First off - apologies for starting yet another merit thread, and I'll explain my reason for starting it.

I think we are entering a period of great financial and economic change, and I would like to be able to discuss this as the events start to unfold. Bitcoin Talk is probably the best place to do this, because of its associations with Bitcoin and crypto-currencies. Without a substantial improvement to the boards, BT is unlikely to attract many of the significant players in the emerging markets. I would like to try to help achieve this improvement, but I'm not sure of the best way to do this. I try to award merits to encourage members to prepare for this future, but I seem to find more members to ignore, than to award with merit. I've attempted to help posters to improve their communication skills in English, but I have had very limited success with this.

I have come to the conclusion that many posters have no interest in the stability of the forum, or in trying to improve their earning potential, and at some stage the forum will have to lose them. This can be done by banning them, removing their earnings through the board, or by educating them. I started this thread in the hope that some of the people complaining about the merit system will realise that their complaints just highlights their own weaknesses and inabilities, I had hoped that we could help a few of the new members to build their skills and knowledge, but you can't help people who won't help themselves.