Forum - Post Info

A member's posts on the Forum display various information about the member. Additional things, such as your personal avatar may show in this section. Here are some of the things you might see in the "Author" column beside a post: Real Name The member's real or displayed name. Example: (John Doe) Member Group Every registered member of this forum is in a member group based on their post count.  Sometimes the forum staff may create member groups to assign to certain members. These groups may have private boards that only they can see, read, and reply to. Example: Prolific (100 plus posts) Stars A visual representation of the volume and frequency of a member's postings. Example: Post Counter The number of posts written to date Example: Posts: 143 IP Address On the bottom right of a post, just above the beginning of the next post, you might notice something like "LOGGED". This refers to a member's IP Address, which is a unique number that identifies the member by his connection to the Internet anywhere on the Internet. Any action on the Forum (registering, posting, Private Messaging, and so forth) causes the system to save the member's IP Address. While you may see "LOGGED", the Forum Staff sees the actual IP Address of the member. Thus, regardless of the information listed in the member's profile, Forum Staff will always be able to identify an individual member. This is done to protect the general membership and the Forum itself. In extreme cases, the Forum Staff may use an abusive member's IP Address to prevent that member from returning to the Forum. Example: Logged