[Celirra]

that's annoying

It's interesting to me that you mention this, because the type of community that you describe FFR as being is also the main reason that it took me so many years of lurking to finally make a real account and attempt to engage in conversation here. The notion of people requiring merit to be taken seriously is a double-edged sword, in that while it enables really good conversation, it also blocks out some people who wish to converse due to the nature of such an environment seeming hostile or exclusive.

That being said, I do like the idea of people's merit taking them further in discussion as opposed to those who are unproven, as it does help to weed out a lot of less desirable discussion. It's just one of those fine line things I suppose.

Also this is being said as someone who still doesn't feel like I belong here, though I can appreciate how nice it must be to belong to such a community based on the exclusivity as well as what you described.