thumbs up/down?

If one of your answers pick as "Best Answer" gets a "Thumbs Up" you get +1 point.

Other than that I think their just methods of expressing your opinion. Answers that get a lot of "Thumbs Down" (because they were offensive or outright wrong) will be minimized on the answer list to just the avatar of the person that posted it and you have to click on the "view" option to read it.

A "thumbs up" on an answer just shows that someone read it and though it was good, even if it wasn't picked as "Best" answer.

People that are Level 2 or higher can rate questions and answers and give them a "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down", but they can only rate it once, so you can't get a bunch of thumbs from a single person.

As far as I can tell, a "Thumbs Down" does take any points away, it just shows one or more people didn't like the question/answer.

It is a rather subjective thing. Sometimes it means disagreement, other times someone does not like the tone or the humor of your answer; still other times you are awarded thumbs up just for participating (some askers on Polls & Surveys), and there are thumbs down trolls who pull up questions and thumbs down everyone (including the asker).

if your answer gets best answer then you get the thumbs up in points. the thumbs down mean nothing much.

Ratings may encourage users to choose a best answer from a answer someone else likes.

It shows other people's opinions and what they think of your answer. You don't get points for rating someone though.

they do mean something because it shows whether you have made a good answer to the question. so it means something good to your profile. good luck : )

not realy and you shouldnt belittle people when you look like that , blahg