I totally agree with you brother... Merit is almost impossible to attain; you are dead right about people being selfish, why would a stranger give his only of very very few smerit to another poser. Let's face it, in reality almost no body does that. You can think and write all day but your efforts will be futile. Merit is however very favorable to those already in the upper tier or ranks as they already have a lot of fixed merit when this system was implemented. People say it is to weed of the spammers and nonsense posers but in reality it is not really helping members who aren't ranked that high; I can't even see the difference from before where there is no merit. I may sound harsh to you but I'm only voicing what the majority is feeling and experiencing right now. Life is unfair.. but we have to deal with it. Good day.