Please avoid making such idiotic generalizations. Unless, of course, you believe members like JayJuanGee, philipma1957, NotATether, Timelord2067... (some of the most recognizable members of the forum that I noticed from a quick glance) are simply trying to farm merit points.
Of course I'm not.
I was talking about other case. these above users not even need to post in merit gathering thread in order to earn merit.