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The problem is not like merit sources are ready to read visit altcoin board and read posts in this board for finding hidden gems then meriting those gems. There are threads to submit quality posts to merit sources for review and if they see quality, they will do merit distribution.
The issue is merits are used to merit shit posts around the forum like no issue at all, and it is going far against why merit system was launched in January 2018. Monthly sourced merit is limited and if more sourced merit is used for shit posts, more quality posts will not be merited. When we allow it to happen at big scale, merit will concentrate to shit posts and we will have more shit posters with more beautiful merit stats than good posters. I of course don't say about best posters (like top 100, top 200 or top 500) in the forum, but normal quality posters will receive less merit while shit posters will receive more.
Merit abuse can happen anywhere on the forum, but given that each user's standard of quality are so subjective, still need some consideration and review to be able to declare it abuse. Someone who intentionally send 10, 20, or 30 merit to a post that the average user would consider low quality could be identified as abuse, but such cases seem to be rare after the merit system's 7 years of existence. If someone finds such abuse, then of course the case can be brought to reputation.
I might agree that not many merit source are willing to dig through a pile of trash just to find a few pearls in it. Usually the post will be ignored by itself because it is easily covered by dozens to hundred of subsequent post, but some merit source create solution and among them are those done by LoyceV, fillippone, hugeblack and several others.
In my local board, I have a similar initiative that aims to help quality posters get merit on their quality posts that has escaped attention by merit source or users. Any local user can tap into the thread at least once a month for 10 posts that they feel are of quality. Contributors will review and merited if they feel they are worthy, but unfortunately I am not one of those merit source that can always help anyone. They can post in any category in the local sub include altcoin discussion, as long as it is of quality then they will probably get merit.