I wish there was some way I could help out with handing out merits in local sections, but I don't speak any of the languages. If I were to be willing to trust a trusted member reporting an unmerited post that was worthy of merit (in their opinion) and merit it myself, do any of you think that would present a major issue? The only reason I want to do this is because I know some boards don't have their own merit sources (or simply enough merits to go around). If I could inject a bunch of merits into a local board, hopefully they'd continue to circulate among the members there.
Good idea, bad idea?
Great idea! I think you can use Rikafip's monthly analysis as a starting point to see which members are active in which local boards. By looking at the names and comparing the stats month by month, you should be able to notice those that stand out in terms of local board activity. After that, see if any of those names are familiar to you and if you can trust them to point you towards posts in their local that deserve more merits. Start out from the boards that are at the bottom when it comes to receiving and sending merits.