Something seems wrong with your "love" theory, and also how much importance you are placing on the reciprocal nature theory.  I am not suggesting that neither of those exist, but you seem to be give quite a bit of weight to those ideas - that I consider a bit much..

Also, something about your theory of redistribution is off.  I do understand that members have mentioned redistribution as their motives, but I doubt that too many members give as many shits about redistribution as they are making out to be... either the post that is being merited (or the member) is good and deserving of merit or not.. I personally give not too many shits about whether they redistribute (even though again, redistribution is not a non-zero factor, but it just does not carry a lot of weight in my thinking about whether or not to send an smerit or perhaps a few smerits.

Actually, it does not carry much weight and doesn't need much emphasis, however it's worthy to be noted. It actually boils down to individual differences and approaches to the forum.

Well said, all of it.  I would also like to add that Newbies and other lower-ranked members shouldn't think that giving merit to merit sources or Legendary members is going to increase their own chances of receiving merits. 

Personally, I don't want anyone I've helped out with merits to merit me back, because 1) It doesn't look good, and people could see it as some sort of kickback (which I've never engaged in), and 2) I don't need merits to rank up or sMerits to give out (usually; sometimes I run low, but not lately). 

If I see a Newbie/Jr. Member who's giving all of his merits to merit sources, it makes me just a wee bit suspicious that they're trying to curry favour, and that could be the case in some instances, or it could genuinely be that they think they're meriting the best posts.  But either way, IMO merits should be "paid forward" to other lower-ranked members who make good posts.  Merits serve as a 'like' on this forum, but everyone knows that they also serve a more important function, and that is to facilitate the ranking up process.

You summed it up very well The Pharmacist, I originally planned to edit your words into my post, but I realized that it was a bit redundant after I finished editing. I regard my post as topic

Yes, just like you said. Frequent gifting of merit source merit can easily be regarded as a favor and kickback.

But many merit source posts are really good (this is why they became merit sources), so it's not just to please, sometimes your posts are really worthwhile.

There are merit threads by merit sources all over Beginner and Help board to help newbies rank up. Getting 10 merits to rank up to member is not difficult. The merit system isn't designed to oppress newbies

[Merit] Hey Bitcoiners! Can You Send Encrypted Messages? By OgNasty

[Merit] Hey Newbies! Can You Sign A Message? By OgNasty

[Merit] Help newbies and those who have a little left to the next rank By Ratimov

My birthday merit treat to newbies and others who are about to rank up! By cheezcarls
Ratimov - 2 Years on Bitcointalk + Giveaway !!! By Ratimov
Kingsden, you created one yourself to help newbies
[NEWBIES] Earn your first Merit. By Kingsden

No, there isn't any job description as far as being a merit source--it's just a bunch of members who've been selected by Theymos (based on his judgement) to distribute merits.  There aren't even any rules, though sources have been removed for abusing the merit system.  I don't know what KPI is.

Oh, and since I think I stumbled upon some sort of account farming operation and cases of merit abuse related to that operation, I'm going to be very careful about which Newbie/Jr. Members I merit.  Ratimov gave a lot of those members in that thread a good deal of merits, and while it's commendable that he's very generous, I think it's better to be careful when handing them out to new members. 

Cases like the one I think I discovered (I'm still appealing to the community for help) by necessity involve newer accounts, and I've stumbled across them once or twice.  So if you wonder why I'm reluctant to just throw merits at every Newbie that makes a coherent post, that's part of the reason.

Sir, your connection is wrong. These links all point to DdmrDdmr.

Add another
kxwhalexk
His stats- https://public.tableau.com/shared/WQD8J7T3H?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

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Correct link

RainbowKun
His stats- https://public.tableau.com/shared/JQ8PJ5NQW?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

Kaggie
His stats- https://public.tableau.com/shared/T7X7PTYPQ?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

KingsDen
His stats- https://public.tableau.com/shared/BHPWKHG4M?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

I gave this 3 merits it was good.
I dont give high merits to legends as they most likely dont need them.

I prefer giving guys like you 3-6 merits.

Lower ranked.
Not new.
Well written quality posts.

In fact when I find a good post from someone that ticks the boxes above I often will read all their posts.
End up 🆙 giving 3 or 4 merits a few times.

Most of the forum is intended for bitcoin discussion, but there are sections dedicated to other things (like Meta).  There are plenty of newbies posting in Bitcoin Discussion, but their posts are generally written for the sake of whatever campaign or bounty they're in--and that's been discussed to death, so I'll end my statement there.  I do agree that the ambitious newcomers who want to climb the ranks tend to post about merits and other non-bitcoin related stuff a lot, but usually I know the difference between an attempt to get merits and a genuinely good post.

I don't blame you, and I kind of have the same mindset--though lately I've been meriting a lot of Hero/Legendary members, since their posts are the ones that have stuck out from the rest of the dreck I've been reading.  I do try to follow that "ranking up pipeline" thread, because I like helping out members who are close to their next rank--and it's a great way for me to hand out a lot of merits in a short period of time, since I'm basically doing post history reviews.

Most of the newbies joining this forum have been misguided and they tend to seek this forum as some sort of earning not as discussion forum.They know merit is the only way to rank up and get a place into signature campaign as most of the bounty hunters are doing this with as many alt account to join them.But the problem arises for them when they want to rank up and not know how to gain merits.We are daily coming up with lot of threads like
-how to gain merits?
- how can we earn from this forum?
- thank giving threads to high rank members

They all know that most of the signature campaign have merit requirements in past 120 days atleast 5 or more to join it and they all are desperate to join it and that's why we see this sort of threads.But if we talk about the bitcoin discussion section it is also being full of such posts with all the irrelevant discussion by members to complete the signature requirements and you would see the merit history and find not any received and still spamming up whole thread.

See this is 1st page comparison and 100th page comparison of Bitcoin Discussion section and you could notice how the discussion have changed with time:

   

 
I have been avoiding writing up in this section from some time although it was one of my favourite.With time i also gained knowledge and learning a lot still but we need to come up something quite good and make this forum a better or say best place to discuss bitcoin and crypto related stuff aside from earning point of view.

Gaining 8-10 merits from start is not a tough job for newbies as there are lot of threads created by members to help them and they can easily locate them and if they are able to do the task they will receive the merits.But as you said who are in rush to move a their accounts up in order to earn from all of them might end up losing up all and what's the fun of it i don't know.You are learning and gaining knowledge free of cost and you can also earn from signature campaign which is sufficient enough but still they engage in such things.Hope we see improvement in newbie involvement.