This is something I wrote sometime ago. Read it, maybe it will be clear after that.
From 25.01.18 you have to collect Merit point together with the activity points in order to Rank-up. This was done to increase the quality of the posts and to prevent the spam.
Here is the new requirements for ranking up according to the forum Administrator- theymos. This is the copy from the Merit & new rank requirements topic, links you will find in extra info section
"In addition to activity, everyone now has a merit score, and you need both a certain activity level and a certain merit score in order to reach higher member ranks."
For reference see the table above.
I hope you will find your answers in the Q/A section. I'll try to list as many as possible.
Q/A Section: Q: Well, how to collect Merit points?
A: "You get merit points when someone sends you some for one of your posts. Additionally, when someone sends you merit points, half of those points you get as sMerti (sendable Merit) and they can be sent by you to other people."
Q: Who is giving these points?
A: There will be certain people called "merit sources" which will give points to quality posts. They are
57 79 at the moment
I wrote this , see Merit Statistics link below. In addition according your rank and the merit points you have received you can also give to posts you like, so we can say that everyone can give sMerit.
Q: OK but c'mon, how to get Merit points on my posts?
A: There is no recipe for collecting merit but here are some guidelines. The most important is to try to contribute in some way to the forum. Stay away from breaking the forum rules, learn proper English in order to communicate effectively with the community, be helpful and creative, and the last advice is: don't push it too hard, you just gonna stuck on your current rank. Improving yourself will improve your rank too, I'm sure. See the reference on the bottom
Q: How many Merit points I have ?
A: Follow the link Check your Merit, there you can check your points and there will be listed also the points you have received and for which post and the points you have given.
Q: I want to know more about the Merit Points System
A: You have to follow the Merit & new rank requirements link below, it's a long discusion there.
The initial sMerit formula is here, thanks to theymos :
The exact formula was:
yearActivity = activity in the last ~year, max 378
freeMerit = the merit (not sMerit) you started with
modifier =
0.1 if member
0.2 if full member
0.25 if sr member
0.35 if hero
0.4 if legendary
return (yearActivity/378) * modifier * freeMerit
