Now you can upvote or downvote comment. It will affect on your profile reputation. You can see your reputation point on your profile under karma point. You can get -1 if someone down vote you.
when you ask for friend request that reputation thing will appear with your name on the friend request list. So people can be more cautious before adding someone. They can know the person who add them have good or bad reputation. :)
Oh and I just know that there is a new badge : the icon is an email.. Everyone that verify their email will get that badge ^^

It's meant to be a way of reducing the number of reports that the admin receive. http://www.asianfanfics.com/blog/view/1100868

It's for upvoting comments you like and downvoting those you don't. It will contribute to the commenter's reputation.

you get points. there's not much else to it..