Chuck D say: Word Up. 

There are so many factors that determine how many merits any given member will earn over an arbitrary time frame, but it is of fundamental importance that you post relatively frequently if you expect to get noticed--and then of course on top of that, your posts have to somehow stand out from the typical excrementitious posts that might sandwich said posts so hard that readers can't scroll fast enough to get past the stinkers.

In Sandra_hakeem's case, she's been here almost a year but hasn't even made 120 posts.  That just isn't going to cut it--if you're looking to rank up, that is.  Nobody's forcing anyone to do anything.

I've always bought into the notion that higher-ranked members tend to earn more merits, because it seems almost self-evident to me.  Older members have a lot more invested in the forum, are likely more knowledgeable (except for goobers like me), and know what kinds of posts are worth it to make.  Newbies....who the hell knows?  They don't have a good history on bitcointalk, that's for sure.  But there are always a bunch that keep at it, keep climbing the ranks, and end up becoming established members of our fine forum.  They're just rare, that's all.