The merit system was supposed to be natural:  You see a post that looks to you like a substantive contribution to community discussion.  You hit the merit button.  Accounts that make good posts rise in rank.  Nice theory!

It rapidly devolved so that you need to hire a private investigator to do a background check on an unrecognized account before sending it merit.  Well, I exaggerate—but not by much.  That’s sad, but it is inevitable.

The bounties subforums are, in essence, dedicated spam support sections for spamming other websites.  (Though I doubt those social media sites much mind; some of them are corrupt as hell.)  They are a magnet for abuse.  Add the general problem of paid signatures, and you have a recipe for problems that cannot be fixed with any kind of rank or merit system.

You, Jay, contribute hours of your own time and effort to writing substantive posts that help people.  You don’t even wear a paid signature to get some compensation for your time, as would be damn well justified in your case.  Don’t feel bad that you sent some merits to Blue King.  You were acting in good faith.

The problem would be solved by deleting the bounties subforums, and banning paid signatures.  That will not happen here, so it is anyway otiose to worry about the few merits you inadvertently sent to a spammer.  Don’t batslap yourself.

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Some high-merit WO regulars (not Jay) habitually send large amounts of knee-jerk applause merit to groupthink preaching-to-the-choir posts saying things that hatters want to hear.  That should change, it’s not going to change, and I will not waste my time quibbling over it.