How and who determines karma points on HN?

Newly submitted links appear on the new page.

http://news.ycombinator.com/newest

When someone upvotes a link you submitted or a comment you wrote, you get a karma point.

When links get enough points in a short enough period of time, they appear on the front page.

Oh, and there is a faq...

...linked at the bottom of this page.

Your account was created 551 days ago and you consider yourself to be a newbie?..

I consider myself one. The account was created 551 days ago, but my first ever post was 240 days ago. I hardly get on here, I travel a lot (for fun), and have probably accumulated more airline miles than my HN mileage, go figure :)

Thanks all for your responses.