For the merit system will not achieve its intended purpose unless it operates naturally, organically, rewarding good posts in the ordinary course of forum discussions.
I agree. It'll be interesting to see if that's what actually happens. I've definitely seen some people using sMerit outside of the context of quality posting. There's a psychological component involved too. No matter how good a post is, you are unlikely to get merit unless a) the reader
likes your post, which has nothing to do with quality, or b) the reader likes
you (because you are a friend or an alt account), which has nothing to do with the post in question.
This is the nature of social media. We've basically added a "like" button to the forum, which comes with the baggage of human psychology.
Merit sources may need to develop more elaborate distribution strategies, given the importance of the task entrusted to them.
Fully agreed, there.