It can be distressing to new members reading some of the posts from old members who should be knowledgeable but unfortunately bland. The quality of reasoning (and posts) of many Legendary members is appalling. This could be due to the fact that they were promoted before the introduction of the merit system or they simply bought a high-ranked account to spew rubbish on the forum.
With the rampancy of signature campaigns, the tendency for participants to type to meet quota (even if they don’t really make sense is high). This is why I think that a demotion (or demerit) button is appropriate. This would mitigate the preponderance of the disappointment in reading posts from some so-ranked Legendary sounding like it’s from a 12-year old.
We even have trolls and spammers who are high-ranked members (Legendary trolls). This means that these chaps have never contributed something meaningful to the community debar having been around for ages. This ought not be so. What impression does it make on new members, especially now that Bitcoin is massively being advertised by big names like Blackrock?
You can implement this by adding a demerit button. If a member can rank up through a thousand merits, they should be demoted through a hundred De-merits. This could be open to members or assigned to moderators. You may also bestow demotion powers to intelligent reputable members like LoyceV, Yahoo62278, Notatether, Moccaccino, Logfiles, Suchmoon and others.
A ranking system should reflect competence, integrity and credibility of those it is bestowed upon. Unfortunately, the BTT system should be stremlined and made balanced through the implementation of necessary trade-offs. A system that promotes but never demotes never gets the best of its men. Let’s make this happen.