Vote up/Vote down & "Reputation Points"

[Hawk Teflon]

So on some of the other threads (not in the Cafe), you can "up" or "down" a post on its helpfulness. Though every time I do it, it tells me I have to have 50 reputation points to be able to do it. So do people have to vote my posts up / down for me to earn those 50 points? If so, and everyone starts at 0, but you have to be at 50 in order for your vote to count, won't this create a vicious cycle of nothing happening (no one leaves the "0" mark).

Also, can I redeem my reputation points for cool stuff in the Landmine store like I used to be able to when I was a kid selling magazines door to door for a large Tootsie Roll bank?