You seem to want to change the topic and drag the situation into some kind of mud that was not even a part of your original post.
If members ranked up in accordance with the previous system, then they are not going to be deranked merely because they are not active under the current system, unless theymos makes new poliies regarding those kinds of issues, which does not seem likely.
The issue we have here, or your beef, seems to be how theymos had credited accounts with merits at that time of the new system, which is largely already explained in OP and really has been hashed out already in terms of criticisms that seems to have caused a few additional tweaks, but largely has been considered to be overall a fair balance to transition from the old system to the new system.
I linked you an example of how wrong this approximation have been, almost looks like it was done in this way on purpose.
When someone with less than 250 posts has 250 merits and no merits received in the last 120 days, you can easily comprehend that there is no merit in that, it was simply a privilege bestowed by the admin to previously registered members.
I looked up your example on
https://bpip.org/profile.aspx?p=angryrob, and it appears that he has never received any merits under the new system. So the amount of the merits that he received on January 24, 2018 appears to have been 250, which would have been based on having a minimal activity of 240 at that time... if I am reading OP correctly..
Is there something unusual beyond the subsequent inactivity?
Indeed I will call this the privilege system, not the ranking system from now on
You can call it whatever you want, but if you intend to communicate with other forum members it is good to explain your references, especially if you are not using familiar terms. Furthermore, if you start out in a combative framework, you are likely NOT to get any response because you are just coming off as bitter and disgruntled rather than really attempting to contribute in some kind of meaningful way.
In other words, people might not need to agree with you, but if you are trying to move people to change their minds, they usually are not going to want to get caught up in a bunch of confusion that you seem to want to cause with your seemingly baggage ladden references.
Again, new points that you are making, and bringing up some other issues. Actually, how many merits you need and the policies regarding merits are largely set by admin, so it does not matter what any other members say about it, except you seem to NOT like what they are saying because they are just informing you of the current policy.
Of course, you can choose whether or not to continue as a forum member under the current system and whether you believe the forum to provide value to you.
The admin can do whatever he wants, it is his website, and since I am allowed to post I will say my opinion about it. His calculation was lazy and wrongly interpreted, not accurate with the actual value of an account, gifting scammers an opportunity to act like sharks.
Of course, you are free to have your own conclusions and opinions, but if you don't back them up, I doubt that those opinions and conclusions are going to persuade anyone to agree with you - unless they happen to share ill-backed bitter disgruntledness with you... so I have some difficulties understanding your purpose, if you only want to complain and whine. I would think that trying to persuade with facts and logic would be a better approach, but that remains your choice, as you already indicated.
Again, it does not appear that the merit system was created to punish or burden all new member, but instead as a means to lessen the farming of accounts and shit/spam posting. So your claims seem to go a bit far in terms of what you are proclaiming the merit system policies to be causing.
What's the purpose of farming accounts? To scam when they become established.
How do you prevent being scammed? By using an escrow or middleman service.
Again, you seem to be going into another topic. I was merely referring to what seemed to have been part of the motivation to establish merits for ranking up. You may have to read through this thread and become a bit more informed about what you are attempting to criticize, if you don't even seem to understand what motivated the system that you are criticizing to get put in place..
Yet, you can't find a single mention of an escrow or middleman service in the marketplace, ex. (Currency Exchange section)
https://i.gyazo.com/0c35adda069d7af38f11e9088f5ac999.pngThis forms a sea, where sharks(gifted members) can act on the best prey, they wait for the right person to add on skype and go all in/exit scam, because they didn't earn any merit they inherited the privilege...so they got a worthy account for free.
I am not embedded in the life of scouting out various forms of membership abuse and ways to make money with forum accounts, so probably some other member will need to chime in about your points that seem to be deviating quite a lot from the topic of this thread..and what seemed to had been your original point(s).