[Neil]

Hi and welcome to AccyWeb.

Ackers are like AccyWeb pounds that you earn for making posts and starting threads.
Karma is given or taken by other users to try and reflect your posts. Someone may give you karma for posting something funny or informative etc. Karma may be taken from you for being insulting, disruptive or often, just because someone did not agree with you. You will get the hang of it, I would not lose sleep over karma if I was you.