I'm not sure either, but I'd put it at 90% sure that xtraelv and Lafu have some sort of arrangement for those merits that were exchanged.  Either they're friends, they're alts, or there was some goods, services, or money exchanged.  I don't know, but the pattern of their merit-giving is suspect and not normal.

On the other hand--and I've said this before--you might look at my merit history and think that I'm buying merits from pugman, TMAN, and Foxpup, since they've left some for me multiple times.  That's not the case, however.  We frequent many of the same threads and apparently they just like my posts.  And I've left merits for them and others numerous times, which could look suspicious.  And while I can scream it from the hills that there's nothing nefarious going on, there's no proof that there's not.

This is why I'm not tagging suspected merit abusers.  There's just way too much subjectivity involved and it makes my conscience itch.  However, in THIS case, where not many other people have merited OP....that's strange.  It definitely stands out when the majority of merits come from one member and not many from anyone else.

Whoops!  I didn't look before posting this, and my coffee obviously hasn't kicked in yet.  I take that back then.  I don't know why I thought that--maybe I got you confused with someone else.  Maybe I'm just confused in general.