what does the star beside mylotters names stand for?

Okay lets see if I can explain this right. The number in the parenthesis is the amount of posts you have made, etc. The level is how high you rank in a certain interest, by the amount of posts you have made, the higher the level. The star is your reputation, which is pretty much your ratings. In order to get a star you need 100+ posts, positive ratings and high levels. Hope that helped.