Even Theymos realizes how bad the quality of posting is here--that's why he implemented the merit system in the first place. It's a bit ironic that he's being stingy with his sMerits, but not surprising. He probably sees the need to merit people who have some ranking up to do, as opposed to Legendaries, but is having some trouble actually finding posts worth meriting.
It's a maddening problem, even for him. It's not that he's hoarding sMerits--he's just giving them out slowly, very deliberately, to members who deserve them. That takes time, and it doesn't help that people keep meriting Theymos and thus giving him more sMerits to "hoard".
IMO the administrator of this board
should be stingy. He should be impressed only by the significant comments, and spend his energy on Administration.
Ironic but not baffling by any means. I really think people should stop sending merits to Theymos and start giving them to people who need to rank up AND who write well. That's not easy, but giving merits to Theymos is kind of a waste, even if you appreciate what he writes. He's got so many sMerits at this point that they're just going to sit in his account. It'd be much better if all of those users who give them to him would find people in need and who deserve them.