I am not a source of merit and my tree indicates almost the same thing. Even when I give it to other users who are not a source of merit either.
Same with me, when I noticed the merit gang of a thing is over emphasised, I had to check through my profile with LoyceV merit data.
I noticed that the most 10 persons I send merits to are also my merit fans.
I think it is just like that. The merit system is reciprocal.
To be very honest, there is no how someone will send me upto 4merits which will give me 2 smerits that I will not be forced to check his profile to reciprocate. I am not sure it's the right thing to do, but I see myself doing it always.
And there's no how I will visit the person's profile without seeing a merit worthy post. This is because it takes quality to detect quality.
A good merit giver is also a quality poster.
I believe the merit system is working fineI use myself as an example. During my member rank, I was bagging merits almost on daily basis. At a point I stopped making quality posts in engaging threads, I stopped creating topics nor help answer newbies questions. At this period, no matter how acquainted my merits fans were with my name, the merits stopped coming. It looked as if I was stucked for some months.
Now I started engaging well again, my merits have started growing.
So, it's all about consistency and availability. Even if there is a defect in the merit system, I believe it's infinitesimal. There is no ideal system anywhere, let's deal with what we have. Thanks!