How does the point system work?

Question

How does the point system work?

Answer 1

Well, the point of Yahoo! Answers is to be a place where you can get answers to your questions. Asking a question costs points and answering earns points. This is done to encourage a higher answer-to-question ratio. Three of the five points for asking a question can be gained back when you select the best answer for it. You can get the other two back by answering a question.

If you click on your points/level displayed on the left side of this page (or the link below), it will show you all the info about earning points. A lot of people forget about the voting and rating.

As for getting to a new level, that just decreases the limits you have on Yahoo! Answers so you can participate more. There aren't really any prizes for the levels, though.