I just created the
chart that shows
how many forum users ranked up to higher positions since the day the merit system was introduced, and I was quite shocked to see the
curve that shows how many Jr. Members ranked up to Member position compared to other ranks:
Please note that these ranks are based on the merit amount regardless of the current activity.According to these statistics, almost
4 thousand (!) users received 10 merits and ranked up to Member position, and
only 222 users earned 100 merits and reached a Full Member position.
I calculated the
ratio of ranked up users:
- 50 (users who ranked up to Hero Member) / 16 (users who ranked up to Legendary) = 3.12
- 108 (users who ranked up to Sr. Member) / 50 (users who ranked up to Hero Member) = 2.16
- 222 (users who ranked up to Full Member) / 108 (users who ranked up to Sr. Member) = 2.05
- 3957 (users who ranked up to Member) / 222 (users who ranked up to Full Member) = 17.82 (!)
In general, a Member account does not
significantly differ from a Full Member account. Of course, Full Member can wear an avatar and a
colored signature, but both of these accounts have the same font size and
clickable links in their signatures.
In addition, if Members are rewarded with 1 stake in the signature campaigns, Full Members are
typically rewarded only with 1.5 or 2 stakes. Account farmers take this disproportion into consideration and send
exactly 10 merits to the alt accounts they farm.
Therefore, I propose to
enhance the requirements for ranking up to Member position. In my opinion, Jr. Member must earn, for example,
40 20 merits in order to become a Member. Members who do not have
40 20 merits should be demoted to Jr. Members. As a variant, the required merit score can be
gradually increased over several months.
This post has been slightly edited. Comments are appreciated.