I read the title and the OP and it smelled bad to me. We have a lot of threads opened by newbies in the B&H section that end up like this one. Good thing the OP wasn't given any merit.
In the end, even if he did get some merit, it wouldn't matter because he is already a goner.
https://bpip.org/Profile?id=2229834
It should be a general rule: brand new/newbie/junior member who opens a thread in the B&H praising the forum/the merit system/something specific to the forum better think about checking his post history for plagiarism, merit exchange or whatever before giving him merit.
I agree, it is obvious that some of these newbie members are just looking for merits, and, I think, it is up to the established users to weed out the frauds from the genuine ones.