Hello,
I was told by *someone* that in order to achieve something here, I need to be useful to the forum first.
Achieve something as like what? Join a signature campaign? Earn 1000 merit and become Legendary? Become a well-recognized member of this forum?
Imo this is a wrong approach to using this forum. It's not a career, it's a place to discuss Bitcoin. Just do whatever you want to do, as long as it doesn't brake forum rules. Visit the boards that are interesting to you, read posts, reply to people. Start threads sometimes, if you want to share something interesting with other users. Ask questions, answer questions if you know the answer. But never feel that you have to prove something to someone.