You seem to want to change the topic and drag the situation into some kind of mud that was not even a part of your original post.
If members ranked up in accordance with the previous system, then they are not going to be deranked merely because they are not active under the current system, unless theymos makes new poliies regarding those kinds of issues, which does not seem likely.
The issue we have here, or your beef, seems to be how theymos had credited accounts with merits at that time of the new system, which is largely already explained in OP and really has been hashed out already in terms of criticisms that seems to have caused a few additional tweaks, but largely has been considered to be overall a fair balance to transition from the old system to the new system.
I linked you an example of how wrong this approximation have been, almost looks like it was done in this way on purpose. When someone with less than 250 posts has 250 merits and no merits received in the last 120 days, you can easily comprehend that there is no merit in that, it was simply a privilege bestowed by the admin to previously registered members.If members ranked up in accordance with the previous system, then they are not going to be deranked merely because they are not active under the current system, unless theymos makes new poliies regarding those kinds of issues, which does not seem likely.
The issue we have here, or your beef, seems to be how theymos had credited accounts with merits at that time of the new system, which is largely already explained in OP and really has been hashed out already in terms of criticisms that seems to have caused a few additional tweaks, but largely has been considered to be overall a fair balance to transition from the old system to the new system.
Indeed I will call this the privilege system, not the ranking system from now on
Again, new points that you are making, and bringing up some other issues. Actually, how many merits you need and the policies regarding merits are largely set by admin, so it does not matter what any other members say about it, except you seem to NOT like what they are saying because they are just informing you of the current policy.
Of course, you can choose whether or not to continue as a forum member under the current system and whether you believe the forum to provide value to you.
The admin can do whatever he wants, it is his website, and since I am allowed to post I will say my opinion about it. His calculation was lazy and wrongly interpreted, not accurate with the actual value of an account, gifting scammers an opportunity to act like sharks.Of course, you can choose whether or not to continue as a forum member under the current system and whether you believe the forum to provide value to you.
Again, it does not appear that the merit system was created to punish or burden all new member, but instead as a means to lessen the farming of accounts and shit/spam posting. So your claims seem to go a bit far in terms of what you are proclaiming the merit system policies to be causing.
What's the purpose of farming accounts? To scam when they become established.How do you prevent being scammed? By using an escrow or middleman service.
Yet, you can't find a single mention of an escrow or middleman service in the marketplace, ex. (Currency Exchange section)
https://i.gyazo.com/0c35adda069d7af38f11e9088f5ac999.png
This forms a sea, where sharks(gifted members) can act on the best prey, they wait for the right person to add on skype and go all in/exit scam, because they didn't earn any merit they inherited the privilege...so they got a worthy account for free.