Whatever bitcointalk is trying to achieve with merit-based ranking is failing.

1. The number of posts drops off over time. After submitting roughly 50 posts, bitcointalk is counting 32 of them. I do not make spammy or irrelevant posts and they are not off-topic. So I spend time contributing more posts which leads to more time on site with 0 merit, which on the surface will make it look like a spammer account.

2. Bitcointalk is not giving members enough merit to give to others (see the rest of the thread on this topic.)

3. Bitcointalk doesn't seem to care and hasn't done anything to address the issue.