in a way this system is good to prevent spam. but i would make some changes to this system. like stated in another post above,  i also think that is hard to achieve the merit ranks, especially for the newbies. i would bet that an old member would give more merit to older members than to newbies. this is basic psychology and also in the endgame, a older member will expect more merit from an older member then from a newbie. why? simple. a full member has lets say 200 merit and 100 merit to give a way. a newbie has 10merit and 5 merit to give away. so what do you think of whom you will have greater chances to receive merit?

and btw this is not my original account. my original sr. member account got hacked so now I am a junior