what about the merit directly from the moderator?
What about it? It's same as every other users. Doesn't matter what rank the user is, if he gives you 1 merit, you will receive 1 merit.
Those who determine whether our posts deserve a merit or not
is that a statement? Community does, the other users.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0 if you need to, right-click and translate or use google translate.