Before all of y'all start complaining and making a billion new topics about being demoted, read
this announcement from theymos. Essentially:
Due to excessive garbage-posting, you now need 1 merit to be a Jr Member. All existing Jr Members who didn't meet the requirement were demoted. Also, newbies can no longer set any signature or personal text.
Though I am inclined to agree on the new rule about being a jr member that needs 1 merit, (and also agree to your post), let us not forget that some users are really struggling in terms of this new rule.
I am not saying that many new members are highly affected of this (yes it is not that difficult to get 1 merit) but there is this minority of people who lack the fluency in communicating in english hence they just stay in their local board (which really scarce in merit sources and merit circulation).
And how about those who are incompetent in the english language (they can read and understand but cannot construct proper english when they want to express their opinion) and also do not have a local board?
The point is, the struggle is real... the frustration of the newbies are real... and the problem growing population of shitposters in this forum is real. Let us not leave some minority behind.