Wonder what will the criteria for a rank change in this forum? I mean to move form Jr ->Member ->Full member etc. is it number of posts you contribute orhow long you've joined the forum?
This forum had been a lot of changes since it was published in public last 2013 and they indeed made some adjustments on how members will push their ranks into higher level.
The Merit system is until now a debate if it's effective or not, most of new members are indeed affected especially English isn't the native language of the most members in this forum.
I just fount it a good purpose to push rank when they deserve. I mean, meaningful replies, comments and posts will do have a good chances to step up UT otherwise most members will be stuck in their current rank since early January after the birth of Merit system.
Anyway, you could find some answer to this thread when you bump on Meta Section in this forum.
Read them and learn from them and don't bother to act non sense activities so that you'll not being awarded a red ribbon on your profile like me.
Good luck.