I have an old friend in this forum who has been here for a while now and have witness so many development on the frorum,  it was easy to rank up on this forum when the merit system was not in place all that was needed then was to have sufficient Post's with certain amount of activities to rank up on all level and ranks. But with the introduction of the merit system the power is now in the hand of the member of the forum and how good and informative you posts is that will be worth some merits.
So my advice to us newbies on the forum is to create good and quality contents, high quality Posts and create thread that add value to the forum.