I disagree, not for the first part of your sentence that has to do with the forum not been a place to earn but for the other parts that stated that, the forum is about making good posts (to my ears it sounded like chasing after the merits). I believe the forum was created as a community to help newbies coming into the space to get inform on what they're buying into and also for the already existing (knowledgeable) member to have a community to hangout and exchange ideas probably on how to better the industry or just chat.
Yes, you are absolutely right, but I just want the thread creator to be able to understand me, it is true that this forum is about helping one another to know more about bitcoin and also about altcoin and some other discussions like economy and society. But I think the way I put it will not discourage the thread creator about this forum, that if he or she learn what the ranked members are posting especially on bitcoin boards and with the finding he or she researched about bitcoin, wallets, exchanges etc, he will be able to rank up, merit is the fuel to ranking up on this forum, but only quality posts will be merited, while only ranked members are able to join signature campaign.