Merit is indeed a positive thing in this forum and very welcome to see it and will definetelly help with the quality.
I think though that it would be fairer to start everyone's merit not with the required merit for their RANK (as it did)
but by interpolating their post count between their required merit and the next RANK's required merit
because right now someone just a few posts away from next rank is treated as if they have just entered their RANK
That's it. Unfair distribution of merits for different users at the same rank of level but have very different number of activities. Additionally, merit system should be adjusted for both internal and external efforts of each users. 50% merits they can earn by themselves, and 50% from others help. It will be good by doing that way.