With the the new FT, I clicked on MyFlyerTalk, and find I have 16 reputation points and a message. What's that all about?

I guess I can figure out the personal message stuff (though I'm not sure how to either send one or reply to one), but I'm a bit at sea with the "reputation".

Is 16 points good? Do they come in 16 at a crack or have I had 16 folks give me a point? How do I give someone a point or whatever?

Maybe this was all explained somewhere else, but I can't find it.

Other than that, kudos to the staff for fixing the speed problem. It now is pretty much as usable as the old board, even when I dial up from the hotel. Apparently it's now much more scalable than before, so I assume once I get over the learning curve they won't have to retrain me for a while.