You should use the search feature and explore the bitcointalk forum and i'm sure you'll gain knowledge in all of the important matters about cryptocurrencies and the forum itself. That will be your first task to do before you earn merit, once you did all the task then there's a high chance that you will received merit and also you contributed to the forum. Meta Section will be your first guide on how/what to do! Here's the link to the meta section (I'll give you the link so you can start right away after you read this) - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0. Good Luck on your journey!