As you can see, I'm a complete newbie; tailless and headless. I have no direction and I seek one. Educate us on the dos and donts of the forum.
How is growth measured here?
In the very words of @odolvlobo "read more post less", this is one simple secret to learning fast and easily assimilate with the dos and don'ts of the forum. Don't get carried away with the urge of gaining merits at all cost in this your little beginning instead use this stage to build your knowledge about bitcoin and cryptocurrency and the working structures of the forum so that you can have a good wealth of ideas to be able to contribute qualitatively in forum discussions which indirectly attracts merits for your rankings.
I'll not fail to leave you a caveat about the imposter's and scamming schemes you might come across in the Crypto space, make sure to do thorough research and ask questions where you are not comfortable about certain recommended projects. The Crypto space is a jungle of itself, becareful and creative too and you will survive eventually.
Check these:
Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.0Anything related to security - https://cryptosec.info/
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/beginners/