Hi guys . . I thought I had a pretty good grasp of the merit system, but after reading I'm still confused.

What is to prevent someone from just giving their sMerit to a sock puppet account?  

And if someone does not have enough merit, they not be allowed to move up the ranks  ie, from full to senior member

I see this as a good thing to prevent these damn spam and farming accounts for bounties, etc

But won't people just ask their forum buddies to give them some merit so they can rank up if they do not have enough?

Merit and smerit different
your merit locked and never reduced

How about many twinks which will increase merits each one?   Is there a protect system?

That they only have a limited amount of sMerit to give.

Yes. That's essentially the whole point of this system.

Thank you for clarifying. I like the idea of this, but need to fully research it. The bots, sock puppets, and blatant troll accounts are getting on my last nerve in the threads I frequent regularly. Lets hope this slows their roll 

Nope.

Well... But I do not understand. If someone has 10 twinks. Why do not they just give merits to the main account?
If a person A gives 1 merit to a person B, does it mean that the person A lose 1 merit from the profile?

You're trying to stop the spam thing, and that's okay, but, literally 99% of btctalk have a retarded opinion on a topic and add a reward for it, then you have massive spam anyways. And thats why we dont have old users like Gavin and others.

If taking on the POV of a relatively newcomer like me, many would probably find the additional requirement of merit points as just another roadblock. To be honest, I've been a casual reader for a year now before deciding to register and be active. That's one regret for sure as it takes more effort now to rank up and also participate in signature campaigns. BUT this new system is only understandable and even expected given the unprecedented increase in new registrants wanting to join.

This system just means newbies need to read more, write better and engage more -- a not-so-bad thing.