I've noticed different ranks under people's pictures on the forums, things like "Novice" or "Alcoyte" paired with sets of stars. Just curious about how they work.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/724862-forum-rules-and-general-information/page__view__findpost__p__10470695

Forum ranks are assigned automatically according to your post-count. Stars indicate forum ranks above a certain level.

Layman - 0 posts
Novice - 10 posts
Initiate - 50 posts
Acolyte - 100 posts
Adept - 200 posts
Curate - 400 posts (1 gold star)
Disciple - 1,000 posts (2 gold stars)
Diviner - 2,000 posts (3 gold stars)
Master - 5,000 posts (4 gold stars)
Patriarch - 10,000 posts (5 gold stars)
Archpatriarch - 30,000 posts (6 gold stars)

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/724862-forum-rules-and-general-information/page__p__10470695#entry10470695