The thing is, if you're willing to help yourself people will be willing to assist you. Don't think there aren't those willing to help new members on the forum, infact they're one of the most helped members of the forum. You just have to find something you're good at and improved on that. Engage in more quality discussion and not hiding in spammy threads that your contribution won't have much impact on the discussion.

You decided to be a contributive users which is why you're getting the rewards you deserve. Congratulations on your new rank. You don't have to know anybody before your post can get merited. They get merited because they're worth the merits they received.

Majority of the participants of the forum don't know themselves yet they still get merits that's to show what's is been looked at is the quality of the posts and not the nationality of the person making the posts. Just keep it up and you'll achieve greater highs, congratulations once again.