I am two weeks away to be a Full Member, but now I'll have to collect 90 merit to deserve this rank. I'm a bit confused but I totally understand the system. I hope that now the forum will be with less shitposts.
Personally, I will not change my manner to participate here. I'll continue to post quality messages. If I get merit points : good ! If I don't get them, it's not a biiiiig deal, I'll wait. And I will give my sMerits without being manipulative. I hope that everyone will think like me. Let's be positive guys.
I noticed a lot of accounts with exactly the right amount of merit, and exactly the right amount of posts, full member, about a year old or so. A hundred merit is almost one per post, so I click on posts an it's just a sea of good luck on your project, and this is amazing, can't wait till the changes are implemented, etc. It feels like someone is manufacturing these for signature value. You have 12 merit, I have 2 merit, most of my posts are paragraphs with lots of thought put into it, so their accounts are considered of higher quality. I don't know what is the harm of just letting everyone have a sick signature, and than when advertisers buy signature campaigns they can pick based on some quality attributes, length of posts, merit score, rank, etc. This way everyone can link something they are passionate about, your favorite dice site, new coin, etc. I'm not too upset by it, would be cool to put a nice banner up for something, but I know for a fact I will never ever hit 100 merit, simply impossible. Doesn't matter how many posts and how good they are, it will never happen.
Edit: I see now new people can buy copper and have images, that's pretty cool, I can just do that if I really need a banner.