I imagine we'll be catching a few alt accounts meriting each other in the next few days.
Exactly, already seeing full members randomly giving 1 merits, a bit surprised i haven't seen someone offer rep up service in 'Marketplace' yet. lol.
Just when I thought the endless merit posts in Meta were over....
Wonder what will be the long term effect. I struggle to believe that signature campaign abusers with thousands of accounts, will be stopped by the new ranking requirements. Possibly a minor inconvenience for them, as they are likely to find a way, whether it's buying/trading merit or hacking accounts. We can expect countless jr.members accounts with 200+ activity and single merit hoarding signature campaigns again in less than 5 months.
edit:
It didn't take long:
Already reported, a troll?
It's sad and pathetic to read this barely 2 days into the new regime for ranking up. Humans will always look for ways to cheat the system. Unfortunately, a lot of people will get scammed in the process. I see no reason why anyone should try to buy a merit to rank up. My gut feelings tells me that newbie account was created by someone who's ranked up already and is using that as a pseudo in order not to get busted.
I'm still a newbie and will NEVER attempt to buy my way up. It's never been in my character to do such, even in the outside world.