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.

I'm still in the dark too. I asked the same question in another thread in this forum. An answer wasn't provided but I was directed to a massive thread "stuck" to the top. I've scanned it and found no mention of this whole reputation thing. And I still haven't had time to do a post by post read of the thread so I too would be very appreciative if someone would just answer this question.

Check out the thread in the Only Randy forum.

In particular, this thread (post #4 I think is from Randy).

I just discovered I have 10 reputation points and I figure if this is similar to Le Meridien points I am well on my way to something. How many do I need for Gold or Platinum?

Can we redeem them for a free reputation if we collect enough?

Would there be an option between a "standard" reputation and a "rulebuster" reputation for twice the points?

Now I keep getting comments showing up on the MyFlyerTalk page. They refer to a thread, but are generally unsigned. Sometimes, there's nothing there at all.

I have no idea who is sending them.

Do we keep a "ding" count somewhere? How would I know if I've been dung?

What am I to make of this?