Quote from: nakamura12 on Today at 10:18:24 AM

My guess is that those accounts that got banned is because of plagiarism. No doubt about it.

Exactly, As reported in the links, both acquafredda and Kartama1 were discovered not only plagiarising, but also being alts of the same person!

I exchanged posts and merited multiple times acquafredda, and I reckon he was always providing good bitcoin-related content for the Italian board.
I also crossed the path with Kartama1, always in international boards, never had any suspicion about him being Italian, nevertheless being an alt of someone.
I didn’t bother to count or check closely on @loucev website, but I guess that the cumulated merits to those two profiles add up quite nicely to the total in @ddmrddmr chart above.
I am surprised and saddened by this, but forum rules are forum rules, and a legendary user (!!!) should know them. Actually, acquafredda being a legendary user, make all this story a little bit harsher.

Back on topic, I guess surely merits come way before merits, both on a temporal and on a logical timeline.
I expressed my view on my infamous thread:

Ranking up is possible! 2900 Merits earned in less than 12 months!My 11 Hints!

I think it’s is still a good read.