Here you will find everything you need to know regarding the forum structure,ranking system and trust.Please take your time to read through this post and check the bottom section for additional resources. If you still have questions, try using the SEARCH OPTION first,/if you don't know how to use the search follow this link/ and if you still can't find what you are looking for ask here.
Let's keep the forum clean and tidy.

My rules on this thread:
Rule 1 > NO SPAM and NO SCAM, I will report you and there will be consequences!
Rule 2 > Reading the Extra info links is a MUST!

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Let us begin with the ranking system in Bitcontalk. This is an overview of what you need to achieve in order to rank up as a member.

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Regarding the Activity points system >
Explanation:

• After your registration you have 14 days cycles in which you can gain up to 14 Activity points.
• Every post generates you 1 Activity point but in 14 days time span you can gain up to 14 Activity points even if you have more than 14 posts.
• On the day 15 the cycle restarts and you can again collect your 14 points.

Interesting thing is if you have posts over the limit from the previous cycle, with the first comment in the new cycle you get the Activity points from the old posts you had in the previous cycle.
Example:  I had 28 Activity points and 33 comments before the end of the cycle, with my first post in the new cycle my Activity points went up to 34, the same amount as my posts.

Extra info here >
Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ
Forum ranks/positions/badges (What do those shiny coins under my name mean?

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Regarding the Merit points system >

From 25.01.18 you have to collect Merit point together with the activity points in order to Rank-up. This was done to increase the quality of the posts and to prevent the spam.
Here is the new requirements for ranking up according to the forum Administrator- theymos. This is the copy from the Merit & new rank requirements topic, links you will find in extra info section
"In addition to activity, everyone now has a merit score, and you need both a certain activity level and a certain merit score in order to reach higher member ranks."
For reference see the table above.
I hope you will find your answers in the Q/A section. I'll try to list as many as possible.


Q/A Section:

Q: Well, how to collect Merit points?
A: "You get merit points when someone sends you some for one of your posts. Additionally, when someone sends you merit points, half of those points you get as sMerti (sendable Merit) and they can be sent by you to other people."

Q: Who is giving these points?
A: There will be certain people called "merit sources" which will give points to quality posts. They are 57 at the moment I wrote the , see Merit Statistics link below. In addition according your rank and the merit points you have received you can also give to posts you like, so we can say that everyone can give sMerit.

Q: OK but c'mon, how to get Merit points on my posts?
A: There is no recipe for collecting merit but here are some guidelines. The most important is to try to contribute in some way to the forum. Stay away from breaking the forum rules, learn proper English in order to communicate effectively with the community, be helpful and creative, and the last advice is: don't push it too hard, you just gonna stuck on your current rank. Improving yourself will improve your rank too, I'm sure.

Q: How many Merit points I have ?
A: Follow the link Check your Merit, there you can check your points and there will be listed also the points you have received and for which post and the points you have given.

Q: I want to know more about the Merit Points System
A: You have to follow the Merit & new rank requirements link below, it's a long discusion there.

Extra info >
Merit & new rank requirements
Check your merit
Merit Statistics

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Regarding the Trust system >

Here is how theymos explained the system:

The first number is the user's trust score calculated based on how consistently they've received positive feedback. Probably no one will get a score above 0 until the system has been around for at least a month. The second number is the number of reported scams. The third number increases with the number of positive reports, as does the fourth number in parenthesis, though the fourth number is more resistant to abuse. This text changes color depending on the score. Users with a negative score (attainable through scamming) get a red warning attached to their posts.

These scores are taken from your trust network. They are not global scores. You can edit your trust network here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust
If your trust depth is set to 2 (the default), you will trust feedback by people you trust, people they trust, and people they trust. I might change the default in the future; we'll see how this works. Your trust list is public.

On feedback pages, you can leave trade feedback. There are no rules for this, but here are some guidelines:
- List all of the trades that you do with people (or at least the major ones). This is not like #bitcoin-otc where you give people just one score.
- Do not rate people based on the quality of their posts.
- Older ratings count for more, so don't delete old ratings if you can avoid it.
- "Risked BTC" is how much money you could have lost if the person you're rating had turned out to be a scammer. Or, if they are a scammer, it's how much you lost. Use the BTC value at the time of reporting.
- It's OK to post a rating about the person in general, not tied to a specific trade.
- If you want to make a rating stronger, increase "Risked BTC". 50 extra risked BTC is equivalent to an additional rating.

If your trust list is totally empty, you trust "DefaultTrust", which includes some trustworthy people that I'll select. But if you add anyone to your trust list, even if they don't trust anyone, DefaultTrust will no longer be considered part of your trust list.
Note: Information is taken from the Trust rules post.

Extra info>
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=211858.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1066857.0

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Additional useful and entertaining threads

Note: will rearrange them sometime soon.

Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ
Newbies - Read before posting
Useful Crypto Terminology
List of all Bitcoin forks
Bitcoin Fork claiming guide
List of Campaign Managers Latest Post
BitCoinTalk hidden pages
Satoshi Nakamotos' profile
The pizza thread /10000btc for pizza in addition,the actual pics of the pizza
How to sign a message guide
I AM HODLING or where did the HODL term came from
Theymos's list of altcoins with some technical merit
LIST OF THREADS GIVING AWAY MERIT POINTS FOR QUALITY POSTS
List of Merit Reward Threads
Joel_Jantsen's Merit Distribution Thread (Newbies Welcome)
OVERVIEW OF SERVICES
Bounties the managers (spreadsheet)
One (1) Merit point to Rank-up Service, Jr. to Hero Members Are Welcome.
[LEARN] BBCode Lessons & Tutorials [+tutorial videos!]
[Tips] Guide for forum search
Your Total Beginners Guide To Cryptocurrency and Bitcointalk

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I'll will keep updating this topic, if you want me to add more info, please let men know.