The stars and rank represent how active you are on the forum. The more posts you have, the higher your rank. I'm not sure entirely how the stars work, but I think the moderators have red stars. That or they're randomly generated every time you post and they just happen to come up the same every time
red equals moderator. Its set so every so that once you past a certain post amount you get promoted.... such as around 150 you go to captain i believe? maybe Lt or something like that. Then eventually captain... not sure anyones gone higher than captain yet or if Justin even set anymore higher than that.