The forums use a bunch of icons, some of which are defined at the bottom of a forum page or the bottom of the message windows. What, for example, do the various colored dots next to sender's names on postings mean? How are tags like newbie, member, etc. assigned (I understand administrative tags like moderator )?

Is there be a sticky thread (or something else) somewhere that defines such things? If so, I missed it and apologize for taking up space with this. If not, could one be created?

Thanks!