If Merits were to be dependent on the level of Activity one has, they’d be rather much redundant, and would not contribute to reducing spam by incentivising decent content, which is one of the main drivers behind the Merit System.

Accounts prior to the Merit System kick-off did receive their initial Merits as a kind of airdrop, equivalent to their rank at the time (i.e. Member -> 10 Merits, Full Member -> 100 and so forth). That took place on the 25/01/2018, and was a one time event to provide consistency to the existing account’s rank at the time.

Merits can’t be sent. This is a typical misconception made by many (I believe I thought they were too when I started). The Merit counter never decreases (unless you’ve been really naughty).

What you can send sare sMerits (sendable merits), which have been discussed both in prior posted content on this thread, and referenced links (no need therefore for me to go into details).