If it does nothing then why do you bother ? You talk about the orginal purpose of the forum, which merit is no part of, so why give it much thoughts if you think it is not important, let those who value it worry about it.
Think back to the first merit you earnt and think of the dopamine rush you got. I know this is something that can set a bounty hunter onto the right track of engaging more with the forum and looking beyond the bounties that come up all the time (alright I like altcoins as they give an idea as to what bitcoin could potentially become or where bitcoin fails). My issue is I'm annoyed at the sheep and equally the people who give a ton of merits to a one line joke.
Yes there are tons of valuable information in this forum, but you can't force everybody to go look for them, some people prefer the content of meta , some exclusively post memes in the WO mega thread, why do you think that everyone has to think the way you do? Sorry nothing personal against you, i know you are a great tech guy and it is hard to find members at your level, not having received so much merit does not change that fact.
Nothing from my post should've been taken personally and I'm sorry if it was. I was just trying to give an example of my frustration in what goes on on this forum now since the merit system has been introduced.
I don't believe everyone should reside in one particular place in the forum. The beginners board is a good place for people to start and branch out from. I've only recently noticed that part of this forum too after jet cash pointed it out to me, I was as ignorant as most here for not trying to look through other sections that might be of interest.
Also another thing regarding the great posts that go unmerited, there are a dozen of topics made just for that, yet only a few good posts are pointed out, i spend a good amount of time looking for those posts and i usually end up meriting half-good posts because i don't agree with Hodling merit, merit is not a certificate for "bitcoin experts " it was meant to stop spammers from ranking up and that is all about it.
I'm glad you take your time to look for semi decent posts to merit because it's actually what the system is for.
It's a way to stop spammers ranking up but also a way to show those who do rank up how valued they are to the community (which potentially resides in meta so it makes sense why more merits are given here).
Merit sources need to frequent threads like that more often and we need a way to get people to merit posts that are of a lower value (especially merit sources). I've been known in the past to message ones with a link to thee thread to suggest they take a look at some of the posts there as there are points where I feel I need to intervene.