Yeah - sometimes there's a bit of a disconnect between the number of chicklets you have and your rep points value, but they seem pretty closely related. There's much conjecture, and there appears to be some relation to number of posts, but you mostly get them from other people. To dish out rep points, click on the picture of the scales at the upper right of a post to give the rep window, where you "agree" (= positive rep) or disagree (= negative rep/red chicklets) with the poster.