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I still have some merits left and I was thinking on helping a few newbies but only after the things calm down a little as I don't really want to get tricked by some wolfs changing their clothes for a few days and then reverting to their methods.
And I always checked their history, as it has prevented me from sending merits a hundred times. If the first thing I see is that the user has the last 20 posts of the same size (3 lines or 4 lines) I don't even bother reading them as no normal user engaged in discussing something on this forum will manage to keep that pattern.
That's a rather clever algorithm for quickly identifying a shitposter! I wouldn't worry about accidentally meriting a shitposter if you are actually checking their history beforehand, though - even if they changed their posting behavior after
the meritocalypse their older posts will still give them away.