I've updated the OP:
In 24 hours, that's 23.3% less posts.
In 48 hours, that's 18.6% less posts.
In 1 week, that's 15.9% less posts.
Unfortunately, it looks like the spam reduction is already diminishing. That can be caused by the fact that last week the number of users with 1 Merit went up
25x faster than it did in previous weeks. Many Newbies were promoted back to Jr. Member, and
many of those were ranked up through Merit abuse. I also see more Newbies wearing Copper Membership now, which allows them to continue spamming their signature.
The requirement should have been 5-10 merits. We saw immediate results as soon as 1 merit rule was introduced. I believe, we can let this 1 merit run for a trial period of a month or two and if things are still the same we should bump up the merit requirement. As for Newbies Buying copper, let them buy. The next target for DT members should be the managers who are accepting these spam posts. They Deserve the Red tag immediately.