Thanks for the support, guys. This goes to show that there are, in fact, more people that understand the ideology behind this challenge. Is it ironic that the host is wearing a signature from a paid signature campaign? Absolutely, it is. Is it also ironic that the host himself is not a merit source? Again, absolutely. But I am putting up my own cash,amen my own merits, as many others are. The 8 merits that the only merit source sponsor provides is done so to quality posts that deserve merit. The moment that quality posts stop being produced by participants in this challenge is the moment that I will revisit the merit rewards. If you look in past posts, I have already expressed my concerns with the amount of merit being awarded via this challenge, and have also commmitted to revisiting the reward structure if and when the time arrives that the post quality becomes an issue. As of now, it’s a non-issue, so I appreciate the members who have recognized the overall value in this challenge, and having a roundup to find quality posts.

Are some of the posts by participants “garbage posts”? Yup. But rather than ignoring these posts, like most forum members do, I provide criticism to help these users to understand why their posts are considered lower than par. What they decide to do with that criticism is purely up to them, just like it’s purely up to the sponsors to do with their cash and merits as they deem fit.

If @digaran had his way, it seems apparent that he believes that only merit sources should be allowed to merit posts, period. Look at my sMerit history. I am not contributing to any so-called merit farming accounts. I do send merit responsibly.

@bill gator, you hit the nail on the head with your reply about becoming a merit source. I can only imagine that the staff have to review countless applications because of the newly-founded merit system. Obviously, they will make a few mistakes along the way, such as the mistake they made when making @digaran a merit source. But this, in no way, means that I am not spending my sMerit irresponsibly. In fact, I find that the method in which @digaran chooses not to award merits to be much more irresponsible than my method of utilizing this challenge to identify and award merits to deserving posts.

So much irony has been posted in the past several pages here, but it doesn’t seem that @digaran will stop with his skewed opinion, so I encourage everyone to stop addressing him at this point, and moving forward. I shall do the same.

Thanks to everyone for supporting this cause, and I look forward to reviewing all the posts of the Round 3 participants!