I recently noticed a couple of "Merit" threads, and I was engaged in discussion too. It might be a little bit boring since this is another merit thread. But I feel somehow we need to inspire users about spending their merits. I am not talking about merit sources.

Besides that, I noticed a lot of merit sources applications popping up on Meta. There are a few users who deserve it as well; hence, theymos should add a few more merit sources.

This thread is to discuss and share your opinion about how we could inspire users to spend their merits and keep merit circulation stable. I am talking about adding something on forum features that would inspire users to spend their merits. Because I believe users, except for merit sources, aren't very interested or don't have much time to spend their merits.

Here are my ideas and suggestions to inspire users to spend their smerits. Now any user could rank up when they earned desired merits; of course, they need to reach activity requirements. I am preferring to add something like activities. Users need to spend their smerits as well to achieve the ranks.

For example, to become a Hero member, a user needs to earn 500 merits. On the other hand, he also has 250 spendable merits. On the current system, even a user who doesn't spend any smerits will rank up. So we can do something on that. Users must be forced to spend their smerits as well to reach the next rank. If he/she needs 500 merits for Hero rank, he/she also needs to spend 250 merits to achieve Hero rank. I don't think it's necessary to add any additional option for user profiles since each user can see how many spendable merits they have. This is my first suggestion; if theymos think it's reasonable, he could implement it.

Another idea is to get back merit rewards. Like spending 2 merits, the receiver will get 1 spendable merit. And the sender will get back 1 merit to their profile. And both should be spendable merits. But if this is implemented, users will reach fast to the next rank. Then the merit limit for rank-up should increase as well. For example, Hero members need 500 merits now; if this is implemented, they should have 750 merits for Hero ranks. That's how it could be balanced. But I feel the first idea is better. No need for many changes to the forum software.

Feel free to drop your suggestions as well.