Merit sucks. I've been studying threads and posts and now at this point it's obvious that people don't award merit to others for good posts, they reward it because they know each other on here. Very sad system. It needs to be trashed or redone.
I'm not sure I would go as far as that, but there are certainly some distortions in the awarding of merit points. Whilst I was posting about the merit system, I picked up 38 points fairly quickly. As soon as I stopped, and began starting threads about the Bitcoin system, and posting in such threads, I haven't received one merit point. This may be that my posts are rubbish, or it may be that the forum priorities are now involved with crypto bounties, and the increasing of the size of sig spammers advertising potential.
Exactly forum priorities are now involved with crypto bounties and very few people care giving merit on regular threads in bitcoin system or discussion.