I think I 'm going to avoid the Meta section for a month or two, so tired with people crying and all the topics created about merit, merit this, merit that
Oh, I hear you there. Nevertheless, I myself have been spending
more time in Meta, at the expense of other things. The merit system has great promise as new hope for the forum. The earliest stages are the most critical, as precedents are set and a culture develops around it. It could be poisoned and irreparably corrupted at this stage—for example, if a precedent were set for social acceptability of begging. Or it could be strongly established and wound with social conventions which prohibit such corruption. The difference is up to us.
The most important time to pay attention to the merit system is
now, even if it means suffering through a profusion of “merit blah blah merit blah” threads. The whining may seem interminable; but it will indeed terminate, if things go right. By the time the merit system ceases to be a “hot issue” and discussion thereof dies down, we will have passed the critical early-stage point of determining what the merits system will mean in the future.
OP here is evidence that actmyname is doing a superlative job of protecting the merit system in its infancy, helping to nurture its growth, and setting the right precedents for future expectations.
Yes, I myself will be spending some more time in Meta for awhile.
Better yet be Godlike and delete this thread out of existence and ban me! 
