OK, everyone, here's the "score".

Rep = Reputation of course.

You need to get 200 rep points before your rep power goes up to 2. You get rep points mainly when others give you rep for your posts. As you accumulate more rep points your rep power keeps rising.

Your rep power also goes up with number of posts and age of account (though age has very little influence).

Your rep power determines how much your rep counts when you give others rep. As you get more rep points you gain more clout.

New users have some basic rep points to start with but their rep power is at zero. Once a user had acquired 5 posts the rep he gives others starts to count (even if his rep power is still 0 i.e. he hasn't received any rep himself). Prior to the first five posts, he's a bit impotent.

There are limits as to how many reps you can give over a 24 hour period. And if you've repped someone you have to spread rep around a bit before giving rep to the same person again.

It sounds very confusing to an old man like me, but you guys probably understood it all before I explained it above. Questions?