Let me make this claim once again, do not take the forum way too seriously like someone pursuing an academic career, treat it like a discussion forum which it is, engage in topics you have knowledge on and share your own knowledge on here. The reason why man actually find it tough here or get into trouble is because they want to impress way too much which leads them to commit mistakes.
furthermore, don't feel that your opinions are not noticed ,they are actually noticed and recognized but just know that nothing good comes easy and don't be discouraged maybe because you have not been merited . However , i have seen some newbies here with 100 activity and 0 merit please don't be discouraged or feel that you don't know how to make quality post ,just know that those post are very relevant and time will come when they will be merited.
If a user has this kind of post count or activity with that merit then they need to retract their posting styles or change the boards where they post. If a member is so eager to earn to merit and it’s not forthcoming the best thing to do is look into profile of higher ranking members that you know earn merits more often and then look at their posting patterns and learn from them