We already have talked about most of these proposals/suggestions however... It's nice to see that we are coming with different ideas to have a better experience for the forum.

Completely agree with the high merit transaction at one go. It looks really odd that someone needed 50 posts to get 50 merits on the other hand someone else received 50 merit in one go. There can be debates on how to determine a post that worth 1 or 50 but still - 50 merits (!) is too much comparing with the amount of merits needed to rank up for each rank. Maximum 5 is a reasonable number in my eyes.

It really is the ICO team and the bounty manager's call. Also in addition - the two party or precisely the sig bounty manager can add minimum merit requirements for the participants.  (<--- one additional suggestion you can add on your OP)

In other words, you are asking the mod/admin to do prior research and monitor the ICOs. We all know forum do not moderate these stuffs. It is not impossible for them even if they want to. 1. There are not many mods/staffs 2. Legally, the forum is not a regulator for an ICO.

Again, it is the call for the ICO team however the forum can easily make a rule that you need to have x rank to manage a bounty etc. The reason I have a positive indication on this - is: You are correct that a newbie (say with copper membership) really does not know much about forum environment.