I opened my account in 2017. But, I was not active in this forum. Somehow, I returned in 2021 and saw a new system which is merit. Never knew what is that. I received my first merit only 4 months ago. After that, I have noticed that I have ranked up to Jr. member and I was surprised. I have created another account at that time. I didn't read the rules at that time and I wasn't aware of what I am doing. But, after 5-6 days, somehow I saw a discussion about merit abuse and I realized what I have done. I immediately stopped at the same time. If you check the logs, I have sent the last merit four months ago and all of them were in the same week.
Sending merit to oneself, raising oneself in ranks, this is very ugly. You have given yourself away. Your first mistake is sending the merit to yourself, your second mistake is that you decided to hide it from everyone. You write that you realized that at that time you were not aware of the legitimacy of your actions, but were afraid to tell the community about it honestly.
For some reason, I’m sure that if you immediately created a topic in Meta and told that you sent measurements to yourself by mistake, because you didn’t know the rules, you would receive loyalty from the community and no one would spoil your reputation.
And now, after you have been identified, the effect of your excuses will be almost zero, I think so.