What is reputation?
Reputation is completely optional. Normal use of EpicAdvice.com — that is, asking and answering questions — does not require any reputation whatsoever.
Remember, EpicAdvice.com is run by you! If you want to help us run the site, you'll need reputation first. Reputation is a (very) rough measurement of how much the EpicAdvice.com community trusts you. Reputation is never given, it is earned by convincing other users that you know what you're talking about.
Here's how it works: if you post a good question or helpful answer, it will be voted up by your peers: you gain 10 reputation points. If you post something that's off topic or incorrect, it will be voted down: you lose 2 reputation points. You can earn up to 200 reputation per day, but no more. (Note that votes for any posts marked "community wiki" do not generate reputation.)
Amass enough reputation points and EpicAdvice.com will allow you to go beyond simply asking and answering questions:
15 Vote up
15 Flag offensive
50 Leave comments
100 Vote down (costs 1 rep), edit community wiki posts
200 Reduced advertising
250 Vote to close or reopen your questions, create new tags
500 Retag questions
2000 Edit other people's posts
3000 Vote to close or reopen any questions
10000 Delete closed questions, access to moderation tools
At the high end of this reputation spectrum there is little difference between users with high reputation and moderators. That is very much intentional. We don't run EpicAdvice.com. The community does.