I agree with you and plenty here already said about the forum not being decentralize which is like opposite of the ideaa we support with the cryptocurrency and its decentralization. But you have to understand that we are joining a forum with admins & moderators. We have to respect the rules and the system they implement which I agree that it's like being controlled by government. I personally do not like it and want the way it was before. But I want to be a member here and engage more in the community so i will try my best to stay and embrace the system. You actually have the option to stay and try your best to post that contributes to the community or just walk away. You do not need to be high ranked to support the idea behind cryptocurrency and you also do not need to be a member here to learn and share about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Now if you are here to rank up I think it is just right to follow the rules no one forces as to be here. Do not worry about your merit, there's already a lot of ways on how to earn merits. Few of the high ranked members already made threads that gives chances to us to get merits and there's also contests if you just read and search you'll find there's plenty out there.