As far as I can see, system of merits here is some sort of reputation. It serves to distinguish experts in cryptography from inexperienced users, that is quite useful inside the forum, since we know how much we can trust a certain user. And of course, merits can serve as a moral encouragement for the help given to others.
And, consequently, they mean nothing if we got them in a different (undeserved) way. In addition, outside this website, these merits don't mean anything and can not be used at all. So, why do so many users try to get them from the very beginning of their registration, as if this is their main goal on the forum? It seemed to me that merits should be just a tool, not an ultimate purpose.
Numerous daily posts like "How to get merits", thousands of similar responses to posts only worsen the state of the community and do not do any good, but kill communication, don't they? Or, maybe, I've missed something?
For me, I don't really care if someone or somebody give or will not give merit nor if I will ever get merited. I don't think that is too easy to get and don't even know how to get it. So, might as well just forget about it and continue as I am right now. With my rank right now as Junior, I could still earn from bounties, from social media campaign and airdrops. It is really like airdrops when it comes to income as a Junior, but what to do? I'll just wait till I get that if somebody would give, rather than thinking of it over and over.