In recent years, it seems that a lot of people have been making low-value posts just to get paid. To address this, I've added a merit "cost" to posting: from this point forward, for every 15 characters you post, you will lose one Merit point. This should eliminate any incentive to make low-value posts.
That's a great update, it will force members to make 15+ character posts, and hence will increase the post quality as well, I know sometimes a member have to reply someone in lesser words, but this update will also motivate them to add more words, it will save them some merit points and more words into the post is always a good thing, as it makes sure that other members understand it well.
Any halfway-decent poster should be able to earn much more merit than they lose due to the penalty. But I recognize that some good posts are occasionally overlooked. So to counterbalance the penalty, I also added a system whereby you will earn a bit of merit just by reading posts. If you want to write a lot, you'd better do some reading as well!
That's quite new, I mean how do you, or someone, or anyone giving merit to the reader? How a person would know he has read a lot and deserves a merit, haha, I have seen some people writing long posts, like JJG, hehe, I think anyone replying to him would be making good merits hehe. Anyway, this is a good update, I liked it, and I will like it more when experience it.
For both the penalty and the bonus, this applies only to your merit score, and does not affect sendable merit (sMerit).
So, if one made less than 15 characters post he will lose points, and to recover them they have to read more. Right.
Edit: OMG I thought its real, hehe, I didn't realize its 1st April. I actually saw the post and start writing, didn't saw other member's posts. silly.