I'm curious if it's merit that brought you here, whether you come to learn about Bitcoin or you come to earn merit because the last time I checked this forum is a place to learn about Bitcoin and its related activities, you should have at least spend sometime by going through various board or create a thread defining or telling us about your mission into the forum and how you can navigate the forum in getting such information and this will help your way out into the information your seeking while merit comes about when you share information about Bitcoin or related things that are valuable.
Let me guess, I think that the person who taught OP about bitcointalk forum is a bounty hunter because of the actions that OP is doing even though he just created or registered an account few days ago. I also think it's pointless to help OP since he is already inactive for 10 days although it would be helpful for other newbies out there.
First, OP wanted to know how merit is earn which he used the word gotten which made me think right away that someone taught him about earning money by joining bounties in this forum starting from how to earn merits and ad we know, it is one of the requirements needed to rank up.
Second, newbies that is brought here for some reason that he/she intended to learn more then the very first thing that person did is read read read read read until that person learned instead of merits, ranking up and asking if ever a participant will get a merit but what kind of participant is it anyway?. The answer to this I believe it's either a bounty participant or participant in a thread started where you can participate and complete s given task and if you managed to complete the task then you will earn a merit. In short, a participant in a merit giveaway threads. The words in the quote below is I think the reason why I think of OP that way.
I need some orientation on how Participants get merit.