Merit system doesn't encourage me at all. All I see is that the system doesn't work as it was intended. The number of spam messages haven't decreased so much. But to get a higher rank will take almost eternity now.
The Merit system works
exactly the way it was intended: only people with good posts are allowed to rank up. Do you want proof? This thread is filled with people complaining about the fact that they can't rank up anymore. It's not the first topic in which low rank users without merit make all kinds of suggestions to go back to the way it was before the introduction of Merit.
Theymos admitted failure of merit system, too.
Can you link the post where he says that?