I think certain areas should be monitored more often like "For Beginners" section and places noobs feel more comfortable talking.. but most merits are given out in Bitcoin related technical topics that the people who need the most merit are least likely to participate in.
It's almost worth giving a merit for that comment, except that I suspect it is intended to be a complaint, and not a vindication of the merit system.
I had to check to see if this forum was still called "Bitcoin Talk", and it looks as if it is. I think it's great that merit is being awarded for posts that help people understand and use Bitcoin. Maybe the polluters, who it seems are the ones chasing merit, should take time to learn about Bitcoin, and then they could use this knowlege to earn money elsewhere. if they aren't capable of doing it here.
Did you view my post as a complaint? That was not my intention... I realize that it is called Bitcoin Talk and that is its primary objective.. but having certain areas of the forum that are more rewarding is an example in my mind of how fairness has to be just eliminated from the equation.. Most complaints are the system isn't fair.. I think the response should be that the system can't be fair... I was simply just trying to list things with the voices of both sides and how the wishes and demands of both sides can't co-exist. You can't have easy ranks without spam. You can't maintain signature rewards if 100,000 users were legendary. You can't have activity be overwritten by merit because of exploitation even if merit should be weighted higher.