The merit system is great and all, it defiently helped with reducing the shitposting and spam threads, but the merit requiremnts to rank up is where the problem lies, in the low ranks it is understandable but at a certain point where you need 250 and 500 merits to rank up it is too much, the sense of progress that poeople had is practiculy gone, the thing that keeps you coming back to post and increase your activity has vanished, at a certain point you feel like you are stuck and have zero motivation because even if you write good quality pots no one is going to take the time and read it because you are nobudy.
That's not quite true. Don't try to chase merits, write posts just for merit and forcing yourself. They'll always turn out really forced and it's noticeable. Stick to topics you know and don't expect to get merits on every other post, you're not nullius. Just compare his posts and the majority of other peoples posts.
It's not work or mandatory to earn a certain amount of merits in a month, relax.
the thing that keeps you coming back to post and increase your activity has vanished, at a certain point you feel like you are stuck and have zero motivation because even if you write good quality pots no one is going to take the time and read it because you are nobudy.
I don't think you people understand ranks as a concept. Think of it like this: You're doing your thing, helping newbies out, giving advice on wallets and exchanges, advice on alt-coin investing,etc... and over time, you'll get better at any specific field and therefore write more helpful, meritable posts. Ranks are there to signify your improvement and if you're not improving, you'll not rank up. Pretty simple.