Yes, and in addition I would say that a creative, informative post is still exactly that--it benefits the community.  Whether someone gets a merit point for it or not is secondary.  I think lower-ranked members need to start facing up to the reality that it's going to take a lot longer to rank up now, and that not all of their posts (or any, for that matter) are going to be rewarded with merit.  These people who are fretting about a lack of reward for all their hard work--these are the ones I envision who would go back to shitposting once they hit legendary and no longer needed to earn merits.

Vod is definitely right.  We all need to give the system a chance to play itself out, and people need to realize that this forum isn't like it was a month ago with respect to ranking up.  The forum has had a huge problem with spam and garbage posts, and as frustrating as it is to newbies, this system is a(n overdue) response to that.