Well as I am fairly new on answerbag, I find it exciting that I see that someone has given me points for my question or answer. Perhaps the feeling will wear off once the honeymoon period is over, but yes, I do enjoy the whole point thing. Maybe I need to get a life? :-)

1) A lot of people on Answerbag care about ratings: They appreciate to get positive ratings for their questions, answers and moderations. And there could also be hurt or feel bad to get negative ratings. I just noticed you got a negative rating on this question (it was not from me). How did you feel about this? Rating are a part of the feedback, and nearly all of us are happy about some feedback (the feedback could also be given in a comment). 2) Because of this, people on Answerbag like also to give points to other people as an aknowledgement. They know that it will mostly be appreciated. 3) Giving feedback as points is a good thing, but giving feedback in comment threads can also be a great thing. And sometimes, quite interesting interactions could develop there. 4) New Answerbag users cannot give so many points as the others. The points that you can give will grow until you reach the Sage level. After, it will not change. Many people could try to get points quickly in the beginning to reach levels where they could give more points. 5) A perversion of the points system is when people only concentrate on points. Of course, it can be nice to get them. But the more you are focusing on getting points, the less you will concentrate on asking good questions, giving good answers, writing comments, sharing feelings and experiences, helping those who need it, and having fun. This is the reason why you will often hear from experienced Answerbaggers that they don't care so much about points. Or even that they don't care at all about them. 6) There are also some people who are not caring about points in any way. But I don't think there are many of them. I know that I always appreciate to get positive points as a feedback.

I think it can be helpful to see who is contributing good answers, especially in the experts section.

I care when the system is running so slow that it does not allow me to give the customary pints to questions or answers that I am involved with. As for me personally it is fun but unimportant!

Points are nice, but I'm here because I enjoy it, and I've made a lot of good friends.

I'll admit I LIKE them and TRY to get them, but I actually like comments that my answers were good or funny, better. Basically, if I get them, the points are gravy! ;-)

Honestly? Of course I care about the points. They show I've made someone smile (or even perhaps laugh!), or made them think, or helped them out or given the 'right' answer. What I don't care about is the levels; if I did I'd spend a lot more of my spare time on here and ask more questions ;)