I'm not happy about the merit system because you can't rank even though you tried your best creating quality post. I have no choice but to follow this system as this system will improve this forum and the users would try their best create a better future. You may not see the result of this merit system but it actuakly help us and this forum it also the way of preventing bots account to rank up by just using a program to automatically ahit post. We all know that there bots in bitcointalk forum.
Maybe your best is not good enough. I mean, I'm frustrated with myself too because I feel like I'm putting a lot of effort in my posts but it seems that it is not taking me anywhere. So what I did is, I evaluated my posts and came to the conclusion that they are not good enough if I were to put my shoes on other readers. But that is just me being unhappy with my posts quality and overall, I'm glad the merit system was implemented. I'm seeing less and less of spammy posts in the forum.