⭐ Merited by hilariousetc (1)
Theymos brought the merit system obviously to check spam.
It controlled the spammers and so called "bounty hunters" from ranking up. But it does not do much for spam. It is expected that these people who get blocked at the lower rank with zero merits would get frustrated or not being able to rank up and then leave the forum. That does make the forum clean but its better controlled if the number of mods working would be increased.Quote
But have you pondered over why newbies didn't have to earn merit(s) to rank up junior members? The forum somewhat allows members irrespective of their ranks to contribute to discussions and learn too. But in liberal societies you can't always have everything in the garden being rosy. Sometimes some of these spammers make me laugh out loud. 
Its called Freedom of speech. But without regulation it ends up in a spamfest. While there are some good topics posted even on "Bitcoin Discussion" at times which are worth talking about, it get ruined in a few days with a hoard of newbie "Great, Project Sir" members vomiting out half-English posts to get their post count done. 