Phil has earned the right to do whatever he wants... He's a good guy, his heart is in the right place, and his merit sending habits have never once bothered me.

What does bother me is when merit sources encourage stupid posts by rewarding them with merits... Such posts, like in the megathreads frequented by merit sources, are really just attempts to suck up to said merit sources, and the poster learns how to be a better suckup rather than anything relevant or interesting.

When I see new / new-ish members that have 90% of their posts in these threads, I know the chance they have of actually contributing meaningful dialog to ongoing discussion is very slim. For merit sources, its all about motivation: do you want to help forum members become productive people or do you want to reward them for giving you a nice ball wash?