~snipped to avoid going on Jet Cash's ignore list~
I really think that what deserves merit should be left to the individual. I usually favour posts that I learned from, made me think about something differently, answered something better than I could, or even just made me laugh.
But I always come back to this post (my highlighting):
@DooMAD
If they're really not adding anything, then they shouldn't get merit. But it doesn't need to be mind-blowing, either. Someone suggested a feature where all umerited posts would be hidden (which I may do at some point) -- I think that it'd be good to look at it as asking what posts you would want in such a summary. So not just incredible posts which might've taken an hour or more to write (those should probably get 10+ merit), but also the questions, arguments, jokes, etc. which couldn't be removed from a thread without starting to lobotomize it.
It's all very new, of course, so maybe this strategy will not actually be the best, but it is what I had in mind when designing the system.
@TMAN, I have been adding sources, and I will continue.
We're all being stingy with merit because there isn't enough yet. Everything that makes a contribution should get merit.