I think it's really nice creating the thread and am sure the thread have helped lot's of people rank up, but it's better we don't just miss use the opportunity or let me say is better we don't just give merit anyhow, before giving merit I think it's better we check the users post history first and check if the user really deserves merit.
I think if a user is having less than 10 merits to rank up to another rank, I don't think it's really bad giving the user if he apply, let's assume a user is having 10 merits left to rank up to full member which means the user is already having 90 merits, I can't really say but I don't think someone that's not active can get 90 merits or a shit poster can get 90 merits without being tagged as shit poster, or a member that's having 240 merits and needs 10 merits to rank up to senior member can't be a shit poster. I believe someone that just need 10 merits or less to rank up have really tried and giving the user 10 merits or less can serve as encouragement, when I was in full member and I was having 85 merits, I applied for merit on the thread created by @Ratimov and he gave me 15 merits which really motivated me. I know some people that are applying for merit here those not really deserve it, but I think their are some people that really worth helping so whenever anybody is trying to give merit, just try and check the user's post history and check if the user really worth it.

I saw this user and I checked his post history but I notice that the user those not really deserve merit that's why I decided to ignore him, I can say user like this are the once begging for merit because the user have not really been active on forum and the post quality is kind of poor. I believe user like this those not worth meriting.