I never wanted to run behind merits because for me its like I am changing my attitude and posting behaviour to get something in return. Just be yourself and learn more about cryptos.
The advice from day one has always revolve around not casing after the merits but that doesn't mean you should remain the way you were if your posting style or habit wasn't productive to the forum. Don't forget, spammers are alway satisfied with the way they post so them changing won't just benefit them in regards to getting merited but it'll also benefit the forum in general as less spam and more productive discussion will be recorded on the forum.
There's nothing wrong in changing your style of posting when you notice they weren't productive in the first place, bear in mind the merit system was introduced to improve the level of quality contributions on the forum so if users are adjusting to this, you don't discourage them instead encourage them to make it a part of their posting style but not by faking it. It's more beneficial when you start producing quality contributions and this isn't just for the merit as it has other benefits like gaining more knowledge by interacting with other quality contributions and been recognized for your posting abilities (which come with it's own rewards).
No,I don't want to discourage anyone by creating this topic but I feels people chasing it rather than earning.
You can see people posting articles and tweets from someone to get merits which is the thing I feel as chasing.Merit also changed my posting behaviour but when people forcing them to get merits with useless predictions which even mostly from others,they will just add the source so they won't get banned.
Merit may change but people were pretending to be as more productive just for merits.
On this forum, Merit provides great opportunities, so everyone wants it.
Merit doesn't offer anything other than reaching ranks.
I liked your idea a bit but all on all I think running behind merits does provides you an adrenaline to try and make quality posts for the forum by pushing beyond the limits of your regular posting habits. Also I think it serves as a reward for those who make a good post therefore it does provides contentment to a person who has researched a lot to contribute something useful to the forum. Running behind merit has no harm until done in a fruitful manner. But running behind merit by buying them is definitely never an option.