Aaron, Karma is a site option we used to run in the early days of OBT. There used to be buttons for you to give someone “karma” if their post was helpful and informative. There was also a button there to take Karma away from them, if you thought they where being a dick. Unfortunately, the system was getting abused as all karma transactions where anonymous and you could give or take karma with no repercussions, so we had to get rid of it in the end.
Thumpertalk had a similar system called Gas, which in the end suffered the same fate.
As for the flashing yellow box (Green actually) that indicates that particular member is online at that time, a red box indicates they are Offline.
Any site questions can be directed to us here in the tech forum or via PM.
Hopefully that explains your question.
Cheers
Mick