Another suggestion is for we to forget totally about earned or airdrop merit badges, gold or silver badge and we concentrate more on improving forum and quality we contribute. If anyone is that interested  in finding out if someone is a self-made rank up member, he can checkout his profile on BPIP although the merit stats there aren't that always correct but it can give you an idea of the users earned merit. Theymos would only be interested in implementing new features that will have a positive effect on the forum and I don't think displaying Self-made rank up member badge will add anything than a bragging right to the users benefiting.