Regarding rules against selling of merits - that rule is specific to merit sources, so there may be a need to consider that non-merit source members don't have that same explicit rule in regards to their merits. There is at least that distinction that has specifically been in place for merit sources since the start of the merit system in January 2018.
Imo, there should be no difference in penalties between source and non-source merit when they get caught selling merit. This may be the same as punishment for those caught doing plagiarism on purpose regardless of how long they have been here (new members or old members).
I was merely attempting to be descriptive of what the actual rule is, and sure I understand that some people will flag or distrust some non-source member accounts for their behaviors. I do believe that theymos specifically made that rule against selling merits for merit sources to make it abundantly clear and thus would give him a clear and unambiguous reason to remove members from being a merit source if they were to engage in such conduct...
JayJuanGee, I really never knew there was a specific rule about it because I just knew selling merit was something that was forbidden to everyone regardless of whether they sourced or non-sourced.
Merit source members have a different kind of notice on their page that comes up every time that they go to spend any of their source merits that non merit source members do not have.
It says this:
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"You have received a total of XXXX merit. This is what determines your forum rank. You typically cannot lose this merit. You have XXX sendable merit (sMerit) which you can send to other people. There is no point in hoarding sMerit; keeping it yourself does not benefit you, and we reserve the right to decay unused sMerit in the future.
You are a merit source. The next XX merit you spend will come from your source rather than your sMerit balance. Merit spent from your source will come back in 30 days. Unused source merit is wasted. It is not allowed for merit sources to sell their merit."
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I believe that the first paragraph is the same for everyone, and merit sources have the additional second paragraph on their smerit spending page.