple guide as a starting point for you who are new to this community https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/newbies-guide-to-getting-merit-proven-4932316 and have listed many various sources about how to get merits. Since maybe you are not new to this community, I think you have a good "head start."

Tl;dr

Once you have a good grasp on how to get merits, It's just a matter of finding your niche, topics that you really understand. Then your problem will be "how much effort should I put on this forum" since I find it intriguing to tweak effort vs merit. It's not rocket science, more effort = more merit.

If you are here in the forum just to read, there wouldn't be the need for you to rank up anyway. I agree there merit system is making it harder for someone who has the intention to earn through bounties. If you are one of those who just want to make business, its the TRUST rating that you should build NOT the rank. For now the merit system works for those who want to get away with bounties but not contributing to the forum contents. Just my opinion.

After commenting to your post may I give you piece of advice, don't make your post like a huge wall of shit because its not pleasant for the readers to see. I didn't read your post to be honest.

If you will see, there are many users here that already ranked up and they helped other people in different ways. Some are sharing information, some created useful threads in Beginners and Help section etc. It is possible to reach a high rank reward even the merit system has been implemented. Its your own way to know how to get some merits.

Why are some people getting bothered of not getting ranked up nowadays? For me, the main reason of rank is for bounty campaigns that is why most newbies are complaining about the merit system. Although there are some benefits of rank like the length of the text and the posting of images, if you are just here to get information then ranking up will not bother you. There are many who got ranked up already and they are an inspiration to members here who want to rank up.

Yes, it is definitely possible to reach a higher rank if you put in the work and invest time into your posts on the forum.

I have also managed to rank-up to Sr. Member starting out on 0 merit, you can check my story here: Sr. Member thanks to the merit system

Don't be discouraged and start reading & posting good quality posts

Of course it's possible, but there are a few basic requirements. One is a reasonable level in the ability to communicate, and your opening post fails on that count. To gain merit, you need people to read your posts. and the wall of text you presented put me off trying to work through it. Had you split it into two or three paragraphs, then more more people would read it, and some of them will be merit awarders.

Another way to improve your ranking is to stop bothering about the merit system. Bitcoin Talk members have a wide range of skills, and by interacting in quality discussions, you can acquire some of those skills. and you can earn money by using them. Learning how to become a TwitBook spammer, and polluting the Bitcoin Talk forum will not build you a long term income, also as many of the projects fail, or provide low payments, they may not even be a productive use of your time.

It is possible to rise in a rank, even in the presence of a merit-system. You can look at this topic (https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/forum-chronicle-up-rank-list-congratulations-bpip-merit-stat-trust-5024849) and see for yourself that if you write constructive and high-quality posts, you have every chance to climb the “career ladder”. It's not so difficult to rise to a member, given that you only need 100 merit for this. Yes, you`ll have to spend your time and work hard to improve the quality of your comments, but there is nothing unattainable if you set yourself a goal and confidently strive for it.


Raising in rank and getting merit has nothing to do with luck. It depends entirely on your abilities, knowledge and efforts. If you don`t do anything to learn, if you don’t offer anything to the bitcointalk community, then no one will appreciate you with merit. Before you expect any rewards, you must show your own efforts. Bitcointalk members see your posts, read and analyze them, so don`t think that you go unnoticed. When you begin to contribute to the development of the forum, then you`ll receive merits.

Is this actually the truth? I'd bet money you just decided to hop onto a brand new account as to not draw attention to your 'main' account(s).


*Sniffs* I smell something. Could that be the whiff of bullshit emanating from somewhere? So let me get this straight: You never bothered to make an account on this bitcoin forum because you didn't need one, but the merit system is the catalyst for you to start doing that? If this was true then you would have nothing to complain about. The ranking or merit system stops nobody at all from reading or even posting. It merely stops low quality posters from rising through the ranks, and I'm not sure why this has given you the passion to start posting here unless it somehow directly effects you (which I'm almost certain this is the case).


It's virtually impossible for shitposters to do so (without cheating). If I created a new anon account today I'm certain I would be able to achieve the ranks even within the timeframe it took me to get the required merit. Any decent-to-great poster should have little problem rising through the ranks, but again, it's the spammers that will struggle, and that's a good thing.


You're saying people shouldn't have to put effort into their posts? Should we keep rewarding laziness and greed? Shitposters may now need 'pure luck', but the rest just need to make decent posts. Not difficult at all. If you made one great post here you could easily get ten merit for that alone and you can receive a max of 50 per user so there's nothing stopping someone from making a great post that receives hundreds of merits. The problem is 95% of people aren't making great posts hence the need for the merit system in the first place.


It doesn't have a responsibility to anyone, but anyone can come here and post. Not everybody should be able to come here and earn by posting though, especially if you are not qualified or trusted to do so. I'd say getting some merit is a good competency test for that, but the merit requirement should be higher (at least ten to get a signatures, preferably much, much more).


How has this changed? It's still here for the community. Ranks are completely irrelevant to this. This forum was originally intended as place to discuss bitcoin, but sadly it's been hijacked by illiterate shitposters who don't even care about bitcoin coming here with dozens of accounts each just to earn by spamming, hence the need for the merit system.


Umm, can you again tell me what rules need to be loosened to allow people to participate here? What is stopping people from participating? Nothing stopped you and ironically the merit system even gave you the motivation to bother signing up for the first time *cough* bullshit *cough*. The rules aren't tight enough regarding spammers and one merit being required changes very little, especially when people merit whingers like you. I think theymos should implement a new system though. Remove all signatures and all airdropped merit, and then you don't get a signature at all until you've earned 1000+ merit. That will sort the what from the chaff. Let's see spammers ever earn that. Problem solved.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=topusersat

click that link - then come back here and apologise to us all for being a moaning used tampon. Any one of us on that list could rank up to Jr member in a week if we so chose to make the effort to gain the required merits, it isn't that fucking hard.

Those higher ranked people who wouldn’t have been able to rank up nowadays because they are hardly earning any merit, won’t be getting into the best paying campaigns. And vice versa: when I joined my current campaign (which requires a certain amount of earned merit to join) I saw higher ranks than mine applying but not getting in.

In 90%+ of the cases, people want to rank up because they can make more money by writing. The rest don’t care about signature campaigns but ranking up is a recognition of their good contribution to the forum.

So, in a way, merit has democratized the forum, but not in the sense of a social democracy, where all of us should be equal no matter if we make efforts or not, rather in the capitalist one where we are given the same opportunities and where we get to depend mostly on our effort.

Yep.  If I recall correctly, he's pretty bright with math and whatnot and has done some pretty impressive analysis with merit data--so he's earned those merits.  Other relative noobs have earned them by doing good work busting scammers, merit abusers, or ICO shenanigans and some of them don't even speak English exceptionally well but their posts are very helpful.

But most newbies?  Nah.  Most are content just posting crap in the spam mega threads that no one will ever see.  When you look at most posts (in any thread, you can just pick one at random) in a section like Bitcoin Discussion, there's nothing worth your time.  That's why you always see lots of Jr. Members there with 100s of posts and no merits, or you see higher ranked members who haven't earned any merits.  I'd say 99% of them don't stand a chance of ranking up.

It's OK that you're French, but he's very right about the grammar and the huge wall of text you posted.  The members I wrote about above generally write not only posts with shit for content, but sloppily-written ones at that.  Look at the people with the highest earned merits and you'll see that they tend to put a lot of thought and effort into what they write.

then why the fuck do you care about merits? if I were knew I would be more concerned about rules and what really goes on here.

Yes , it is possible for people to reach high ranks.
The thing is, it is now more difficult than before,  the number of post you will have to make over a certain time is now increased. So, one has to take more time to rank up. In fact before one can add a rank now, it is really taking time.

As far as I know, Bitcointalk is run as not-for-profit. Also, as far as I know, it has enough funds to keep running for quite sometime, even if revenue from donations and advertising stop completely. Also, since this forum happens to contain many important posts that are important to Bitcoin's history, (i.e Satosi's posts) I am certain some form of it will survive in archival form.

Sorry if you dislike my grammar i am french so although my english is good it is still not perfect as it is my 2nd language but like all things it is a work in progress.  I don't care about my own personal rank at all because i can do everything i need to do on this forum being a newbie but i found it an interesting point of discussion and wanted to see some others views on it regarding some of my thoughts. Thanks for you input though, i'm always up for some english lessons!

Stop posting textblocks. Break up your sentences. Capitalize your I's.
A banking sector analyst should be smarter than that.. You know English well, you are just being lazy..
Post intelligent responses, engage in discussion, clean up your grammar to a readable format, and you will get your merits..

Why do you care so much about rank now, when you have observed for years that it was easy?
Are you just interested in discussing the forum "suffering consequences"?

that's why i wouldn't work for a company where i "didn't know crap" let alone complain but i don't see how your comparison is actually relevant at all in this scenario either? The chances are small whichever way you look at it, i have since starting this thread gone through a large volume of merited users and 99% of them are not posting anything special or greatly assisting the forum they are merely just posting in the correct place that users that have a lot of merit to give frequent. It doesn't seem balanced at all and i work as an analyst for a job in the banking sector so i am used to reviewing and sorting through data such as this. I think that it will be extremely hard for the majority of people to rank up here and in general it is highly probable that this forum will suffer as a consequence of that. I have a question for you also, do you not think that If bitcointalk refuses to adapt to this increased userbase than it's  ability to survive against competitors and continue to be the favored place for crypto discussion will continue for very long?

Yes, and for me I just have to wait until my activity reach on some required numbers to become jr member or member rank.

You should at least make an effort, not just making an article like posts with quantity > quality  but a well written post/s that may contribute to someone or to the forum itself. Of course, not just copy pasting coz you will be banned.

And my next goal is to reach the required number of actvity/merits to become full member. It might take some time though but I have to try

Common misconception. Your chances of being merited is just small if you don't deserve to be given merit in the first place. It's like being a new bottom-level employee in a company that doesn't know crap but still complains why you're not getting a raise or a promotion.

Lots of people who have already ranked up can be shitposters and that's why the new system is. We need to stop people ranking up with shitposting.
It's possible and lots of member already did. You should check this thread to know who has ranked up after merit system implementation- https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/rupl-ranking-up-pipe-line-of-forum-members-4839318

LoyceV has also achieved 1069 merits till now.

That person has done exceptionally well. Good spotting, i just looked through that users profile a little bit and the user is very active i see. So this proves it is possible but i think it is a rare circumstance seeing people like that and i would be willing to state that there are probably less than a handful of users that are able to do this. As a community based forum don't you think the opportunity should be much more widespread rather than just a few users out of thousands able to gain rank? Interesting that some are able to do this still though, thanks for the information.

Yes it still possible, there's couple members that already got full member or even senior member from low rank. Try surf this meta section and find thread about people that already rank up. One that i know is DdmrDdmr who already earn more than 1k merit and he can wait until the time come to make him become legendary and looks like he start from newbie or jr.member(?).

After signing up to this forum only today i have a few comments to make regarding the ranking system. I have been using crypto for a long period of time and have often used bitcointalk and read links from here but just never bothered to make an account because i didn't see any reason to as i could already read anything i wanted on here without having one. Bitcointalk is the most well known,active and best source of information regarding a variety of crypto currencies and the crypto scene in general but as ranks go, as the title suggests is it possible for people to rank up on here still? If i was to have signed up to here a couple of years ago i could easily have progressed through the ranks but with the strict rules imposed by the regime in charge i think it is virtually impossible to pass the rank of jr member. 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. The chances of being merited even a few times are very small let alone gaining hundreds of merits. Luckily i do not need a high rank for what i chose to use Bitcointalk for so it would mean nothing other than being a status symbol. 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, but when i look through the profiles of most of the higher ranked members i doubt more than a handful of them would be able to progress past the rank of Jr member themselves with the current framework were they not already ranked up. I think Bitcointalk has a responsibility as the largest forum of it's kind to the crypto-users of the world to provide a fair, open, informative and balanced platform for everyone. Although the user base has grown at an incredible speed, hopefully bitcointalk can be adapted to the new climate and continue being there for the community as it was originally intended. 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. Well that's my 5 cents worth, thanks for reading.