Begging for merit should actually just be banned outright. In fact, a name and shame thread so others can permablock them also would be something I would check on a regular basis.

For those seeing posts that are going unrewarded - I thought there was a 'merit source' option. Ie if you are constantly seeing unrewarded posts... collect 10 of them and post them into a section on the Meta board. If a mod checks and agrees that you - I think they award those users for you?? That's how I read it anyway.

And my 2 cents again on the whole merit system - for now, if you are dreaming of having merit and you don't have it or can't get it - then the hardship is something you will need to make peace with. Use the forum for its intended purpose of spreading quality information about topics of interest rather than a way to rank up and cream easy crypto from ICO bounties. Because lets face it, no one would be crying this much if its not because you've just seen your golden goose get run over.

At the end of the day - I'm handling it by just assuming ranking has gone Legacy and the achievement is no longer obtainable. My posting frequency or quality isn't going to change because of it. If anything, apart from the merit drama - I probably wouldn't be saying much at all lol.