I'm concerned about the merit-based system. Sure, in the first few days everyone's throwing around merit points (I have). But pretty soon people won't use very many merit points at all - because it's not really worth checking to see if you have any sMerits left.

Maybe a better way to do it would be to have a FB "like" button so everyone can see which comments are worthwhile (even though some will be spammers). And if you have sMerit available they'll be credited.

That way, people will be in the habit of clicking "like" to designate good posts, instead of the current system which will quickly get ignored... until someone is ready to level up.