New rules for countdown which should strictly followed...
Junior member merit (+1-9) CD to Member
But One shouldn't countdown before Activity reached.
I feel that this one is quite easy to achieve, since they only need 9 to rank up and could already start posting right after gaining 1 Merit. Perhaps start from 5 instead?
I feel like same as you. Gaining one merit is not hard, which is only 10% for the next rank. Users will post applications right after getting one merit from a random post. Imagine you have to earn 10 dollars to get 90 more dollars. I know you will be freaking out to earn just ten dollars. I feel like this is the same as my example. Maybe OP can rearrange the rules if he wants.