Regarding rules against selling of merits - that rule is specific to merit sources
Imo, there should be no difference in penalties between source and non-source merit when they get caught selling merit.
The forum's mission is to be
as free as possible. So I get that from theymos' perspective, a user is free to do use their sMerit any way they want. But that can't work for Merit sources, that would be like abusing forum resources.
That being said, there's also
Global Mod hilariousandco who says:
Selling merit is disallowed.
If something isn't allowed, I'd say you can be banned for it.
But that being said, there's also this:
If a DT member tags you for something stupid involving merit (ie. probably anything less than selling merit), then they're not going to be a DT member for much longer.
I do not approve of people selling their merit
I really don't get that some people are willing spend up to $20 per Merit. It would be much cheaper to hire a writer and "earn" Merit that way.