All things considered, this system is pretty cool. It is a hassle to have to go to a separate page to give points to a post - is it possible to implement this within the thread itself?
I don't think it's a good idea. Also, I think it was discussed previously. Initailly the system was that like you are asking.
Imagine, you are observing a thread and got one post to send merit and clicked. You are being left the thread. It's boring. It's better to open a new tab and merit them. You don't have to quit the thread. Isn't it better?
And here it is:
I already don't like the way clicking on +merit takes you away from the thread. Can you please have it open in a new window?