I find that the Mods and Admins need to check the site a little more for merit worthey comments because I wrote at least 2 comments worty of merits last week and I havn't gotten 1 merit at all yet.
Its true, the order I have got my merits have not been in the order i have written them in (latest one i had written was my first merit) Being patient is key- waiting for someone to vote it up. Also take in consideration , not everyone who sees your post will like it (most likely)
Yes, I have a couple merit-worthy (hopefully! :P) comments floating around there from two weeks ago and I haven't received a merit for them yet. It can take months... Carlie's been saying that she has been giving out merits from March or something :S
And only moderators and admins can give out merits.