Abusers of the merit system could be fined with negative merit ( say -50) that would be a disincentive to sell merit ( should be a banning offence imho ), ot to abuse the system.
Some of us try to ( and have ) awarded our sMerit to post in the beginners forum.
Gatekeeping is the main purpose of the merit system. Without making good posts, the gate to higher ranks should be kept closed.
Spamming could be reduced if new members had to make their first posts on an introductory board, and tell us a bit about themselves.
Thank you for your response and I agree with you in some of your points. An introductory post would be great and would lead to a better picture "who" is talking there and what his/her goal is on this forum.
But I disagree with the gatekeeping argument. Why should only a few decide which content is good and which is "not worthy enough". Why not giving out a portion of Merit to every account older than 3-6 months and let the masses decide?