Here is a technical suggestion for theymos. You have already created this page for Merit Stats, i.e. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats. How about just adding a board-wise filter to it?

For example, Top-merited topics, all-time of Beginners & Help section should be found with this link - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=toptopicsat;board=39.0

All it requires is just another INNER JOIN, which should not be costly.