sMerit distribution has risen a fair share over the past two weeks. Specifically, the last complete week (Monday to Sunday 07/01/2019 .. 13/01/2019) shows a total of 5.859 awarded sMerits. That is 37,15% more than the previous week, and we need to go back to April 2018 to see such high figures (with the exception of the September week where the number of Merit Sources were incremented, and the 1 Merit requirement was added for Jr. Members).
This is likely due to three facts, although I do not venture which bears the most weight of them (Id say "b" if I had to, seeing that the previous week rose likely for the same motive (*)):
a) End of xMas holidays.
b) Additional Merit Sources and, specially, Merit Source allowance resizing (that I believe resets the counter so for those resized it meant both a different allowance and a fresh start for the 30 day period to distribute them in) -> 05/01/2019.
c) DT struggles for representation (since earned merits allow for more voting power, perhaps merits were awarded to members to get their vote to count).
In yellow: current incomplete week.
In green: last complete week (updated from todays merit data file).
Edit:
(*) Also note that the number of Senders (nFrom and nFromNew) and Receivers (nTo and nToNew) has not risen out of the ordinary, which would point more to "c" were it to be so.
This is likely due to three facts, although I do not venture which bears the most weight of them (Id say "b" if I had to, seeing that the previous week rose likely for the same motive (*)):
a) End of xMas holidays.
b) Additional Merit Sources and, specially, Merit Source allowance resizing (that I believe resets the counter so for those resized it meant both a different allowance and a fresh start for the 30 day period to distribute them in) -> 05/01/2019.
c) DT struggles for representation (since earned merits allow for more voting power, perhaps merits were awarded to members to get their vote to count).
In yellow: current incomplete week.
In green: last complete week (updated from todays merit data file).
Edit:
(*) Also note that the number of Senders (nFrom and nFromNew) and Receivers (nTo and nToNew) has not risen out of the ordinary, which would point more to "c" were it to be so.