...
Now my question is "Is the merit really rewarded based on merit or whom you know?
Please I need your observations on this merit policy and its distribution.
Shortly:
I do not know anyone here... but I managed to get 68 merits within a month... Would I get more if I had friends here? It is possible, but I understand that your real question is: "Is it possible to get merit when you don't have ranked friends?"
That case the answer is YES! The only think you need is to think a bit and put some effort on making interesting posts... nothing more... maybe except being patient...