No, the merit system is controlled by the community, it is easier to farm merits, but a user must have been in the forum for at least 2-4 months to farm activity. a newbie with zero knowledge of the forum can register today, make topic and earn 50 merits with his first post, go on and copy-paste votes. (Another disadvantage of using merit point)
There are many times more users with high Activity and no earned Merit, than Newbies who earned 50 Merit on their first post. It's a rare thing.
I have enough sMerit to create 48 96 Newbies, give them 50 Merit each, and vote for myself in the "Fail of the Year" category. And if I do that, it'll be blatantly obvious. So I don't think this is likely to be abused in this way.Yes.. LoyceV is equally right in what he/she just said above, and thats why for me, I think for a user to be eligible to vote, he/she must have been a registered member of the forum for at least 90days and earned a minimum of 50 merits. As this is an important stuff which requires people who are serious about the forum, because of what benefits will it be allowing an ordinary Newbie to vote, who barely have little or hasn't known people that much on these forum, as it always take time for a serious minded beginner to be familiar with forum names.
Because since "Merits" can be farm, "Activity" can never be farm, which is what plays a big difference