so I was suggesting that at first to get merits by posting numbers...like 20+ posts getting 1 merit, 50+ 2 merits ..and so on.
im not sure how it was before but now its not that easy to get at least 1 merit to begin.
if the admin does that it most likely will courage account farmers to spam nonstop just to achieve the number of posts to get the free merits. As you have said, you didn't know how it was before, one of the reasons why the admins implement the merit system is to stop account farmers from spamming and encourage members to put more effort into what they post to earn merits and be able to rank up. if they follow what you are suggesting this would just reverse what they did when they implement the merit system.