-to participate you must HAVE 10 MERIT and at least 50 ACTIVITY
5 earned Merit is still low, similar giveaways have mostly 10 Merit:
Indeed
[for us it's quite low but for lower-ranked members, might be a different story].
- Other giveaways aren't aimed at newbies/lower-ranked members (given that you posted on this board, I guess that should've been one of the objectives [to allow users with a lower rank, participate in your giveaway])
and I reviewed possible abusers manually.
Perhaps this might be the better solution
[regardless of it being a bit subjective]...
I wasn't sure if that approach would work also for international giveaways and didn't want to take a risk, so I decided to set a criteria of at least 5 earned Merit.
It will

But your suggestion "at least Member or above" could also be a fair solution.
Actually, it's the other way around

I'll add a poll if we should include him or not.
I'm with LoyceV on this one. A change in rule/s should only apply to succeeding rounds.