Thank you for all your replies!
What has happened in the Japanese local board is that nearly all the awarded sMerit is being done basically by two people. Both of these have dropped radically (not nullified) the number of sent sMerits to the Local board (and in general) over the months of August and September 2018, therefore making a large dent on the Receiver’s side of the local board.
Obviously we do know the reasons (lack of sMerit, pause from the site, lack of interesting posts, etc.), but in cases such as this, where sMerit awarding is in the hands of one or two, any bump on the road is highly noticeable.
What I have seen is that there is a strong decrease in the number of posts over time in the Japanese local board:
Date nPosts DiffToNextMonth
04/05/2018 35226 1428
02/06/2018 36654 1016
02/07/2018 37670 583
05/08/2018 38253 501
02/09/2018 38754 439
05/10/2018 39193 --
There is obviously a correlation there, but which is the main driver of it all I cannot tell (less posts because there is less merits and less incentive, or less posts and therefore likely less to merit on the whole).
I understand that to get Merit is not the original purpose on this forum, but also it will be a motivation to make good posts.
What I wanted to say the the most is that I want our local board to be more active. For that, first of all I would like to improve my own knowledge and the quality of post.
(It is said that there are 3 Merit sources in Japanese board.)
From your post history, I can guess that you come from Japan or at least speak Japanese. I also know that the Japanese are very hard working so your local merit sources may not be very active. But you are luckier than me, mate. You have a local board and merit sources in your board.
Yes, I'm Japanse, and I'm very happy with my mother language local board. I wish your mother language local board will be available soon!
Tactac is a member of Fit to Talk, and I would be happy to work with him to create some English language discussion threads for any of these boards - Beginners, Political or Serious discussion. If we can create some good starter posts, then I can guarantee him some merits.
Thank you for your help in Fit to Talk! I will try hard to improve my knowledge and English skills!
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また、英語を上達しようというモチベーションの高い他の国の方々も多数参加されており、触発されこちらのモチベーションも高まるため個人的には非常に有意義だと感じております 
