I will be grateful if any good minded person can kindly throw more light that to enable understand in details.
I believe you should check this post out to understand what the merit is all about
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/merit-new-rank-requirements-2818350
The merit system was implemented in 2018 the forum Admin due to the rampant increase of shit posters and the need for quality post on the forum. It is the reward you get for creating good, useful, quality and helpful post here on the forum. I believed your friend should have informed you a bit about the merit along side as a requirement for you to rank up. When you make good post you are rewarded merits by members who finds your post of quality and helpful to him or the community. For every one merit you earn, you have 0.5 smerits(sendable merit) so if you earn two merits, you get 1 smerits which you can give to other members you find their post helpful.