What do the Stars by our names mean, as well as the numbers

That's just your MyLot rating as determined by the votes you receive from other users. As far as I know though they don't seem to affect much of anything other than just being bells and whistles. I wouldn't be too concerned about it though. You can still earn money here just as easily no matter what it is. After all, you'll come to realize that it will go up and down often times for no reason whatsoever. Some people are so petty here that if you have a different opinion or view, they'll rate you negatively.

I have numbers, but I have no stars...does that mean I haven't been rated yet?

Stars and the numbers, (along the color they represent are your ratings ). I can see that you have a rating of 9 which is relevantly good with your posts! Since mylot is for the quality of posts, that rating would show how members think of your posts, how would they rate your posts. Suppossdly, we should rate people's post because of the content of their posts, not just because of personal opinions and stuff. But sometimes, some people rate you negatively because they think that you have a very different point of view, and that is not the response that they are asking for.

Thanks for asking the question. I have often wondered that myself. Does anyone know how to make the number go up. I like to have high numbers.