I don't post a lot, so I have no merit - evidently I don't ever do anything merit worthy?
No. You're clearly not a spammer, nor a shitposter. Merit wasn't designed to stop "people like you" from ranking up, and yet, it happened.Please be more active, Bitcointalk needs real users! I've done "just Merit source things" on your account
You'll need 120 Activity to be Full Member, so apart from the Merit needed, you'll need to be more active to "earn" an avatar.