I think the introduction of this system was a good decision since many people are way too eager to rank up and sometimes they post just for the sake of posting without really feeling the need to add something to the discussion. At the same time though I think this system is not very fair to new members. Newbies and Jr. Members are often treated poorly and not taken seriously, not many people will ever consider giving merit to a Newbie for example. I recently discovered the crypto community and now I'm here to stay so this thing won't affect me too much but from what I've seen merits are not always given fairly