Q:

Site question: this effects what you can do in the site

How do people get reputation on this site? I'd really like to know.

A:

Simply said, you post a good questions, and good answers. Other user will upvote your post. You can also suggest an edit to other's post, if it's good enough, the community will approve your edit and you got some rep. Here's the detail

You gain reputation when:
question is voted up: +5
answer is voted up: +10
answer is marked “accepted”: +15 (+2 to acceptor)
suggested edit is accepted: +2 (up to +1000 total per user)
bounty awarded to your answer: + full bounty amount
one of your answers is awarded a bounty automatically: + half of the bounty amount (see more details about how bounties work)
site association bonus: +100 on each site (awarded a maximum of one time per site)

You can find more information about how to get (or lose) a reputation here What is reputation? How do I earn (and lose) it?
And with more reputation you'll get more privileges

