Moderation!
Since this is a question about the forum generally I will move this topic to site and forum feedback.
As Mastodont said, questions 24 and 25 in the faq explain everything about ranks and user karma (which btw have nothing to do with each other).
If your confused where ranks come from, see the section at the end of the faq which identifies all the related games and how they've been made into terrible, terrible puns .
Hth.
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)