Have you tried googling this before making this post ?
I think its better to use the search function here in forum. Googling merit would have a lot of resources line up and not only about bitcointalk forum but other means to merit.
poorman1, it seems you had a good start. 2 posts, 2 activities and 2 merits. Not bad. The most important for you right now is to get to know the community instead of asking one line questions if you are really into bitcoin community.
Nice track actually but I do hope that he is a natural newbie and a curious fella asking about bitcoin honestly and not just an alt account boosting merit for farm on campaign.