(170 posts by 1 users with 9 merit deleted.[/i])" Does this sentence in any way implies that merits can be deleted if the post by a user is removed?
The merit was not deleted, but the user who made the post that was deleted has only 9 merits and has made about 170 posts on the self-moderated thread, of which the OP has deleted them all.
They are just trying to explain what user's post was deleted for the reader to be aware of. As far as I know, the only thing I know about deleted posts and merit is that if you check on a user's merit list, if they get merit from a deleted post or topic, the merit will remain there, and the statement will show that the post is now off-limits to the reader.