It does not work that way:

1) Initially the member is not aware about the forum rules and is also new here and thus not very much vigilant. I think to get merits one should be  a good observer and it can come with time only. One should keep a close watch on what type of posts are getting merits, which sections are often visited by merit sources and so on.

2) New members are mainly asking questions initially as they have doubts about investing in bitcoins or alt  coins. I have not seen any question being merited. Once you become old here, you start posting answers based on knowledge acquired and start getting merits. So initial 10 merits might be harder to get.