No matter what your excuse is (which is likely going to be a bullshit excuse), you shouldn't merit your own alts imo. Maybe he didn't get any benefits from doing so but it is still not right.

On the other hand, who knows how many others lurking around with multiple accounts, creating fake threads, boosting his army of shills... When you think about it, Philip's mistake looks innocent. It is only 3 merits if I see it right, pretty much nothing.

On a few occasions I forgot which page I am on, and merited the wrong post/user. Maybe he did that.