We're doing great. We have merited ONE WHOLE POST in just three days.
On a positive note: that post gained 11 Merit since being posted.This seems to be a recurring theme that's just being played on repeat. A user complains loudly about all the "great newbie posts not getting merited". An offer is made to provide links to these posts so we can shower them with merit. We get no response. The user in question then either conveniently forgets about the whole thing or disappears altogether. Then nothing for a few weeks until the next user complains and the whole thing starts again.
Hence this topic, send them here 
And yeah, this thread so far is a disappointment. Maybe Jr. Members are now starting to accept that they might not ever make it past that rank
Or maybe they just know their posts aren't good at all, and the chances of getting busted for plagiarism are larger than the chance of getting Merit. This nicely sums up my response to the last Newbie I saw complain about Merit:Brutal.