Not a dumb question!
In the lower right corner of each post is a green 'thumbs up' icon.... click on it and it will provide you a small box for comment (comments are totally optional). after adding any comment you tell it either 'add to reputation' or cancel if you made a mistake.
If you 'add to reputation' it generates an Ovation, the post then has a little flag with a number by the thumbs up box to indicate how many Ovations that particular post has. The person receiving the Ovation should get an e-mail notification that they received it with a link to the post it was given for and on your home page you will see 'Ovations' listed in the column to the left of your page picture (under your avatar pic). You can click on that link and it will take you to your own Ovation page which shows your ovation posts from the time the ovations were started.