[edited out]
Sorry JJG, but I have no time right now to read your long text. Probably later. Just saw you posing many questions.
So here again in short what I wanted to say:
1) If you were to want to get more active users to the Forum you are probably doing the right job with regard to your merits spending!!
I am merely participating in the forum, and having more interest in bitcoin rather than other topics. I don't have any mission to attract members to the forum, even if there might be some side effect that might inspire some members to participate in the forum...
However: I personally think there are better ways than to attract farmers who are not here for Bitcoin talk.
But that's Theymos' problem and a question about the merit system in general, nothing you can solve. So I think you are successfully doing what you can to increase active users ... if that'd be your objective.
I am just participating in the forum, and yeah, I was assigned as a merit source so I spend them.. which ends up being nearly every day. Surely it may well be easier to spend smerits in large chunks rather than the way that I do it... , and surely there are merit source forum members who have dilemmas regarding how to regularly spend their smerits.
2) If you think in hindsight that you merited some bad accounts, my proposal was to wait and watch a bit longer before you send merits to newer account. It might increase the chance that you merit quality accounts only.
Sure some bad smerits end up getting sent out from time to time, and if I realize that they are bad merits then I probably would discontinue sending smerits to that member, but ultimately it is within my discretion, and whether I understand all posts or members or the situation might not even be anything that I am claiming that I know about, unless I come across some information or some information comes to my attention. I am not asking for members to send me pms and tell me which members I should not send smerits...
3) I had the feeling that you are able to differentiate between good and bad accounts even more than you admitted
Which suggests some kind of bad faith or that I am not doing enough due diligence (which suggest that I have a responsibility to do more due diligence than I am doing, to the extent that I might or might not be doing any, not that I even have to.... and do you really think that there is a forum standard that source members are obligated to screen members more thoroughly before sending them smerits?
If there are worries that some members are getting on signature campaigns and receiving pay for their crappy posts, and sure that might be true. Am I supposed to figure out what signature campaign managers should do in regards to accepting members to their campaign?
I am not going to admit that I need to try harder than whatever I am already doing or that I need to report what I am doing or not doing, since there is likely no evidence at all to show bad faith or that I am engaging in purposeful propping up of bad accounts for nefarious reasons or even that I need to change anything that I am doing in spite of nutildahs ongoing whining about such topic for a few years now.. perhaps longer..