It should be quite easy to get that 1 merit for any Jr.Member on this forum, but when I check some of them who ask others to look their post history it is quite clear how they have one big 0 in received merits. Most of them post in forum boards which are too hard to read because of too many spam, and merit sources do not even visits that parts of the forum.

So in order to get merits that users first need to understand that this forum is have more boards then Bitcoin Discussion or Alternate cryptocurrencies, and also to improve their writing skills. Give something to forum and you will get something back, trust, respect or merits.

In my opinion 1 merit is to low request to become Jr.Member, most of them will find way to get that 1 merit and after that we will have same spam behavior as before. What would really help to this forum is disabling signature until user is reach Member rank, personally I do not see it as a drastic measure but only one that would help to prevent garbage-posting.