stingers has been removed from merit sources:
There are 122 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 20835 sMerit per 30 days
As a result of this:
Is stingers still a merit source?
Not anymore. That's clear abuse, awarding merit for political reasons rather than any idea of quality. Only because he was a source, I effectively undid those merit sends. If he had not been a merit source, I still would've blacklisted anyone who got into DT1 through that type of shenanigans.
Interestingly, the total source merit generation has gone up compared to a prior snapshot:
There are 123 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 20735 sMerit per 30 days
So presumably other allocations have been adjusted.