It isn't a battle. The forum is awash with sMerits to be awarded. I started today with around 180, and I'm having real trouble in awarding them responsibly. I'm having to be proactive to generate good threads. The thread on the Nicaraguan protests should arrive on the political board soon, and I hope this will help Flying Hellfish in his good work to clean up that board. Anyone who has the Politics board on ignore should remove it, and give Flying Hellfish the help he deserves.
I commend you for your effort in helping the low-ranked members to earn their well-deserved Merits. But the reality is really heartbreaking that you are just one (or if you just add all the merit sources, less than 100 ) compare to the tens of thousands or even millions users of this forum.
It is a battle, a battle of idea, creativity, and originality in their posts just to impress the high-ranked members just to earn a merit in order for them to rank-up. Some members may criticize them, even scrutinize, post sarcastic remarks, and accuse them for merit-begging post.