My suggestion is to have at least An Automated Merits for every 100 activities if that not persuasive let's be for every 100 Topics from one individual with 100 Individuals Contribution no matter what they on their comments this is only to acknowledge that Topics attracts more people.
As what most users have said: having an "automated" merits is just a single step to a non-sense idea why merits do exists. Merits was made so that spammers and shitposters would remain on their rank by the time their posts was proven so. You've just joined the forum recently yet we all wished that you read threads first because you just made a cliche and redundant topic.
All you can do is to simply share helpful and useful ideas to a certain post or topic, participate in merit giveaways, or make something other user's would find amusing (such as programs and stuffs).