There is nothing like merit membership, once you be Bitcointalk user, you go fit pay shikini money to become a copper member, but na mostly for newbies, and the reason be say: after them pay that small fee them go fit post images, and some restrictions wey they hamper newbies go comot from their account. E no mean say there is a distinction amongst users in the forum, na only ranks they really differentiate users for this forum.
Having said that, every user wey they this forum fit earn merits, e no matter whether you buy copper membership or not. If you be newbie and you wan post image for this forum and lift some newbie related retrictions from your account, you go gats
buy copper membership or wait till you earn merits and rank up, then you go fit post images, plus the other restrictions go comot.
Try read this link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2385104