I decided that I would look for some members with 0 merits, and see if I can find a post that deserved merit to get them started. I've managed to find 2 so far, but I thought it might be interesting to new members if I explained why many didn't receive any awards.

The first thing I did was to choose a thread that looked as if if it might be interesting. Then I scanned through for members who hadn't received any merit. If the post contained misinformation, or looked as it it had been made without the poster understanding the topic, then I skipped it. Of course I skipped any misuse of quoting or formatting as well. If the post appeared to have been made with some thought, then I looked at the members post history. If it was mainly one liners, then I backed out, and I also looked for bad quoting habits. If I saw two or three reasonable posts, then I checked for plagiarism, and skipped out if it was detected. If the post passed all these test, then I awarded one or two merits.

Don't forget that this is a personal opinion, and other merit awarders may not have the same ideas as I have. I didn't check dates or boards either, so some awards may have been for old posts on less merited boards.