Do we, as a community, need to do more to reward high quality posts, should we be more actively looking to hand out Merit?
I think despite of redundant, repeated topics, there are good topics as well and members ARE creating more good topics every now and then. Thanks to merit system.
Since I am not a merit source yet (some day I may apply, I have this inner desire) and not good at data analyzing like LoyceV, ddmrddmr etc, I actually do not know the reality here however this is what I think...
Earlier everyone had their airdropped sMerits. Members did not realize how to effectively spend their sMerits so we have seen lots of unnecessary merit transactions like even 50 merit for one post (ignoring the abuse part of-course). But now people do not just throw away their merits, they make sure it's not wasted. So factually the numbers are getting lesser.
I definitely think the system has worked, the amount of shitposting & spammers have dropped dramatically. Itd just be nice to see more posts being Merited. I think your last paragraph probably just about sums it up.