The current ranking system (activity + merit) is working and if it ain't broken, then there is no need to fix it. Maybe you are on a momentum gaining merits after merits from the topics and posts that you are making but don't take them lightly.

If you haven't noticed it yet, there are plenty of users here posting how close they are to ranking up or how happy they are reaching a new rank. Some are good but most of them are clearly crying for merits.

I'm not really sure what you are trying to achieve here @OP. Maybe you also want merits for this post, maybe not. Making it harder to rank up will only cause more drama and we have seen plenty of that already. We don't want a #meritbrokemylife2.0