I see your point OP, getting 1 merit for newbie is a challenge and we must leave that way for the starters to earn recognition and acknowledgement from the merit source. However, once they earn merit it will just leave like that stuck up with the current rank. I have seen some Jr. member good posters in the forum and that are active in meta section that does always contribute their valuable ideas every time a newbie posted a thread to earn merit. Those users must be motivated to share more on their ideas by awarding merit probably or some sort of encouragement through replies.

Only 1 merit and 30 activity needed for a newbie to rank up to a jr. member rank. But, after ranking up to jr. member later on the problem in getting another 10 merit to rank up to member would be harder. I was just lucky that merit source has provided me enough merit to rank up to member. But then, I stuck in this rank. Anyway, being a member is already enough to be part of the forum but it is more good when I could wear that Avatar one day.