@Ratimov Didn't accept new applications for the last four months. There was a lot of Drama with Ratimov. He has been accused of being a Merit whore by BitcoinGirl.club. Other Merit sources also criticized him countless times for sending merits to newbies. He is one of the Merit sources who sent most merits to banned users. So, I guess he is a bit depressed. He didn't close the thread yet. But, I guess he is not going to accept new applications. Better not to suggest his thread anymore.
I have 12 merits left to reach my next rank. Once I sum up some of my good posts (in my opinion) and posted on a thread named Report Unmerited good post. I don't think any merit source saw that post. Or maybe those posts don't deserve merits. I noticed DdmrDdmr Mentioned me on his thread. Still, I didn't get caught in merit sources' eyes. Maybe because I don't have enough activity.
I also noticed that there have been some threads already created by members related to ranking up but this sounds abit different from them, if we are to also consider some of those threads i believe not all of them have been active just as mentioned by AnotherAlt, I know Ratimov to be one of the user i respected so much and i believe in his delivery capacity but there are more reasons that must have led to the pause on his thread, but either of it all i don't think this thread as well will counter the effectiveness of the existing ones but instead compliment each other as long as the standard to merit a post is maintained to be "quality".