What's the purpose of rating the discussions?

You may want to rate a post with a '+' or a '-' depending on what you thought of the post. It increases their points and also increases the number on their star. A'+' rating shows that the myLotter has been giving meaningful posts. I just learnt that you can rate the topic too. I'm still to figure out how. If I'm not mistaken there is a slight increase in earnings for Best Response.

everlasting is right. when you rate someone else's response or comment positively, it will increase his/her ratings. i think somebody said that it also affect your ratings. when you rate somebody's discussion positively, you also bring some positive effect in your rating. and then i think, the rating is also based in your level of participation here. if you're active then the higher your rating is. ^__^ i want to say i'll go look it up at myLot's guidelines but i know i'd be lazy to do it. LOL

Hi there, what's been up to lately buddy? Well, rating a discussion could help the owner of those discussion to increase their Mylot Reputation here or other called like Star Rating. When we get positive ratings and our responses has been marked as the best response, then it will us to increase our Star Rating here. Have a nice day ahead and happy posting and earning here in myLot. Godspeed, Kiko

I haven't been a member of mylot long and didn't really know anything about rating. Is it just a basic positive or negative? Does it actually increase your earnings to have positive ratings? Do more people read your discussions if you have higher ratings? Do the positive/negative ratings affect your star rating only or do they also affect the number after your user name? What is that number exactly? Just your level of activity? Sorry for all the questions. Like I said I'm new to mylot and not entirely sure how things work.