You can read them:
Forum ranks/positions/badges (What do those shiny coins under my name mean?)Newbies - Read before postingHistory of bitcointalk.org's rank systemAdmin does not want to allocate proportional merits per activity.
I agree with this approach. I considered giving merit proportional to activity, but I decided not to because doing so would probably give far more undeserved merit than deserved merit in total. But undoubtedly some people got screwed by this, and if they have decent posts, by all means, give them the 250 or 500 merit that they need to rank-up.
A lot of recent as well as previous ranked member has zero knowledge on bitcoin. It's annoying to see people with zero knowledge on bitcoin is also growing up to the next rank, even with the new rank system "merit". What will be your answer if someone newbie ask you for technical support but you can't assist him because you don't know even though you are a Hero/ Legendary member?
They ranked up because they are good users, not because they are good bitcoin experts.
So, if you don't like it, why did not make a proposal to lock all boards/ child boards that do not relate to bitcoin?
Forum created initially as a forum for bitcoin, but over years it has expanded to altcoins, and become a biggest forum in crypto currencies, not only bitcoin.
People are all welcome here if they are good users, so they must not be decent bitcoin expert or have decent knowledge on bitcoin to be here, as good members.
As a member of the forum, you are surrounded by legends; phenomenal successes and catastrophic failures.
This forum exists to provide a platform for the free (but ordered) exchange of ideas. If you have an idea to express, then it is probably possible to do it here as long as you follow the rules.