If the goal was to increase the level of the discussions, I feel like it's working well. I'm seeing a lot more well-thought out posts, and more people seem to be genuinely trying. It also penalizes account farming, because they will have to try to create quality posts for multiple accounts to rank up.
However, it also seems to have created a rank-up barrier for regular users, which I don't think was intended. Here's what theymos had to say about it on another thread:
I'll see how things are in a month or two and think about it. Basically, the "ideal new user" should be able to easily and without any particular "merit farming" be able to far exceed the merit requirements; for them, activity should be the limiting factor. If this is not achievable, then I absolutely will make tweaks until that goal is reached. But it's too early to say at this point.
I did consider a 1-point requirement for Member when designing the system, but I thought it might be too easy. We'll see.
I bolded a part for emphasis. The scenario he described clearly isn't happening at the moment, but let's just give it time. He's willing to make adjustments as well, so I'm sure this wouldn't be a problem for newer users in the long run.
