One way to look at the brighter side of the forum, as long as the merits is being sent to meritable posts I don't see anything wrong with the way you will distribute your merit, also I know it is a big responsibility on being a merit source in the forum and and that is why a lot of merit sources have their own technique/style on distributing their sMerits. My only question is why limit your list to forum members that are rank member or lower? Is it because you think that lower ranked members are the ones who needs to be encouraged with merits?