I wouldn't do it for posts you "agree with", but for posts that are worth reading. I've done this to posts that stated what I wanted to add to the thread already, so posting it again would be spammy. So I try to highlight the post by Meriting it.
I guess it's caused by actually reading the thread, instead of just responding to the title or OP. I'd say that's a good thing.
I agreed with Loyce. Merit is for high quality posts. Generally, such posts deserve merits, and should be highlighted by merits.
Agree or disagree with posts, it should not be a determinant factor which decides readers send their smerits (if you have them) to posts or not. If posts are worth-reading, send smerits to them is good, and matched with what theymos envisioned how merits should be used.
Using smerit this way will give posters more motivation to keep making good posts. They will be inspired by merits they received, even from users whom do disagree with what they wrote.
I'm hoping that this system will increase post quality by:
- Forcing people to post high-quality stuff in order to rank up. If you just post garbage, you will never get even 1 merit point, and you will therefore never be able to put links in your signature, etc.
- Highlighting good posts with the "Merited by" line.
Let's take WO thread as an example. We all know that most of guys in that thread are bullish bitcoin investors, so it is normal to see how they have likely
'unfriendly' feelings with people whom post bitcoin will fall or fail to break that resistance. However, I think we need such guys to keep our minds as neutrally as possible. So their bearish posts if made with enough convincing proofs, deserve merits, IMO.