Yep, and I really wish OP would go back and edit that to show the usernames instead of just posting a link to the members' merit pages.  That makes a lot of extra work for anybody who's curious enough to click on the links like I did.

I haven't read this entire thread yet (and probably won't, since I'm not interested in this particular drama), but unless LFC_Bitcoin is a merit source--which might well be the case, as he's one of the top recent merit senders--he can do whatever he wants with his sMerits.  But in his particular case, he's earned so many merits from his own posts that I don't think it's a big deal at all that he sends merits to posts that might not be substantial. 

What I don't like to see is negative feedback from members regarding issues that have little to do with someone's trade worthiness, and looking through some of the links here I did notice some of that.  But as long as the members who left such trust (like nutildah) don't have a habit of doing it, there's no reason to take any action.  So I'm not seeing a lot of wrongdoing here.