If you pay attention, you'll get a pretty clear idea of who the active sources are. Forum staff also have access to the list.
- Say, someone, you or the staff spot to be a good contributor, do you guys actively approach that person when making them the source?
- What if someone who is a source misuses his merits by selling them, would they be penalized? IP banned?
- Also, you mentioned you were interested in implementing a BTC reward for merit awardees, but what about these sources of merit? Would they too be eligible to get that btc award? i.e if such an award system was ever implemented.
In short, how are you going to prevent circle jerking?