Bitcointalk has been active for over a decade and is still getting better everyday ,Though it has some hard times like the time it was hacked and others but still yet it continues to improve. Bitcointalk has been able to stay this long and improving because of contributions from members of the Forum starting with the founder Satoshi Nakamoto and other awesome members.
It is a fact that Most Newbies now join Bitcointalk just to make money and this is not the main aim of this forum but thankfully you can't really earn without contributing or by breaking the rules and regulations because there are still True members watching this Forum
So my advice for we Newbies is start thinking of a way of improving this forum first before earning.
Bitcointalk forum has been in existence right from the days of formation of Bitcoin and one of the most amazing things about it is that the forum was created by the founder of Bitcoin himself (SATOSHI) and that has been one of the factors that have kept the forum going and I think that has been one of the things that has also kept the forum outstanding.
Making money on the forum isn't guaranteed and even if one earns money it has to be dependent on how much impact they've made on the forum.
One major reason for this forum from the little of my knowledge is to help pass knowledge and discuss crypto related issues.