Easy, reputation power. Not every rep is equal. That of a newly registered user only counts for 1 point, but of someone with 6k posts, 600 rep himself and 4 years of registration time counts as 6+6+4+1 free point = 17. Note that this is halved for negative reputation.
You can view your rep at
http://villavu.com/forum/usercp.php together with the most recent comments and posts relating to them over there.
Reputation generally has no meaning at SRL, but you could see it as a 'hint'.
The fool says everyone but him is crazy, and everyone says the fool is crazy.