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.
There may be many good things about this forum and there may be many bad things which people may say about it, but believe me, this is the best forum to discuss anything related to bitcoin and crypto currencies. Even the sections like Politics and off-topic have some indept discussions which you won't find any other forum.
The reason is that people here are always willing to reply you in detail and express their point of view.
I think its simplicity also contributes on why this is considered the best forum. Not to mention, Satoshi created this forum primarily for the discussion of BTC and other cryptocurrencies. There are even lots of users online in this forum and you can also discuss various business opportunities and trades among the threads.
But if I were to commend, it is the leadership of the moderators that definitely contribute to the success of this forum. Forum moderators and some members helped in creating this forum as the biggest cryptocurrency website. Though there may be scammers and hackers, most members have helped towards contributing overall.