I'm waiting for "28 days after" topics

I cannot  compare what is now with what was before, because I was member of the forum just for some days prior to the implementation of merit points.
However, just by looking at the meta forum, I see that lots and lots of people make topics here in hope of getting some points.
Plenty of them are exactly about merit points (praising or hating the system) ... erm not plenty ... almost all of them.
Then there are the report topics: reports for merit trading, reports for copy/paste, reports for anything. Were they here before?
If not, then they are again a form of hunting merit points by hunting people. But maybe I am wrong about this.