Quote from: skarais on Today at 03:58:58 PM

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). 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.

As a merit source, I get my source sMerit from theymos. It is his sMerit that he has delegated to me for me to send as I see fit, but I also need to follow his rules. The only rule that theymos has for merit sources that I am aware of is they cannot sell their sMerit, although I also follow other common sense guidelines when deciding which posts to merit that might be frowned upon by the community if all facts were to be made public, along with speculation by some people.

The forum also believes in a free market economy, and part of a free market economy is the ability to sell things, even if people do not like those types of transactions. This is a concept that I strongly support, as does most of the community as a whole. This however does not mean that I will not think of someone differently who engages in transactions that I do not approve of (such as selling merit). As I do not approve of people selling their merit, even if they are not a merit source, if I become aware that someone is (trying to) selling their sMerit, and have substantial evidence of this, I will likely leave negative trust and support flags against those engaged in this type of activity.

To put the above another way, I support people's rights to make bad decisions, and their right to do things that I disapprove of. Making bad decisions, or doing things I disapprove of will be subject to negative consequences however.

Quote from: fillippone on Today at 07:26:05 AM

I don’t think merits will be monetised anytime soon, as selling merits currently mean immediate ban,

It is my understanding that selling merit will not result in the person getting banned. Theymos said he is not going to be moderating the merit system. I understand the consequences of selling merit as a merit source means the person will be removed as a merit source, and the consequences of selling merit as a non-merit source are handled by the community.

With the above being said, in many ways, merit is valuable. Having merit will often indirectly lead to additional business opportunities, and opportunities for profit.