We all know the beginning stage is not easy as a newcomer needs to be patient. Atleast he or she should be getting no matter how little some reward for their resources in terms of time and materials.
I joined the forum and all I told some people around me about it, the next question is," how much have u earned", I was absolutely discourage as I remained mute till date.
Merit is subjective you can get a merit for providing information, affirming a given answer, or just providing a discussion, there is no one rule and there are no rules for merits, it's a form of appreciation or validation, you just do what others here are doing by participating in a discussion and just make the information you provided valid and up to date.
Make your post unique and based on your knowledge that it's right and up to date do not provide information that you will just copy outside of this forum and make it your own opinion, many newbies fall to this mistake, in trying to impress others they violated the rule of plagiarism