First of all, it's not generally accepted to double post. Usually, either wait for someone else to reply or edit your previous post. Second, look at the boxes with a green up arrow and a red down arrow. You can upvote posts by clicking on the green arrow and downvote them with the red one.
The different numbers of upvotes translate to different ranks. 266 is apparently in the range for Misting, 1-5 for spren. Etc. there are also negative ranks, -100 being the enviable rank of Zucchini. Also, you can only vote once per post, and it is not unheard of for people to accidentally downvote posts, leading to the post of 'Accidental Downvote'. Also, there is a limit to the number of upvotes one can bestow a day. I have not reached this limit yet, but other Sharders have.