I think that you are confusing some information in the Op that says that Theymos had set up the smerts in such a way that it drew from your level of activity in the past year and your current rank, and if you were active in the last year you could perhaps earn the maximum, which would not be greater than half of your merit. 

Just take myself for example, I believe that I was active in every activity period in the last year, so I earned 14 activity points every two weeks, and I was awarded 1,000 merits based on my being legendary; however, I only received 200 smerits (which would be 1/5 of my merit count).  I don't know how the ratios might differ from person to person, but maybe Theymos was overstating the case a little bit when he said that you would receive smerits amounting to no more than half of your merits, when likely a more accurate reflection would be that even the most active members were likely only receiving about 1/5 or perhaps less if you were less active in the past year?

So, I am presuming that you did not lose 4 smerits, and you likely only had 1 smerit in your total smerit bank at the time that this new system was implemented. 

i very highly doubt itll happen like that imo.... people will help newbies and newcomers with advice and probably get 1 merit every 10-20 times they give help.... to get 100 merit points it will take months... Imo i like the system but I think people that were about to rank up shouldve had more base Merit to start then people who just got the rank, only makes sense imo... A fair system wouldve been you get as much merit as your activity to start then you need the certain amount after that to rank up .... 150 merit when im 2 weeks away from senior member is very unfair imo, it will take like half a year when i was 14 days away, being a normal member on the forum.... im sure other people have the same thoughts, and all the people who are Hero member+ are happy because theyre already past that lol, I like how the forum is trying to change and improve no doubt but some tinkering should be made i think, well see what happens... or everybody should be given merit for a certain amount of posts that are over 100 words or something

Can someone here kindly tell me how do I give a merit? I would also like to contribute to good posters in my way of saying thank you to the value they give and also the knowledge they impart to us on a daily basis. I do not know where the merit giving button is. 

I do like this new system of ranking up. It will certainly help in stopping spam, and maybe even alt accounts. Although some people might go more aggressive and make multiple accounts to cross merit their posts and rank up. Other thing that is sure to happen is BCT members creating telegram groups to cross merit each other. This system is pretty much like Steemit, and will certainly be abused. Higher ranks means more money and so money grabbers will surely unite! I merit you, you merit me. That's what gonna happen.

Clearly higher ranked members have got a huge relief here. They won't have to go through the struggling period!!

As for me, I will be meriting good posts made by lower ranked members so that they can also climb the ranks. The only issue is that "high-quality post" is a very subjective topic. What is a high quality post? Is it a post with lots of expertise and 100% correct English/local language (in local board)? Is it a post with 1000+ words? Is it a post made by a member with all green trust? If these things make up for a high quality post then I guess most members will never rank up, which might be very disappointing for many members as most of them (including me) are not crypto experts, but crypto enthusiasts.

So overall, I think the intention behind merit system is very good, but it will now create a new class of Bitcointalk members, known as merit farmers! No system is perfect and I hope the benefits of this system outweigh its drawbacks.

Wow, I received two merits (I'm pretty surprised) from two unknown members, so it seems that it's possible to grow (now, I only need 88 to become full member...)

Btw, there is an aspect that - although mentioned somewhere by theymos - it seems that it wasn't discussed enough.

I mean, I received TWO sMerits: this produces TWO more Merits, but I can give only ONE sMerits. If I give this sMerit to someone, my sMerits go down by one, but I keep all my Merits.
Well, I already have a little headache, but I understand.
But... this means that the global quantity of sMerits decreases costantly, and IMHO, very fast.

Let's do some math: a Legendary has 1000 sMerits, for example. He is very generous and gives - to ten members he appreciates very much - 100 sMerits to each one. Now, they have grown up by 100 Merit, but they only have 50 sMerits to give away. In this passage, 500 sMerits simply disappeared and the global mass is 500 sMerits less!

If they do the same, at the next passage there will be only 250, then 125,... the quantity will tend to zero very fast.

If this happens on global scale very soon there won't be any sMerit to give; I understand that there is a kind of monthly mining, but it can replace all what is lost: I understand that the system started with 600.000 sMerits: well, if all sMerits are given, they become 300.000, then 150.000...
How could they be replaced by a 8.000 sMerits from mining?

If the sMerit was a coin, this could be an deflaction system to create scarsity, and the value os a sMerit will grow constantly: the last coin will have the value of the starting global valutary mass.
In our case, I can't figure what will happen so I'm very curios.

Sincerely, I've the feeling that the system will crash very fast (or, better, it will stall: nobody will receive any merit) , but - as I'm pretty sure the this aspect was analyzed from the creators of the system - may be there is something I don't grasp.

Let me know if I'm wrong.

I thought I have read clearly that only quality posts should be given merits, why am I seeing 1-2 liner post that have been merited. Doesn't mean you agree to their reply its already of quality? If that's the case this new system is getting really amusing. We'll see how this goes, good luck to us all.

That is not a good idea in my opinion. Basically i agree on why did theymos didn't add the demerit function. We have a report to moderator option that we could use if we ever saw someone trying to post a garbage. Deleting someones post is basically the job of the mods. Allowing users to delete posts without due process will be so unethical tho. Will you allow someone to discredit your post without having a due process? Obviously not

exactly what im saying...

Length != Quality

Sometimes the ability to convey a point concisely is far more important than an essay that fails to deliver any meaning. Merit is in the eye of the beholder, I'm sure the sources will each have a slightly different interpretation as to what that is. In my eyes making a positive contribution to the forum and Bitcoin community is equally important as technical knowledge.

Earn merit is harder than earn activity. I think the merit point should be reduced a little.
Maybe, merit point required for ranked-up is 50% from activity point is more fair.