I was not around when BCT was deemed to be a great forum and the place to be.  I was not having any issue with it since I joined but apparently many of the old timers thought it was going down the shitter with posts and campaigns.  If you have those feelings, that is definitely ok and your right to do so but don't always bash someone because they may not speak the best English or something else.  Those are truly the posts that I see as shit posts and pointless.  Just because someone is not of the "rank" you are does not make you any better than them.  Just because English may not be their first language or their grammar is not the greatest, dont just jump right on bashing them.  I can bet more than half of these "ranked" individuals would not say shit to that same person in public.

As far as the merit system...some people like it and others dont.  We just need to learn to embrace it as I dont see it going anywhere.  Work on making a better post and you might get rewarded...and then again, you might not because sometimes it is who you know, not what you know or how "qualitative" your post may be.