Do you happen to be on good terms with Lauda, actmyname, The Pharmacist, etc.? Kissing up to them? Then such things easily happen. And you don't even need to post quality content for it.
You sound like an idiot.
Crestington's merit is now 1,000 because theymos made a change to the system. Because Crestington's activity is within Legendary range, his merit has now been increased to 1,000 to not prevent him from achieving it.
Oh sweet, that's awesome.
I did mention about that being in range but suddenly being prevented based on merit.
Thumbs up from me.
Your additional 500 merits come from Theymos. Here is his official statement:
I decided that the previous allocation was too unfair in this area, so everyone with activity >= 775 got 500 more merit if they didn't already have 1000 merit (and also Lutpin). No extra sMerit, though.
When you receive 10 merits from others, you also have more 5 sMerits to send to others, too. That's the way merit system works based on Merit and sMerit points.