Stars and rating

The best explanation is probably in the FAQs under the headings User Rating & myLot Reputation and DRS - Discussion Rating System: http://www.mylot.com/o/faq.aspx . Your star is based on the positive and negative ratings you get for discussions and responses. We are not told exactly how it is calculated but I think that it is more complicated than just a ratio of total posts to those which have been rated plus or minus. Basically, your 'star' gives an indication of whether you consistently give good quality responses and make good quality discussions. Inevitably, if you speak your mind, there will be a few people who give you negative ratings. As you see, I have a '9 star'. I am quite happy with that. It means that, mostly, I give responses that people value and that a few people have taken exception to what I have written. When you have only a hundred or so next to your username, the star number can vary a little. This is nothing to worry about: it will settle down after a while. Very often, if you make a large number of posts at once, it will drop until people begin to rate them. Many people are more concerned about their 'star' rating than they need to be. If you always try to give good value and quality in your responses, your star will show whether other people think that you are!