The newer 'merit' system means you will be spending likely more time as a newbie. Previously it was possible to rank up to Jr. Member and then to regular Member status in a matter of several months depending on how active you were. Now it could take longer than that. This should be good for the forum as it will bring less spam, low quality posts.
I agree. Way back, it was easy to reach higher ranks like if you want to be Jr. Member just post 30 and you will be on it as soon as your activity gets refreshed. It was also the reason why lots of shitposts was being dessiminated in the forum. There are also lots of participants in different campaigns since it is easy to reach higher ranks leading to a higher profit. Spam posts should be stopped, there would be many nonsense posts if it is going to be tolerated. Even on those who are very familiar in the forum have a hard time on getting a merit because it requires more than quality posts.