As the new Requirements develop by the forum, it is really a pain. Having a Rank up is very difficult now. You nee activity, post and merit to rank up. those merit system is subjective (IMO) anyone can give a merit to someone, but as i round on the forum few are giving about it. They say you need a quality post that can contribute to the forum. I also see that Joel jantsen are having some merit distribution campaign where he gives merit to newbies for finding an alt. In other hand, this merit system avoid those people who rank up by spamming and maintain the quality post of each members.