Hereto, I avoided replying here out of an apparent conflict of interest. I wish to make it clear that what I say is not based on LoyceV having picked some of my posts. Much as humanly possible, I will avoid thinking about that when I consider whether or not LoyceV should become a merit source.
The criteria for a merit source
should require that a source must be fair and possessed of sound judgment, well-informed, resistant to corruption, and deeply invested in the Bitcoin Forums long-term success as a community. By such evidence as I have seen in my experience here, LoyceV appears to have these characteristics in more than adequate measure.
A merit source should ideally be someone who actively strives to promote post quality in a positive sense, by making and promoting quality posts, and also in a negative sense, by fighting spam and abuse. LoyceVs post history is impressive for his own quality as a poster. Almost from the first day I actively started posting here, I noticed his aptitude for both starting and encouraging generally helpful discussions. On the spamfighting side, LoyceVs
copypaste plagiarism reporting thread is an endeavour I much respect, independently of the merit issue. I suggest that it clearly demonstrates his devotion to forum quality, plus the superlative level of effort he will expend for it.
I havent always agreed with everything Ive seen LoyceV say in this forum; but thats not important or relevant to this topic. Frankly, I also do not agree with all his above selections insofar as I myself would not have awarded merit to some of them (though none is an
unsound selection). I state these things to make clear that the foregoing is neither based on any general agreement of opinions, nor on any expectation that LoyceV would award merit the same way as I would. I here consider only matters which speak to likely soundness as a merit source, as described above.
I hope that the administration is considering his application, for I believe that its acceptance would be beneficial to the forum.