The real essence of labour is the harvest. In relation to the forum, the beginning stage is not easy as a newcomer needs to be patient. Atleast for a newcomer they should be getting no matter how little some reward for their resources in terms of time and materials.
Every newcomer gets benefits by having knowledge and understanding of how things work in the crypto space through the reading of the helpful topic discussion of this forum. I could remember before I join this forum i made alot of mistakes related to crypto but got my first benefit from this forum discussion about shitcoin and ROI investment.
If you talking about newbies getting benefits in terms of earning gone are the days, I think there's still some bounty campaign where newbies are allowed but it's not a good idea if you want to build your account reputation you should learn through reading and provide a meaningful discussion on this forum.
The harvest is the benefit (merit).
when I started discussing my activities and involvement in the forum to some people around me about it, the next question is," how much have u earned", I
Does this mean what you learned from this forum weeks ago is just to know how much people earn? You focus on the mentor discussion about how things work not having all your aims on merit and earning which will make you fail.