Of course, merit is very helpful in this forum. Because of the Merit, all of the members became careful and much constructive to what he/she want to comment. Merit gives more quality post from participants/members.
I agree, Merit system is an awesome way to improve the forums from shit posters. A lot of members, to not say all of them try hardly to improve their quality posts to get some merit points as it is required for ranking up. I think more than 60% of shitposters improve their posts due to the system, especially low ranks members. I think theymos choose the right system to improve this forum, he is very clever.