So I just went on Paarthurnax's profile, and I saw that he has rows of items. And I'm like "U wat M8?", then I hover over my name because it says I have 2 new messages and 3 new notifications. (aka a 5 in brackets after my name) And I notice something that says "Item Shop", and apparently I have 80 gold.

Is this just a thing like in some other sites, that shows others how much you're contributing to the community. By the means of points, or items on the profile?

Yup, that's exactly it. You can open chests in the Item Shop that will award you random items. Your Hoard is small measure of your participation here on the site. There are also some special items that can only be earned in certain ways. For example, the Mask of Bahlok is earned by beating The Labyrinth game, and Kavarin's Blade is earned in the Forelnaar game.

paarthurnax

Yup, that's exactly it. You can open chests in the Item Shop that will award you random items. Your Hoard is small measure of your participation here on the site. There are also some special items that can only be earned in certain ways. For example, the Mask of Bahlok is earned by beating The Labyrinth game, and Kavarin's Blade is earned in the Forelnaar game.

Thanks. :)