yeah, the way it works is that you get more points from getting a positive rep from someone with higher rep than you do from getting it from someone with *insert 50cent voice* "just a little bit".

before they switched TR to this new format/style, rep was more of a big deal since it showed right there in your stats, below your location. Now that they just changed it to the green dots, it isn't such a big deal because it doesn't mean anything.
They also used to have negative rep, which I really really miss, but people (mainly in pit road) abused too much with their "rep wars" so they took it away.
I guess I'm old school cause I still rep for good posts.