Bad image labeling is still in place, if you are a scammer, no matter how many merit points you have. some body like Quickseller fluent and with a good post quality deserves to receive merits for his post quality, but you should avoid trading with him.

I only had 88 smerits a.k.a a lowlife beggar.
Sent 5 to Lauda because I learned something from her post.
Sent 3 to Lutpin because a very good point was made in his post.
Sent 10 to a random member because I couldn't say what he said any better.

I only had 22 so what does that make me?

I like the system much more than when it was first suggested. My only reservation is that for it to work well the merit sources will have to put a lot of effort into rewarding posts that deserve it. We'll have to wait and see how it works out, but there is a danger the whole thing could stagnate when the novelty wears off.

im in the same boat about to rank up to Senior.... so yes it sucks for us in the short term .. but it will make the community better
now i need to make 140 merit haha lets do this thing... and you need to make 90 merit for Full Member even if you have enough activity

"For current members, your initial merit score is equal to the minimum required to your rank"

Unfortunately, have to admit it is another one of those steps heavily skewed in favor of early adopters.

yes because a great way to help the community is helping new members... but those new members have no Merit to pay your efforts for helping them out.. Which kind of defeats the purpose ?? But it works just for quality posts in general , but i think helping newer members should reward something in this system imo...

Honestly, this is so much better than reporting. And everyone has instant visual feedback.
(I'll keep reporting, but something like this was needed)

Early adpoters == those users, that assumably have been writing good posts for years already and get some merit as reward for those now?

Sources monitor eg the Beginners&Help section and reward those helping out newcommers. Problem solved.

The merit system got implemented like 10 hours ago. So expect different kinds of reactions. Either negative or positive, those reactions will add to the improvements of this system.

We will see how it goes for the coming days.

How about giving incentives to an active member who is always giving his her sMerits to quality posts. Like +1 Merit for every 50 sMerits given. So a member will not only make quality posts, he she will also read and give sMerits to those who deserve it.

Well how much you get depends on the mood of the forum members too. In some forums you can get easier as it is faster to use.
Bitcointalk is a little bit slower forum for use so I don't expect many merit points, but it definitely brings out the quality.
I hope that need for quality will not bring out unnatural quality when someone tries to force the quality when there's none.

Fair enough that you are attempting to figure out the new system, and I understand how there could be a bit of frustration by the whole thing, and even seeming like starting over, in some regards, especially if you are half way through a rank, but then you only get awarded the minimum merit for that rank - as if you just got promoted to that level.



o.k.  So you are acknowledging that there is more than one purpose for merit.  Yes, we can concede that Legendary members no longer need to rank up; however, they can be rewarded for good work, and they can also give away smerit after they receive merit, then they receive  .5 smerit that they can give to someone else.



I am sure that we are going to be seeing how this plays out, and I doubt that Theymos is locked into this situation if he concludes that it is not working out as planned - but in any event, you seem to only be focusing on the ranking up aspect.. which you already concede is only part of the new smerits system.