Op, I cannot categorically say that your thread is about merit begging. This is a tactic to send the eyes of concerned merit sources to your profile. If your quality is high, you would definitely recieve good number of merits after this post. But if your quality is below standard, this kind of post my do more harm than good to you.
I will refer back to Wiwo's comment about staying silent and just doing your best without all of this blibber-blabber.
I do not think that staying silent would help Op. The merit system here demands that you are exceptional before merits would run to you. But if you are just good, you have an extra work to do by announcing yourself or your posts. The ways to do it is what Op has done, or by sending you pm on request, or by applying to other merit threads.