Right, and I think those merit giveaway threads were all in Meta, where you can't create self moderated threads. I can't think of another section where a thread like that would be appropriate, but if any of the mods have suggestions I'd be happy to listen, because I agree that a merit giveaway should be in a self-modded thread.
Why in Meta? All such topics with the distribution of merit are placed in the Beginners & Help section, and not in Meta. All major distributions of merit that have taken place or are taking place now on the forum are published in that section, and not in Meta.