If these users don't need anything else and just want to hang out in the alt sections they can still do that without merits. Nobody is getting banned for not having merits.
But I have a feeling that they do need something else... am I right?
Generally others takes ranks as measure of how trustable the person is, its impact their ability to conduct certain trades at marketplace and also in their general interaction with other as higher rank members which usually regarded higher rank member as more trustable and more likely to not doing something that breach the forum rules.
I see that whenever low rank member open a topic he will be bombarded with abusive response, get ignored and in some cases get red trust from higher rank member no matter how good his suggestion is, but when high ranking member open a topic which already opened by others and suggest something that totally useless and impractical, I see that everyone just agreeing to it just because they see it is posted by high ranking member. When low rank members disagree, they get bashed.
So there is reason in part of lower rank members to want to rank up.
Why don't just remove ranking system and merit system all together if its serve no purpose and will not prevent anyone from posting or whatever, since with or without rank and merit everyone still can post anything they want its just the same as don't have it at all. It will free up resources and also probably make the software more faster and responsive without all that rank and merit complexity & logic
If someone takes rank as an indication of trustworthiness in a trade - they're are asking to be scammed.
I don't know if someone can get red trust for merely posting as newbie. Sounds like trust abuse. Do you have examples?
I've seen newbies being ridiculed for posting as established members, i.e. for being obvious sockpuppets. Nothing wrong with that. If you have examples of newbies being discriminated against for just being newbies and not because they're ignorant assholes - please share. That hasn't been my experience. I see many new members fitting in just fine.
And yes, I'd be fine with getting rid of the ranks if all ads in posts, avatars, and signatures are banned too. Or avatars/signatures removed completely.