Let's start some discussion here, there was a reason why I was made a source. My board of focus might not necessary meet the general criteria of well established sources or reputed members in the meriting business per se.
Correct, you applied and theymos saw a void you could fill as a source. I don't know what board you merit or where you distribute them. If no one else is meriting there, then that's the void you fill.
There was a reason that thread stop receiving much patronize as highlighted thread stopped getting attention especially when those thread aren't from the section of the board tagged high quality. Merit worthy post could be categories based on different opinions by different member but the end goal should be such post aren't spam and are actually adding value to the discussion at hand. Having said all that, dropping a link on the thread doesn't automatically mean the submitted post will be merited.
I'm assuming you mean the thread I referenced people to post what they deem worthy of merit. You're right dropping a post there doesn't automatically mean someone will merit it. A few reasons they may not be merited are the post quality, context and/or timing make it less than "quality" to others. When you run out, you are just in the same position as everyone else, with the exception that you will definitely have more merit provided to you at some point. Everyone else has to earn more to send more. The thread I created provided some work arounds besides posting them in that thread, you can save links to posts that are deserving and circle back to them. You can even create your own thread where you point others to posts you would merit if you could.
I'm not against patronizing the thread but if you need more and more users to engage the thread than you should encourage them by awarding merit to the posts they submitted instead of making then look stupid by ignoring their posts and meriting just selective posts from specific boards like bitcoin support and technical discussion boards.
Disagreeing about whether a post is worthy of merit isn't making people look stupid. I would say though if you are putting a lot of posts out there and no one else is meriting them you may want to reexamine your criteria, or wait until you earn the smerit or have your allocation topped up. I'm not going to lie the more threads I see like this or posts about constantly being out the more it just seems like begging. They are either an OP or post stating "I'm out" without linking posts what you want to merit, so others can do so directly. Sources should PM theymos once, explain why they feel they need more. You always get a response from theymos in one way or another, most just don't realize it. Silence speaks volumes. That generally goes for an application as well, at this time I assume more sources aren't yet deemed necessary.