The idea is to give credibility to the right people because their advice worked, didn't work, their post was meaningless, or becuase you agree and like what they had to say. It's not meant to be a rating system to end all rating systems, but is a tool if used properly will help determine credibility.

This came from the complaint that there are good contributers and bad contributers. Sometimes it would be nice to know what others thought of this persons advice or posts in the past. If it becomes too much of a joke and people don't use it as it's intended I'm sure we could remove it without too much difficulty.

Hope that explains it a little...