Wow, really! I suppose this would be another avenue for some educating because;

My knowledge of merit, smerit and the merit system is one that comes without any form of decay or revocable nature to it except for merit sources that could have there merit bank reduced following a method that considers how many merits they are able to give out.
Looking at the quote as at above, I suppose that to mean cases where merits are reduced (talking about the extreme cases of cheating) and I stand to be corrected if am wrong but;

1. What are those cases?
3. Have any been exemplified in the forum?

Mean while, Merits and the merit/activity system are an upgrade  on the forum brought about by Theymos in order to contain the issues associated with spamming and low quality post from users. Hence, it directly influences one to make posts that either hits the nail on the head or are precise and constructive to explain a view. It could even be given on intelligent questions.