Merit is one of the factors that can increase your forum rank. You earn merits when people merit your reply or your thread and it depends on multiple factors on why people send it, such as:

• Your post contains informative posts;
• You created a general guide to everyone;
• You were able to post some information that is very relevant to the current market and time;
• You reported scams and posted them on the scam accusation board;
• You created a thread were it showed very interesting features and up-to-date news;

Those are just some of the possible scenarios that can garner you a merit across this forum. Be reminded that merits are discretionary acts by which forum users have full discretion to distribute them for as long as it is not "merit trading" that can potentially ruin your account by having a negative tag.

While it is important to rank-up in this forum, this should not be your first priority. Your priorities should be learning about cryptocurrencies and thinking of ways on how you can contribute in this forum or to newbies who are just starting.

At the end of the day, it is not about the merits that are important but the journey on how you garnered them. By earning merits, that is the testament that you have learned something from cryptocurrencies that can ultimately affect you in the long-run.