Karma:
The Karma feature offers community members an ability to very simply 'applaud' or 'boo' fellow community members. Some will applaud fellow users if they have something particularly funny, were helpful, were feeling down, etc. On the other hand, if someone is becoming a nuisance, members can, in a relatively light hearted manner, boo that user.
Each member has a total karma level that rises and falls by +1 or -1 based on the rest of the community. Members cannot modify other's Karma until they have contributed at least 25 posts to the community. In addition, members must wait 3 days between altering each community member. If you applaud me Monday you can't applaud me again until Thursday.
Membership Levels:
There are seven different levels of community membership. Each of these levels is signified by the number of stars next to their name in posts.
When a member first registers they are a "Newbie" and show one star. When a user has contributed at least 50 posts to the forums they are then "Full Members" with two stars. The same progression continues with more than 250 posts and 500 posts.
Forum administrators and moderators are signified by their different star ratings, as well. The number of posts required and the naming of each membership level can change. This is simply the default for now.