One small but relevant thing to consider about the data displayed on the Merit Dashboard, is something I probably pointed out within the Dashboard’s thread, but that is likely buried within the posts: Rank represents the current rank (disregarding the exact rank at the time of achieving the Merits). This is basically because I don’t have a precise log for Rank changes with exact date/times for all accounts.

The above means that, as soon as somebody ranks-up a level, his account will drag the merit data to his new Rank. In the cases being deal with here, Legendary ranks may receive a newcomer or two per week (Hero-> Legendary), but Newbie accounts subject to ranking up a level should be greater in volume and speed. The shorter the timeframe chosen, the more accurate the data since there are less people ranking-up than in a wider timeframe.

Even so, for the sake of seeing the magnitude of the effect:

The Merit Dashboard shows an all-time historical (more prone to Rank distortion) aggregate of:
Legendary-> Legendary: 538.953 (58,05%)
Legendary->Newbie: 33.230 (3,58%)

From the 01/07/2022 until the 08/07/2022 (small Rank distortion):
L-> L: 3042 (56,68%)
L->N: 223 (4,16%)

Percentages are more or less in the same magnitude.


In any case, I regularly roam B&H where one would say that Newbies would likely try to engage, but my perception is that there are not that many that post there (they may prefer Alt boards), and even less that do so with something slightly eye-catching, even if if using a lowish bar.

One additional thing to ponder is that there is often a lot of repetition and kumbaya yada yada on B&H, as opposed to (apparent) genuine newbie questions for example. The first of the kind may catch one’s interest, but over time, it may get more difficult to merit things that have been expressed time and time again.