Dude, what's up with all this merit-giving hate?  

The whole thing is that you give merit points to the posts you like, correct?  Well, the only posts I enjoy reading are from the small circle of people on bitcointalk that I respect--in general, and that isn't to say I won't give out any merit to noobs.  I just haven't yet.  I've had my ass kicked with the flu for about 6 days now and haven't been doing much reading lately.  

I'm starting to really like the merit system here, because I'm seeing a lot of the shitposters complaining about it.  Definitely a good move from Theymos.  

Sorry if you think I'm abusing the system, but apparently you (and a lot of others) don't see the problem as clearly as I do.  Bitcointalk has become near unusable because of all the garbage posts, which are all motivated by sig campaigns.  That's the real problem.