The newer 'merit' system means you will be spending likely more time as a newbie. Previously it was possible to rank up to Jr. Member and then to regular Member status in a matter of several months depending on how active you were. Now it could take longer than that. This should be good for the forum as it will bring less spam, low quality posts.
Any decent poster will reach Jr Member in couple of months at the most, and anyone that fails in achieving that is seriously dedicated to one-liners and shitposting, and system is designed exactly for that reason- to prevent those kind of users achieving higher ranks.
By the look of your post history, you fall in that group, writing one-liners with minimum effort, so no wonder you are still stuck at newbie rank. Once again merit system proves working in your case, as unless you change your posting habits you will stay at low rank for quite some time.