Now I see, it doesn't matter who registered first or how punctual you are online, it all depends on your good threads and how you carry others by teaching them and passing to them the knowledge in you.
I would say this is community based forum not some old school where you need to be punctual as you could post anytime you wish to do so or learn about various things through useful threads at any time you feel comfortable to do so.
Yes time is not factor which will determine how many merits you will earn over the forum but your knowledge will definitely have the impact over it as it's the only way you will be writing quality posts and getting merits as reward from them.The both names you are talking about like @fillippone and @Ratimov have registered over the forum few years back only and have paved their way to the forum in best campaign like ChipMixer but it has become possible only due to their effective contributions on the forum and useful threads like this.They are among top 10 merit earners on the forum which is great thing.
Of course earning merits isn't all about when a user registered here, some users are more knowledgeable than others, but it doesn't mean such users just stumbled on the said knowledge by the way, it is instead a product of the hardwork and immense efforts they put into learning and growing.
Yes you can be a newbie over the forum but might have in depth knowledge about bitcoin like technical and non technical both and share your knowledge and experience with others here which can help you to gain merits.The perfect example of this is Discovery of the year
@n0nce[url] who is full member with 1880 merits at current and he had registered previous year only.So knowledge has no barrier and he has proven it.So the best is to focus on increasing your knowledge first and learn regularly new aspects of bitcoin to help others.
The more you know about Bitcoin and the forum, the more it becomes easier to earn merits; it is very obvious fillippone is very knowledgeable about both.
Undoubtedly he has given very detailed threads about various bitcoin related concepts and have good knowledge about it which is why he has ranked up on forum so fast.I have commented previously on this thread also you might be looking at his merit speed and journey but see he also has acquired and exchange lot of useful information over these years which has made this possible.So ranking up possible but with knowledge.