Stars Next to our Names

[JoePCool14]

What do they mean?

[NE2]

They mean you're looking at the screen sideways.

[JoePCool14]

Yes, that is totally what they mean 

[hotdogPi]

You get a yellow star at 25, 50, 75, 100, and 200 posts.

At 500 posts, the 5 yellow stars get replaced with a blue star.

You get another blue star at 1000, 1500, 3000, and 5000 posts.



Regional moderator is 1 red star, global moderator is 3 red stars, and admin is 5 red stars.

DOT employee = 1 green star, and agentsteel53 has 2 green stars.

[sammi]

To expand more, because I got curious myself and dug into the SMF docs.

The forum software puts us into membergroups. There are two kinds, the standard group and the post-based group.

(AARoads specific)
The post-based membergroups are:
0 - Trail
25 - Side Road ()
50 - Arterial ()
75 - Viaduct ()
100 - Trafficway ()
200 - County Route ()
500 - State Highway ()
1000 - Expressway ()
1500 - Turnpike ()
3000 - Freeway ()
5000 - Interstate ()

And then the standard membergroups:
Member (which the rest of us are in and is unlabeled)
Regional Moderator ()
Global Moderator ()
Admin ()
DOT Employee ()
Site Contributor* ()

[Molandfreak]

Formerly, there was also State Property ()

[JoePCool14]

I only have 101 posts?? I have over 200!

[Alps]

I only have 101 posts?? I have over 200!

It is not a contest.

[Duke87]

So here's a question: why is regional mod one bronze star but global mod then three? Is there some theoretical intermediate status which would have two bronze stars that this forum does not use?

And another: we know there is a post-based rank beyond "Interstate" but the only person who has it is a site contributor and thus does not have post-based stars. If someone were to reach that rank without earning any bronze or green star status, what would their stars look like? Still just five blue stars? One star of some other color?

[Zeffy]

To expand more, because I got curious myself and dug into the SMF docs.

This sort of thing has been around for awhile now. I believe the old Invision Power Board 1.3 (you know, the old Invisionfree software if you were around for that sort of thing), PHPBB², vBulletin 3.0+, Ikonboard, etc. all had member ranks.

It's just a bulletin board feature, to group members based on how much they post. Or in special cases,  they are used to denote the position of power the user has. But a lot of the times, instead of stars, images are used that are designed especially for that position.

Speaking of which, I made a few ranking images for the higher-ups on AARoads. If any of the staff wants to see them and possibly apply them to the forum (because stars are boring) just send me a PM.

[Brandon]

I only have 101 posts?? I have over 200!

It is not a contest.

Oh sure it is.  And right now, Jake is winning.  He likes the forum way, way too much. 

[US71]

I only have 101 posts?? I have over 200!

This is # 3744 for me

[hotdogPi]

These post counts also correspond with the color of your name on the "currently online" and "online today" lists on the main page.

[hbelkins]

Quality beats quantity any day of the week. Except in Alanland.

[Alps]

So here's a question: why is regional mod one bronze star but global mod then three? Is there some theoretical intermediate status which would have two bronze stars that this forum does not use?

And another: we know there is a post-based rank beyond "Interstate" but the only person who has it is a site contributor and thus does not have post-based stars. If someone were to reach that rank without earning any bronze or green star status, what would their stars look like? Still just five blue stars? One star of some other color?

We could assign any number of any color of stars. So we just decided that there was no need for a 2-bronze or 4-bronze status. Similarly, there's nothing above 2 green stars.
As for the latter question, I would snarkily say "find out!", but here's a hint: The color doesn't change for the next rank, but the number does.
Here's another hint: That's not the last rank.

[froggie]

Formerly, there was also State Property ()

Theoretically, this one should be reinstated and applied to me for the next 4 months...

[oscar]

Something related, for those who really want to be competitive, you can always compare your time spent on this forum to those of other users. Thankfully, you have to dig a little for it. I'm actually alarmed by my own number (which I try to minimize, but sometimes I forget to jump off the forum before going to bed), which suggests I need to get a life

[Zeffy]

Something related, for those who really want to be competitive, you can always compare your time spent on this forum to those of other users. Thankfully, you have to dig a little for it. I'm actually alarmed by my own number (which I try to minimize, but sometimes I forget to jump off the forum before going to bed), which suggests I need to get a life

9d 5h 28m at the time of this post. I have a feeling that this is a little high...

[Alps]

Something related, for those who really want to be competitive, you can always compare your time spent on this forum to those of other users. Thankfully, you have to dig a little for it. I'm actually alarmed by my own number (which I try to minimize, but sometimes I forget to jump off the forum before going to bed), which suggests I need to get a life

9d 5h 28m at the time of this post. I have a feeling that this is a little high...

Considering I'm at 33 days with over 7x your # of posts - and I read EVERY post just about every day - maybe.

[NE2]

It can't be an exact number, since the forum software has no way of knowing how much time you actually spend reading, when you take breaks, etc.

PS: 77 days here.

[Alex]

The time recorded function times out eventually, so if you leave the forum on for 12 hours and do nothing, it does not register 12 hours of time logged on.

How the hell that MightyAce guy had his time so high is beyond me though.

[oscar]

It can't be an exact number, since the forum software has no way of knowing how much time you actually spend reading, when you take breaks, etc.

PS: 77 days here.

It apparently can tell when you've switched to some other website, or shut down your browser or computer (even without logging out).  Right?

77 days, 8900+ posts.  You're a more efficient poster than I am.  Steve does even better, almost as many posts in less than half the time (and as an admin, he reads most every post, which I definitely don't).  Good for you both.

[hotdogPi]

I believe the cutoff is 15 minutes.

[Jardine]

Any special star (or whatever) for reaching a certain number of posts in Alanland ??




Or maybe a star is or isn't awarded ?

[Duke87]

I believe the cutoff is 15 minutes.

Yep, 15 minutes.

Furthermore, if you stay on a single page for more than 15 minutes, it does not give you 15 minutes of logged in time. It gives you 0 minutes of logged in time. You go over the limit, you lose it all.