As I said in my previous posts, I totally agree with you. Merit system which highly correlated with ranking system is good, but it has drawbacks. And this one partially is a system of luck, of chance, of randomized generosity. Lower users have to almost totally or partially depend on others to be upgraded. Therefore it should be adjusted a little bit.
Merit system should include two parts:
1. One part for users effort for themselves. Increasing their merit points weekly, monthly by a certain number of merit points, such as 2,5 merit points per month, etc. in a way extremely stricter than maximum activities monthly. Final merit points per month should be discussed more.
2. Merit points they can get from others who appreciated their posts which are both useful and high-quality.
Two parts will sum up users' total merit points.
Thanks for the discussion and I appreciate your point of view. Just one final point - your first part is already achieved by the Activity system. It's based on your own effort, you get max 14 points in 2 weeks, etc etc. So in essence, the two parts you mention just described what the current system offers.