I'm still a merit source, and I have over 500 sMerits to award at the moment. I do award merits to lower rank members if I think their posts are worthwhile, bur I'm starting to prefer to award merits to senior members. I don't see merits as a means to increase rank, but as an encouragement to make good threads and posts for the benefit of the forum. Merits are an indication of public approval for posts, I've backed away because I don't feel that many of my topics reflect board opinion. Certainly this is true of my opinions of the current artificial pandemic. I'm surprised that a community of educated and intelligent people is failing to recognise the patterns in medical and government behaviour, and fails to question issues such as the testing cycle differences between pre-vaccinated and post-vaccinated people. It is 36-40 for the general public, and 28 or less for the vaccinated. The covid test results are the only ones that don't include the cycle rates, and it is easy to see why. I don't appreciate being belittled and trolled for having an enquiring mind, and questioning the manipulated statistics.

I would like to so something to bring back some of the interesting senior members that we have lost, but I'm not sure how to do this. It is especially true as we seem to have many fiat supporters who don't understand or want Bitcoin. I'd love to see more discussions on world politics and economics, but not if they just push the low level narrative. I don't want to "build back better", but I want to see a return to the old capitalist system that rewards hard work, creativity, and risk taking. We are losing the capital to invest in new ventures, and the small creative businesses, and until people become aware of the damage this is doing to us, we don't have a hope of staying out of an enslaved future. It is ironic that so many protests and extreme actions are happening in the name of anti-slavery at a time when most people are being forced into slavery, and the handing over of their health to the governments..