There are so many ways to earn merit.
My case for example. I have 25 posts and 17 merits. Why? Because I interact with people, making jokes, answering questions, etc..
We don't need to grab some stuff from elsewhere and post here to earn or prove something.
We are on a board/forum and the main goal of forum is interact each other, sharing ideas, opinions...
If I need an article, I will google it and, off course, I will ask if I can't find something. This is why we are here after all. To learn and teach and share thought about different subjects. Not only to read about them.
But I think people forget how important the concept of community is to concentrate about posting a lot of topics. There are so many topics where OP don't even look at replies
Slowly, carefully, you will reach your goal
My case for example. I have 25 posts and 17 merits. Why? Because I interact with people, making jokes, answering questions, etc..
We don't need to grab some stuff from elsewhere and post here to earn or prove something.
We are on a board/forum and the main goal of forum is interact each other, sharing ideas, opinions...
If I need an article, I will google it and, off course, I will ask if I can't find something. This is why we are here after all. To learn and teach and share thought about different subjects. Not only to read about them.
But I think people forget how important the concept of community is to concentrate about posting a lot of topics. There are so many topics where OP don't even look at replies
Slowly, carefully, you will reach your goal
Oh do not show off here, please. More than half of your merits were given by the same member Halab, it more smells like cheating rather than clear game.
Maybe I am wrong and I even hope for that, but I do not believe that it is possible to earn merits just by making jokes and answering questions. In this case everybody would take merits easily.
I think to earn merits you need to spend like minimum 15 mins to write a comment, to it would be long and maximum informative. Add to that I noticed that posts with pictures and graphics earn merits in the most of cases.