I already don't like the way clicking on +merit takes you away from the thread. Can you please have it open in a new window?
On the Merit Link:
Reading through several posts in this thread helped shed some light on how the merits work, as without much knowledge about this previously I thought that if I clicked the "+merit" link it would automatically apply one merit to that post (not accounting where they come from, but if I have only 1 merit and clicked I assumed I would be giving away that merit).
Interesting. Are merits meant to be traded or exclusively earned?
You have Merits, those you cannot send.
You also have sMerits, those you can only send, they have no other purpose.
When someone gives merit to you they lose sMerit of the amount transfered and you gain Merit as well as sMerit (which in case you can send again).
Eg should I send 10 Merit to you for a post, my sMerit would decrease by 10.
Your merit would increase by 10 and your sMerit would increase by 5.
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Merits are exclusively earned, but the sMerit part you also get keeps the circulation flowing.
I now understand that the new system also awards smerits, to send without affecting ones 'earned' merits. This makes sense but I'm not sure how many general members are aware of this. It does seem like they are being held quite tightly... as if many members think as I did previously, that if you give a merit it is deducted from those you've earned (without any regard to the smerits).
The paragraph above I included since I am now seeing merit selling being discussed in off-site, individual coin community forums, and partly wanted to see if that is even allowed. This must definitely be due to new rank requirements and it was stated in the older thread, about such topics, that some of the members here were afraid that would happen--yes it is happening.
There ought to be a better way, or a highlighted/pinned post about the rank and merit changes and requirements (and likely there is, I'm reading them here) to enlighten members with plenty of merit that the intent is to encourage quality posting and award will be out of smerit and NOT deducted from their own.