See, I have observed a lot of new members are not worried because of their issue that they are have trouble ranking up. They are worried that why senior members got the privilege and had no such requirements. If there is an additional requirement like getting some merits per year to retaining the current rank, will you be happy ? Note that this will not make things easier for you or other new members. Between all this fight we are forgetting the reason why the merit system was introduced. It was needed to stop or say reduce the spam here. Why are we not content with the stats showing that it has achieved that purpose to some extent.