Not so new, these rules came in Jan. And even though i just came in, i have seen the bots in here and i am glad they are trying to do something about that spam.
Today, theymos, has released a new change in forum rank, for Newbie and Jr.member rank.
In this new rank system, you need to have 1 merit to become a Jr.member. All exist Jr.member accounts with 0 merit are demoted back to Newbie rank.
So, the new rank system will be as below:
Rank Required activity Required merit
Brand new 0 0
Newbie 1 0
Jr Member 30 1
Member 60 10
Full Member 120 100
Sr. Member 240 250
Hero Member 480 500
Legendary Random in the range 775-1030 1000