if this system is here to stop people trying to climb the scale up, then it is an absolute success.
It probably is. It is essentially freezing the rankings.
you nailed it : it will FREEZE rankings.
Yes, it's a freeze. I'm a full member, and I got 5 sMerits. Suppose I send them to someone, but that user will get only 2.5 sMerits. Only 2 are spendable, because, as I understand, sending fractions is not allowed. The next will get 1 point, and the next will get nothing (0.5 is not spendable). So this system will deplete in no time. There will be "merit sources", but the amount they will get is very low. Only a few chosen ones will get the points. The rank requirements are so ridiculously high that they are essentially unattainable.
what the admin doesn't get, is that if the majority of people are still posting directly or non- directly, to get a better ranking.
Right. Other reasons to post, like to get and to provide help and for reward in signature campaigns, are still there, but there is actually no incentive to make high-quality posts.
when the majority will be tired of these too harsh rules or whatever, they simply lose patience and move somewhere else.
if theymos has a made a full life / earning from the forum, he has to understand, not everybody here is in such situation.
and people may not be willing to farm so hard to get some small and incredibly slow reward.
if i was about to launch a new crypto i would not waste so much time and energy on this forum anymore, and i'm sure tons of new people might start to think this way.
discouraging is easy especially when better alternatives exists.
just like bitcoin, this forum is aging, and sooner or later it will get replaced by some other community.
this is very sad, but such rules might make the end of this forum sooner than later.
This may happen. There will be less spam, but there will be also much less new users potentially interested in an ICO or a new coin.