The stars designate your membergroup and are usually based on number of posts. Things are slightly different here with the upgrade-to-full-access arrangement. Two stars mean you're a bonafide Hypercritter with full access, while the term "Newbie" designates the number of posts you make, and it's that which changes as you rack up number of posts.
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There ya go--now you're all 9 star generals. XD
What do five blue boxes mean?
Boxes of any color indicate staff member. Blue is Moderator, red is Admin. Mine's blue because I named myself moderator. If I don't do that then I don't get notified of somebody hitting the Report button. SMF is funny that way. Green would be Global Moderator.