Seems like I'm late but still what would be my first reaction is as follow,

nah nah haha it was just an April fool prank started by the themos itself and many users experience a reduction in merits I have seen many OG's merits going in minus after the implementation of the new system but after some time all things keep on the track as the system already working. The reduction in merits was also faced by some of my community members and they were worried about that haha on the same side, some users experienced an increase in their total merits.

The administration announced that the new merits system will work like this if the quality of posting of the member is good then he/she will start to get merits in his/her total merits but there will be no impact on that of his/her Smerits but after some time hardly one and half day everything gets normal.