Yep, I remember that vividly--submissions were coming out of the woodwork by members who were obviously NOT qualified to submit any artwork to a contest, but that was only after they'd seen how generous Theymos was being with the merit distribution.  That's if I remember that part correctly, because I stopped following that thread after about 3 pages or so.

But I never objected to all that merit he sent out.  He certainly had accumulated a massive number of sMerits by that point, and I don't often see Theymos giving out a lot of merits. 

That was the 10 year celebration, and it was a nice landmark number and represented a decade of the forum being in existence.  I don't think we need yearly celebrations by any means.  Just my own little opinion, though.