I have realized that with the advent of new merit system, most of the established members are hoarding Smerits. I have also came across various posts on other forums in which they are selling merits. IMHO all this is leading to the over all quality decay of this prestigious forum.
Users are allowed to spend their smerit in whichever post they want; if they don't see something worth meriting, you can't force them to do so. Merit selling is ilegal in this forum, so if a user is caught doing so, that user will be banned (if I recall the rules correctly). The quality of the forum hasn't decayed, it did rather improve when merit system was implemented
Existing lower rank members are also feeling 'hit the wall' kind of situation and not putting enough efforts in their posts
And what do they expect if "they don't put enough effort in their posts"?
various new members are migrating to other forums where it is much more easier to rank up
I'm glad to hear that, less spammers around
There has to a some way to address this issue.
Yes, there is an issue, but it has nothing to do with the forum; but with the users of it. The point of using a forum is to share ideas, get to know people interested in the same things you are, and to learn.
Users shouldn't join a forum only to rank up.
IMHO merit system was not at all needed in the very first place because we have trust system already.
Implementing the merit system was something necessary; and this has been already discussed in thousands of threads. Apart from that, you are mixing two systems with different aims; trust system lets us know whether a user is to be trusted (while trading), it has nothing to do with spam or quality content. Merit system, on the other hand, is designed to reward users posting informative, and quality posts.