I think some people just leave the zero there (as in, as long as you're entering something after it, then it's a harmless prefix, but, that habit also leads to the mistake of sometimes being on the wrong side of the zero, and then accidentally sending 10 times more merit than you intended).
It happened to me twice. But only in less than 0.1% of my Merit transactions, involving less than 0.2% of my sent Merit. So it's not a big deal.
Merit sources are incentivized to give out all their merits. This has led to lazy merit sources dishing out more merits per post. It also makes it easier to circle merit with your friends while leaving less tracks. I think maybe if it were easier to give out just 1 merit, we’d see less concentration in merit circles and more merits going to more users.
So at post #14 you finally say what this is
really about. The made-up drama in your head again. Go complain to theymos about it:
If they complain about amounts, tell them to complain to me.
It sounds a lot like you're complaining about Merit sources who sent out much more sMerit in more transactions to more different users than you did. Now tell me: who are those lazy Merit sources you're talking about?
Total number of users who gave away 1 or more sMerit: 25880Sample 1. 55391 Merit sent by El duderino_ (#1067333) to 847 unique users in 10889 transactions
2. 55293 Merit sent by LoyceV (#459836) to 3192 unique users in 15747 transactions
3. 52928 Merit sent by fillippone (#1852120) to 1820 unique users in 22415 transactions
4. 46573 Merit sent by ABCbits (#359716) to 3857 unique users in 27918 transactions
5. 44986 Merit sent by JayJuanGee (#252510) to 3189 unique users in 42924 transactions
6. 41704 Merit sent by suchmoon (#234771) to 2885 unique users in 9105 transactions
7. 38847 Merit sent by hugeblack (#1059082) to 2586 unique users in 13636 transactions
8. 35483 Merit sent by DdmrDdmr (#1582324) to 2732 unique users in 28839 transactions
9. 35095 Merit sent by vapourminer (#33156) to 3298 unique users in 25355 transactions
10. 33333 Merit sent by Symmetrick (#2627711) to 2254 unique users in 16803 transactions
11. 30289 Merit sent by xandry (#382413) to 2343 unique users in 11897 transactions
12. 29810 Merit sent by The Sceptical Chymist (#487418) to 1396 unique users in 9817 transactions
13. 27713 Merit sent by LFC_Bitcoin (#379487) to 1482 unique users in 12171 transactions
14. 26646 Merit sent by o_e_l_e_o (#1188543) to 2510 unique users in 9360 transactions
15. 25189 Merit sent by Welsh (#84521) to 1605 unique users in 6252 transactions
16. 22500 Merit sent by EFS (#140584) to 1219 unique users in 5332 transactions
17. 22053 Merit sent by 1miau (#2143453) to 1135 unique users in 10408 transactions
18. 22031 Merit sent by dbshck (#153634) to 1303 unique users in 6349 transactions
19. 20501 Merit sent by klarki (#407174) to 1736 unique users in 8057 transactions
20. 16411 Merit sent by pooya87 (#379147) to 1065 unique users in 7780 transactions
21. 14988 Merit sent by Foxpup (#55384) to 635 unique users in 5385 transactions
22. 14969 Merit sent by Halab (#1053119) to 1794 unique users in 6082 transactions
23. 13760 Merit sent by qwk (#24140) to 598 unique users in 6240 transactions
24. 13669 Merit sent by theymos (#35) to 989 unique users in 1565 transactions
25. 13089 Merit sent by Vispilio (#982288) to 693 unique users in 4916 transactions
26. 12806 Merit sent by nutildah (#317618) to 1534 unique users in 6089 transactions
27. 12293 Merit sent by bitmover (#1554927) to 1180 unique users in 6930 transactions
28. 12114 Merit sent by chimk (#1202061) to 757 unique users in 4369 transactions
29. 11653 Merit sent by Pmalek (#112493) to 1046 unique users in 7527 transactions
30. 11255 Merit sent by krogothmanhattan (#1000199) to 613 unique users in 3250 transactions
31. 11119 Merit sent by paxmao (#1192397) to 1260 unique users in 5512 transactions
32. 11091 Merit sent by BlackHatCoiner (#2775483) to 671 unique users in 3859 transactions
33. 10989 Merit sent by OgNasty (#18321) to 2801 unique users in 6065 transactions
34. 10787 Merit sent by dkbit98 (#1410401) to 1007 unique users in 6434 transactions
35. 10545 Merit sent by philipma1957 (#64507) to 1325 unique users in 5425 transactions
36. 10317 Merit sent by NeuroticFish (#257071) to 753 unique users in 5063 transactions
37. 10251 Merit sent by CryptopreneurBrainboss (#1052091) to 1205 unique users in 5912 transactions
38. 10139 Merit sent by NotATether (#2739424) to 1356 unique users in 3174 transactions
39. 10006 Merit sent by Julien_Olynpic (#1166480) to 363 unique users in 4600 transactions
40. 8803 Merit sent by mikeywith (#2033515) to 501 unique users in 3623 transactions
41. 8734 Merit sent by DarkStar_ (#507936) to 971 unique users in 2196 transactions
42. 8712 Merit sent by bones261 (#452769) to 1032 unique users in 4239 transactions
43. 7852 Merit sent by BobLawblaw (#569455) to 326 unique users in 3229 transactions
44. 7307 Merit sent by OmegaStarScream (#375981) to 892 unique users in 3248 transactions
45. 7082 Merit sent by frodocooper (#988740) to 479 unique users in 2931 transactions
46. 6790 Merit sent by Coolcryptovator (#1980983) to 935 unique users in 3075 transactions
47. 6510 Merit sent by TMAN (#98986) to 497 unique users in 1422 transactions
48. 6091 Merit sent by Buchi-88 (#204821) to 507 unique users in 5537 transactions
49. 6064 Merit sent by Flying Hellfish (#79608) to 285 unique users in 1067 transactions
50. 5858 Merit sent by mole0815 (#1424178) to 1399 unique users in 5539 transactions
Merit sources do exactly as intended if they empty their source:
It's best if sources try to exhaust their source allocations, even if it means giving posts higher amounts than is typical. If you have 150 source merit and you only see 3 merit-worthy posts in a month, then I'd rather you over-give each of them 50 merit than let the merit expire. That way there are more people capable of sending merit, and the "merit economy" is less top-down.