How do I reach a Member rank? The journey and the struggles

[McOwen95]

As a newbie I want to listen to the counselling of seniors on the forum.

Experience they say is the best teacher and so kindly share your experience with us on how you attain least a Junior rank.

[TheCountOfMonteCristo]

Honestly its not that hard. Just read the sticky's, read a lot of posts and when you think you can contribute something to the discussion make sure you do. Its also not about find that one million dollar topic idear thats going to give you loads of merit. For me it was just about posting which I have been doing the last couple of weeks. Good luck on your journey.

To break it down:
1. Post to contribute
2. Dont go opening topics that are worthless
3. Read the rules
4. Try to post correct english
5. Have fun 

[TBboys]

1. Stop asking questions about rank .
2. Familiarize with forum rules before posting
3. Post your opinion on the topic you are good at, try not to post a wrong opinion on the topic you know little.
4. Try to help others.
5. Avoiding plagiarism and spam is key.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

People on the forum can debate and give answers to specific questions, providing there is some base to them. The question you formulate as your first post on the forum is asked regularly, and hints, tips and whatnot are often provided on this kind of thread.

I think that the focus to getting your answer should come from you, spending time reading over the posts to see what has already been written on the matter. There are hours and hours of entertaining material on the topic, so you only need to dedicate yourself to searching and reading to practically get a Master’s Degree on what is required to rank-up (and what to avoid doing).

Don’t get me wrong: you can formulate any question you like, but doing the legwork first on your behalf, and then asking on the specifics you don’t understand, will likely be a better approach and benefit you on the whole.

[Kopyleft]

You get merited by giving out quality content and that stems from your knowledge of the topic being discussed.
To gain knowledge, you need to read.
I propose devoting time to read through the nitable posts even before mekaing your first post.

Also creating a niche for yourself, some members are synonymous with specific boards, some even stick to their local boards.
Find what you are good at and nuture it.

[eup]

1. Stop asking questions about rank .
2. Familiarize with forum rules before posting
3. Post your opinion on the topic you are good at, try not to post a wrong opinion on the topic you know little.
4. Try to help others.
5. Avoiding plagiarism and spam is key.

Very good advice, I am trying to help others, I can only help beginners that are newer than me, but it is a happy thing to help others anyway.

[Harlot]

Obtaining a member rank (You only need 10 merits) is really not much of a struggle if you don't focus on earning merits in the first place. Just be yourself in the forum and don't push too hard on earning merits, what you need to focus more is trying to improve your post and make some sense into it. If you reach that, you will start to notice that even attaining a Full member rank (100 merits) is achievable just by having a sensible post. Also  try not to focus on just one of your post people here also view your post history before they give you merits so try to be consistent on your post quality.