OP look what other users reply to your post all you want to know is already answered by them. In additional as they said that this is open forum which is we can share our ideas/knowledge and also we can learn more knowledge, and about merit system works it has a big role of this forum cause now adays if you don't have enough merit you can not rank up even though your activities are qualify and also merit helps everyone of us here in forum to upgrade our post to more creative and quality.