I know I'll probably get a lot of hate for this, but I'm going to post it anyway.
I agree that the merit system has done wonders for the forum, it essentially acts as a mesh through which only the worthy can squeeze through and make it to the upper user ranks and hence better benefit from being a member on this platform. However, the system doesn't account for those who made it to the upper ranks before the merit system was introduced, and hence have bypassed a great filtering system that may have prevented them reaching their current rank.
I'm sure most of you have seen a few Sr/Hero/Legendary members that still continue to contribute nothing to the forum, or simply spam the forum with referral links, copy-pasted posts or otherwise low quality responses. Currently, a member will require an additional 90 merit to reach Full member, the rank at which people would assume you've at least got the basics of around things operate around here. However I suspect that if you check the amount of merit earned by Sr members+, probably less than 10% would have achieved this amount of merit since the introduction of the merit system over a month ago.
Why should members who happened to register before the introduction of the new system be immune to the difficulties faced by new members? I would even go as far as to suggest that the merit system is almost completely useless once you reach Hero rank, as there is not much difference to make acquiring another 500 merit to go from Hero > Legendary worth it. Once you get to legendary it is definitely useless, as there is no end reward, maybe we should at least get an extra coin or something for the additional merit.
I would suggest a way to resolve this would be to put upper level users on a probation system where they have to gain a certain number of merit over the probation period to maintain their rank, otherwise they get demoted. Also, I would also suggest creating an additional tier of user above Legendary that has additional privileges such as Ultimate or Diamond users at 1500 merit, something to give the old users something to strive towards. I know a probation period for all upper level members would probably cause a big uproar, but I do believe it would be in the best interest of the forum.
Or you could simply implement a minimum merit/month feature to maintain your current rank, if you don't earn a certain amount of merit within the month you drop to the previous user level, this might ensure that even upper level users continue to contribute to the forum, or risk losing their rank. I would be happy to participate in such a scheme as I believe it would force me to focus more about what I write, and how to best help the community.
Opinions are welcome
Sorry for the essay.
