the idea of it is that everyone starts out with a karma of zero. Anyone can click the "applaud" or "smite" links below to increase and decrease someone's karma level. If someone posts something that was really useful or helps someone out then you increase their karma. Then the best contributors get a higher karma level. It doesn't give them any extra privileges or anything, just lets everyone else know they have been helpful or not in the past. No one on here really uses it seriously yet though, other than smiting sam because he looks like a scarecrow.
