what is the difference between this :
If he's active, give him a charity if he donates.
and this
If the person is active, donate a charity to him.
I read it 10 times and my brain almost exploded trying to find out the difference without any luck, I think am getting old maybe it's about time to die already.
OP , if you want to allow someone who made 1000 posts and only got 10 merit to rank up, then it would be easier to cancel the merit system as a whole, i think it is almost impossible for anyone with semi-decent posts ( regardless of where they post) not to get at least 100 merit per 1000 posts.
so even those who don't earn a lot of merit should be able to rank up slowly as long as they contribute even with quarter-good posts - and if someone does not ,then there must be something terribly wrong.