However, I have observed that merit now play a significant roll for anyone who want to join a good paying signature campaign. Therefore acquiring merits can take a new dimension.
Again, climbing up the rank is very important. And you definitely need merit points to move from one rank to the other.
The forum does not give a criteria for what constitute a quality post worthy of a merit. So a more liberal board can be having more merits than others. And for a local boards, there can be better expression of ideas and taught than one who is struggling with English.
At the moment I am just speeding to catch up with the forum again.
The merit system is not moderated where you can send and earn on any post, but of course when you spend it on unqualified posts, people may accuse you of abusing the merit system. Quality posts depend on how you rate other users' posts based on your interpretation of whether you want to do it objectively or subjectively.