This question has come up several times on the forum.
Several? Man, if anyone is curious as to how many times merit has come up as the sole topic of a thread, just search the Meta section for "merit" and take a look at everything going back to January 2018. Threads like this one have thankfully become less common in the last year or two, but there was a time when the Meta section's first page was full of them.OP, if you ever find yourself wondering how to earn merits (because it isn't as easy as some people would have you believe), look at the post histories of some of the highest merit earners and pay close attention to how they write, what they're writing about, and--this is also important--what section they're posting in. All of those factors in addition to how often you post will be a pretty good indicator of what it takes to earn merits.
Dammit, this info and more has already been stickied in Meta. Don't people look before making threads like this one?
Good lord, he made his first two forum posts and is already being accused of ban evasion on his alt account. This has to be a record! 
I doubt it. There have been members exposed so fast that it'd make me slap my head again if I could remember where to find examples to link to. Good catch. 
this is the reality Words good job.
