New ranking system is actually helpful for getting quality post form the new members ( Newbies). All Jr.Members who have been demoted to Newbies for their 0 merit, can now purchase Cooper Membership with small fees to participate in signature campaign.
Actually I've noticed more spam from 0 merit members who either begs for one merit or spam many discussions thinking that what they write will earn them a merit. I hope this will not last long and after "old Jr. Members" who got demoted get their 1 merit, we will see the benefits of this change. Just 1 merit seems low though, I'd like to see 5 merits instead.
The main problem is the bounty managers who accept Jr. Member in the first place, but I guess if you reward people with 0-value shitcoins then you don't care about filtering, the cost of your bounty is 0$ anyway.