Quote from: S_Therapist on October 28, 2018, 05:21:06 AM

With the merit system, bounty hunters will not be able to rank up anymore because they don't know how to contribute in a forum. On the other hand, people with real interest in this forum will definitely gain knowledge as well as share too.

Your idea that bounty hunters would not be able to rank up is wrong, checking the stats you'd see that a lot of members have gotten at least one merit since the updated rules were implemented, and that's what it was made to do, spur users into contributing while earning, there's no problem at all with trying to earn, through what you ironically refer to as passive income.
It's also put in place to discourage account farming which was the real problem.
Admittedly, all spammers were hunters looking for ways to earn, but not all hunters are spammers.