Man, I tell you a secret: You can enjoy the forum without getting merits.
Talk for yourself, I'm getting withdrawal symptoms if I don't earn Merit for a day

@RivAngE: you should fix your quotes. Posting something without checking it doesn't look good, especially when you're complaining about Merit.
Whaaaat ? How did this happen to me? I always hit preview, then post, and then I check again...

Thanks for pointing it out.
Man, I tell you a secret: You can enjoy the forum without getting merits.
If you had a pretty active week and you got only 2 merit AND you complain, you have to blame yourself, not the merit system.
Otherwise, you should put more effort in what and how you write it, before calling the system vague.
Allow me a little bit of self promotion,
that is my story, but actually it's full of other people out there with similar ones.
Don't take me wrong, I don't want to post in the forums
BECAUSE I want to get merits or
BECAUSE I want to get paid signature posts.
I want get paid for signatures
BECAUSE I would be posting either way and I like being merited
BECAUSE people like my posts... it's a matter of feeling the achievement!
By the way (a bit offtopic), it was like 2 weeks ago when I missed a weekly signature payment (worth about 40$ after the price hike) for just 1 less post!!! My point is, I'm involved in the forums without counting my postcount or even my merits. So your "secret" is something I already know!

However, I can't help the feeling of discouragement when I don't see my merit count increase with the rate I was expecting it to after I've put so much effort... but I guess I might have too high expectations!

Some of my posts took me about an hour because I was researching a matter and double-checking info from different sources before I post, so if after a day when I check the replies in this thread I see 0 merits, I'm thinking to myself
"Didn't anyone appreciate this?"I'm sure you're putting even more effort into your own posts, I believe you deserve your merits and even more than what you have, but I'd like to avoid comparisons to any other user, I don't want to fight with anyone about who is better or who deserves what! <3