My point is here are two well respected members telling other people how to think and act.. I am not sure it could be more of an anti-thesis of what bitcoin is all about if it tried. The merit system has to be more than just rewarding the same 1% of people who make quality post's. This is a subjective proposition that has to be intuited at the users discretion. It has to be a way to engage and draw new participation or we will end up in a very small echo chamber. It's to the point that I almost refuse to merit legendary members at all unless it is truly profound or cutting edge. I try and bestow what little merit I gain to newbies trying to gain a foothold so as to entice more participation as a whole or to member who I feel are close to ranking up a level.
I think Globbo's point was to reward and encourage decency and politeness...plain and simple. That seems admirable and a good use case for merits if I have ever heard one.
This is where me, and you disagree completely. I don't care who I send merits too, as long as their post is deserving. I don't factor in trust or any other outside factors other than the post that I'm looking at. Does this user normally make good posts? If so I might go, and look at some of their others, and merit them individually. But, I won't let that stop me meriting a user 1, 2 or 10 times in a row. I don't care about the 1% mentality, but I do appreciate those that take the time to look for unrecognized posters among the community. The fact is there are some exceptional posters within this forum, and they deserve as much recognition as others. What I don't agree with is rewarding members for being polite. That's ridiculous from my point of view. However, I do agree that's nice to merit those who don't get merit often, but I'll only do that if their post is up to standard. I think it's true that a lot of the merit is recycled between the same members, but you know why? Because they're constantly putting out good content that deserves merit. I don't have a problem with that. However, having said that what other users do with their merit is up to them. They don't need to look for verification or approval. They can come up with their own guidelines, and use their own initiative when giving it out. I also don't have a problem with that.
Globbo's motive might be generous, and admirable. However, that doesn't mean anyone else has to agree. If he is a merit source then he can wait for his merit to replenish like the rest of us merit sources. However, asking for merit to distribute themselves when its not even to good quality posts isn't something I'd expect from anyone. Sure, good quality posts are subjective, but I think most would agree that some of the posts are low quality content at best.