The system of merit doesn't work. My example.By design, rewarding the user with merit occurs when it will be useful for the forum and all cryptocommunity as a whole. A good comment or an interesting topic - and other users will gratuitously appreciate the efforts of such a user. It doesn't work! Where money keeps rolling, there is no place for philanthropy. Merits don't give simply just like that. Merits are selling.
Yes, you must write a good comment or create a useful post. But tentatively you must agree with the seller of merits, that he "appreciates" your efforts. Otherwise, your topic will drown in the world of spam BTT. Youll say that's not so? Well, let's play this game.
Here's an example of my topic, that I created specifically for this experiment.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5027519.msg45 .. - English forum
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5025367.msg45 .. - Russian forum
If after this article they aren't removed, you will see them. The topic in the Russian thread was listlessly supported. Apparently, its difficult for the philistine, who came to do the signature, but he's not using his head for thinking. The topic in the English version simply drowned without the attention of society.
You only look at few sections, the system works very well on most section.
Users already do that on another thread, time to DYOR.
Edit : looks like OP intentionally ignore my post, even though he respond to all posts above and below me. Not surprising though.