No, that would be even more confusing, like "what's a smerit? smelly merit?"

It shows "+" not "-" so I'm not sure where people would be getting the idea that it decreases anything. But it would be nice to have links to explanations of forum features next to those features. For example nice little question mark icon next to "+Merit" links to the the merit ANN thread in Meta. Similar icon next to the trust scores links to the explanation of trust system. It's bewildering how unfriendly this forum is to anyone who doesn't live in Meta.