Sorry if I missed this but , how do I get an avatar ?

Full Member and up only.  
It must be no more than 120px wide, 80px tall, and 100 KiB in size. It must be a PNG, GIF, or JPEG image. It must be safe for work.

Rank	Required activity	Required merit
Brand new	0	0
Newbie	1	0
Jr Member	30	1
Member	60	10
Full Member	120	100
Sr. Member	240	250
Hero Member	480	500
Legendary	Random in the range 775-1030	1000

You get merit points when someone sends you some for one of your posts. Additionally, when someone sends you merit points, half of those points can be sent by you to other people.