User: /u/partytime
The pointers are a way to upvote/downvote a post or comment, similar to reddit. I think you're prevented from voting for a bit when your account is new, At least, that's what I recall reading at some point.
Score is kept in your profile, which you can reach by clicking on your name in a thread, or by mousing over your name in the dread title bar then clicking Profile.
There is no guide to dread, you'll pick thing up as you move through it all. Best place to ask questions is in /d/DarknetMarketsNoobs (for basics and DNM's). Also you may Message me if you have specific questions that aren't being answered. If you have experience with reddit, you'll pick up dread pretty quickly. Remember to Subscribe to subs you're interested in so you can navigate to them quickly from the right side panel on a frontpage list of posts. You can also get to a sub by typing in your address bar, after the .onion, /d/subname, such as /d/DarknetMarketsNoobs (sub names are not case sensitive). Same with users by typing /u/username, such as /u/partytime.