The laughable state of this forum, I've been reading this website since at least 2014, most active during 2015-2016 and the website is just unreadable at this point. 99% of the posts are from bounty hunter spammers
I am not sure what you experienced but I am sure this information is not correct.According to data as well as the bear - bull cycle of cryptocurrency market, 2015 and 2016 is in a bear market that likely caused a drop of activities in the forum
- Time Series on monthly statistics of forum (new users, new topics, new posts)
- Forum's 2020-year-end report
From available data, fact is the forum was flooded with massive spam in 2017 and 2018 which is why forum members requested and theymos made a tough decision to launch the merit system and months late, adjust it to demote Junior members who can not earn at least 1 merit.
Quote
Too many Legendary accounts!
In the past, without merit system, every member can become a legendary member. They just need enough time and activity point to get the Legendary member rank. It's easy honestly and many grandfather Legendary members are spammers.