I thought maybe this had something to do between the idol and the fans. Because as we know, even one word from the idol will be so meaningful for his fans
It is nearly like merit begging, between fan and idol, that is discouraged here. I don't call it is merit abusements or serious merit abusement, but user should avoid to send their smerits this way. It is discouraged (like account sellings) and should be avoided!
If an idol give hands and help to answer questions of fans to help them solve their issues, yeah, in this case, idols and their posts deserve merits. In contrast, it is not best way to use smerits for non-sense posts, but sometimes joking posts are nonsense for some people but make sense for others.
If someone don't seriously abuse merits, just let it be. They won't go to anywhere with it, and don't leave you behind them. Theymos emphasize about that.
If a DT member tags you for something stupid involving merit (ie. probably anything less than selling merit), then they're not going to be a DT member for much longer.
- Giving negative trust for merit trading and deceptive alt-account use may be appropriate, but you should use a light touch so that people don't feel paranoid.
Aside from that, if people complain about whether things deserve merit at all, then that's something to perhaps think about, but if you conclude that they're wrong, then that's that.