This is just all you need to get acquainted to this forum. Many newbies make the mistakes of wanting to start earning merits and rankup immediately, that's not a bad idea but such a newbie who desperately seeks to rank up might spend months here making posts which might not be relevant without learning anything in return from the forum. Yea, the activities counts might increase but little or no positive impact from that newbie will be felt in the forum. Read, learn by observation, ask questions and contribute when neccessary. Most of us here were once like you, consistency brought us this far.