This is very simple
1) I like icopress I gave him merits because I like him.
2) I think no signature manager should have merit source
3) I am a trained accountant and separation of duties is a concept I believe in. This is why I think no signature manager should be a merit source.
As an aside I just gave icopress a few merits. to show I still like him.
When it comes to giving merits to someone you like rather than giving merits because of the contents of a post, it is clearly not the correct use of the merit system.
Do I have to tell you that this is wrong?
That's not what the merit system was created for.
To be honest with you philipma1957, you can say that because you have been on the forum since 2012, you are the human user who has written the most posts etc., otherwise anyone who said that would be severely criticized and I would personally have left a neutral tag on your profile about it.
I also like him but I've never given him any single merit just because I like him.
Besides I don't think it's simply because you like him, more a way to compensate for your stance against him being appointed a merit source.
If I have understood his point of view correctly, it seems he is not using the merit system in the correct manner. Furthermore, because he believes he is using it in an appropriate way it will be difficult to try to convince him otherwise.
By the way, I have seen merit sources asking theymos for more merits in order to give them out to (what they deem to be) deserving posts and receiving merits from members including mostly other merit sources as a way to help out. If this is what philipma1957 is doing, I think there is no need for him to do that in this case.