The merit system is a new update that is really useful to avoid spamers who want to rank up easily for campaigns. Based on what I have read, this merit system is necessary to rank up. To be a jr.member you do not need any merit points yet but to get a member rank you must tied up you activities to at least 10 merit points. I'm still confused on how this will going to work because not all can provide a merit points but I'm sure this update is for good.