Awww, Red Pandas are so cute 
And why does people bother so much with infamy and renown?
I suppose other than the "e-peen" argument, it is a gauge of how reliable that persons information is, how helpful they are or other things similar to that, although people use it as a weapon by bombing people they don't like with negative votes.
Personally, I use it as an "at a glance" look at whether or not someones posts are reliable if I don't recognise the username but I view it as a ratio as opposed to it just having a huge amount of both.
It is... elitist and I find that rather disconcerting as. I am already starting to feel mild contempt for people who take the whole thing seriously, quite the opposite effect I would assume they want from their self-imposed elitism but then again I am generally an angry, arrogant person.
However, having said all that, most people are good lads and lasses regardless of their forum "standing".
Edit:
Nice choice in avatar, my personal favourite of the three I posted as well!
