Quote from: S_Therapist on November 11, 2018, 07:22:30 AM

Checked your post history. Got 3 in English where you only have talked about merit. Again, I want you to remember the previous line- " Act as a normal user, not a merit hunter."

Words of wisdom right there. Newbie members who make threads like this expressing deep concern about earning merits/ranking up usually are the ones who don't do any reading and only want to earn more money by attaining a higher rank. Once they figure out how difficult it is, they'll either get frustrated and quit, resort to plagiarism, or engage in merit trading.

It's possible to earn merits by posting in Meta (which is where I think I've earned the vast majority of mine), but you have to know what you're talking about--and being able to express yourself clearly helps a great deal. A lot of noob posts in Meta are near incomprehensible and most are just attempts to earn merits. If you don't speak English well, sticking to the local boards is probably the best advice you can get.

Quote from: morvillz7z on November 11, 2018, 01:22:56 PM

I almost thought that theymos has introduced some new merit requirements/restrictions. There are currently 15 active topics on the first page about merit. Shocked

Nah, just another batch of new users from faraway lands who heard about the amazing money-making opportunities bitcointalk provides. I'm telling you, that grapevine they hear about the forum through ought to include some facts about the merit system and how to earn them.

There's no secret and no magic advice anyone can really give to someone about this. You either have a knack for writing (or very useful knowledge to share) or you don't.