So I am not the best or most technical post writer, so I don't earn very many merits, however I do READ these forums constantly. I am very invested in cutting through the spam to quality posts.

Looking at rank is one way to quickly filter posts, but that can leave you missing out on good information by someone new... So I think this forum should implement a "Featured Users" system. The Featured Users system would highlight or in some way promote users who regularly earn merit for their posts. This could be a ratio, like if the user gets merited 1/10 posts they would be considered a Featured User. Another idea would be if they have been merited recently, or if they get merited consistently in certain board like "Legal" or "Meta".

I think this would help out the merit sources as well, since it would be easier for them to find jr members who are creating quality posts, follow them, and continue to award merits for their posts.