Maybe serious discussion board could be merited restricted? Like 10 earned merit or something like that..
I was thinking about this too, but much stricter: Forget about the rank-requirements, and only allow posts from users who
earned at least a quarter of a Merit per day (since the introduction of Merit, or since registration for newer users). If a Newbie registered 2 weeks ago, and earned 4 Merit already, he should be allowed to post there. If he's not worth it, he'll lose access in a few days as he doesn't receive more Merit.
If a Legendary hasn't managed to earn about 50 Merit since January, he won't be able to post there. I'm not sure if a quarter of a Merit per day is the right amount, but this can be changed to any value that works.
This merit /activity ratio is interesting.(which is a merit per day stats, considering 1 activity=1day)
But it's hard to keep the ratio high, as you need to be very active on the forum..
In general when I am reading threads I got used to look at the merit stats. If he has earned none I just skip his comment (when there are already a few posts in the topic). It was kind of natural to me, as if the user has like 500 or 501 until now and 700 activity he is just a spammer and it is probably not worth reading what he writes.
I think the forum needs a section so exclusive that only the user making the post can see it. We could call it the Asylum.
That's a very nice name for a board lol
Maybe this name could be used in the altcoin session, where nobody reads just spam.
Altcoin Asylum, instead of altcoin discussion board lol