I've been thinking, what if your quality post is good and on point but still nobody merit you because they dont give a sht for the merit system or they're lazy to do so. So the conclusion is they will be stuck at their current rank?
Then theymos has made a bad job at selecting merit sources. If you're a source and you dont participate, you do not deserve being one (you dont benefit from being one either).
If the merit system gave stars next to a user's name, with visible icons, and did NOT cost merit to be given merit, then this might work better.
It does not cost merit to give merit. It costs sMerit, which is something different. Read the OP again.
If you still dont understand read this:
You have Merits, those you cannot send.
You also have sMerits, those you can only send, they have no other purpose.
When someone gives Merit to you they lose sMerit of the amount transfered and you gain Merit as well as sMerit (which in case you can send again).
Example: Should I send 10 Merit to you for a post, my sMerit would decrease by 10.
Your Merit would increase by 10 and your sMerit would increase by 5.
Merits are exclusively earned, but the sMerit part you also get keeps the circulation flowing.
(Ignoring merit sources here, for the sake of making an easy example.)
A lot of confusion about Merit and sMerit, maybe that's not the best name for them?