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.
Now if you want to rank up, you must post quality posts. With the advent of the merit system, the easy way to rank up by posting spam has disappeared. How much are you contributing to this forum, depending on how much merit you qualify for. I have seen many members who have posted thousands of spam but have not earned a single merit, they are still in that newbie rank. So there is no other option but to post quality in order to rank up in this forum.