You become a Senior Member after writing 100 posts. Most members of this site are just chat peeps and remain Junior Members without any rep power. I believe that you become a Member after your first 50 posts. At that time your accumulated rep power is shown. You get 1 rep power for becoming a Member, one for each 1 year anniversary and 1 power for each 1000 posts. Also, the fastest way to accumulate rep power is through the rep points that members award you. For each 100 rep points you get an increase of 1 rep power. Getting rep from certain members with a high rep power count will increase your own rep power rapidly. Members that post infrequently are not really a known entity and therefore have very little rep power. Rep power in itself doesn't prove anything other than that you are consistent in the way that you post and stay true to who you are. You are probably confuzzled at my explanation but that's understandable.