Well I don't know wheather someone has asked this before or not but as well all know that one day all the sMerits will get over since only half of the Merit sent gets converted into sMerit , so what will be the next step to get them back? How will you refill the sMerits ?
Our merit wont be refilled per month, only certain people called 'sources' that have their sMerit refilled per month basis. Currently we have 57 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 11975 sMerit per 30 days and with that number can be used, i guess it is enough to rank up worthy users of jr. member to member rank. So dont be discouraged by the number of it, try to make a quality things and you will earn some. You can read it here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;statsThe problem is... you have to get noticed by them. So posting 2-3 good quality posts every day won't help and spamming every thread with short posts won't help either.
So what's left? IMHO you've got to make Bitcointalk your main employment if you care about rank.
Personally I have some
more-than-standard free time the last days and I can be active in the forums, but I have more questions than answers to give! Not really a chance to reach member status that way. I belive that my fair rank with my knowledge, activity etc should be Member, not Jr. Member nor above Member. Yet I'll have to probably wait like 6 months to reach Member. Yes, I only care for my rank because of signature campaigns, but what's wrong with being paid for doing marketing? It's like accusing an actor for advertising a product he might not be using IRL.