I would just publish my story here to avoid stupid accusations about merit fishing.
It is always ridiculous to see stupid guys accused others with their helpful contributions and motivational stories. Ignore them is the best option, IMO.
Whatever people do, creating their own threads, translating good threads into their local languages, or just a post to discuss or give someone else a trick; they deserves merits for their works. IMO, it is a bit hilarious to see sometimes translational threads receceived more merits than original ones.
Today, I gave out my 10 merits as small gifts to good posters, and felt happily with my decision. I ranked up from other gifts, now it's time to make someone else happy.
If one writes a guide, tutorial or great translation - merit fishing.
If one writes his story - merit fishing.
They don't understand that at some specific period, writing good posts is a habit, and writers even don't think of merits. Basically, when we effortlessly write (without distraction on whether we will get merits or not), we can write better posts. It's a key point. Merits will come when it's time, there is no reason to observe our threads, posts or profile pages to see whether we receive merits for our latest posts or not.