While everyone has the exact same chances of making "friends" I have to disagree to it being directly related to gaining merit,  what you are referring to is politics, some members have many friends and supporters here, that might get you elected to be on DT but sure thing does not grant you a good portion of merit, I do not want to point out exact members, but many highly respected and well trusted members here who do have a lot of friends/fans have a very limited earned merit.

The opposite is also true, many people have a lot of merit  and barely any friends/supporters , while I don't completely discard the possibility of someone helping their friend by sending them merit for shitposts, but let's be realistic, even if you are best friends with people who sent most merit , how many will you actually get before you get caught  ? 10? 100?


Post quality is very important, if my dad start using the forum and I decide to "help him" with merit, he has to post something worthy of merit, I can't send him merit for posts like "great project, when Lambo" ?