what does the number in brackets besides my username?

I see that some people are calling it 'ranking', whereas the proper name for it is 'User Rating'. In MyLot's terminology, 'ranking' means something different (and, in fact, in English, the two words mean different things). I can see why many people are confused about these terms! MyLot uses the term 'User Rating' for the number in brackets by your name. The 'star', which will appear by your name when you reach a User Rating of 100, represents your MyLot Reputation and will depend entirely on how other users have rated your posts using the '+' and '-' buttons. 'Ranking' is used in connection with Interests which you have joined and is supposed to show how active you have been in that particular interest ... sort of, how 'expert' you are in that interest. The way it is calculated is complicated (and not very well explained by MyLot). The more that you have posted in a particular interest (either as discussions, responses or comments) and the more '+' ratings you have for those posts, the lower the number is likely to be (the highest ranking being "1st out of xxxx"). As you can see (in grey next to our usernames above), I have: "ranked 1,659 out of 20,320 in questions & answers" and you have "ranked 14,111 out of 20,320 in questions & answers". My number is lower than yours (I have a higher rank) because I have probably responded and commented in far more 'questions & answers' discussions than you have. You don't need to worry too much about these numbers. Your User Rating is significant because it allows you certain 'privileges' when it reaches certain levels: 100, you will see your MyLot Reputation star and you will be able to rate other people's posts 200, you will be able to use emoticons ('smileys' like , or ) 500, you will be able to copy and paste more than just a few characters and you will also be able to attach images to responses and comments. When you can see your 'star' (MyLot Reputation), you will probably want it to be as high as possible (the maximum is 10) because that shows how much other members have rated your posts as being 'good', 'valuable' or 'of high quality'. The more you try to be relevant, helpful and descriptive in every response, comment and discussion you post, the more likely people are to give you '+' ratings and the higher the value of the star you will have when it appears. You will also find that your earnings will be higher because how people rate your posts is also used in calculating your earnings.

Oh, thanks again friend, but it does not mean the ranking that I have? and your answer is very complete. So now I am going to be the first in answering the quesitons.

Thanks I thought that the number in brackets wasequal to my cents earned. I am new in this site and I also would like to know as much as I can so that I use it correctly. And Yes, I am going to take this easy for not getting anzious with the figures.

i thought the same thing when i first started out... everyone has to larn somewhere and i learned from a fellow mylotter also. i hope you were able to take advantage of the quadrple earnings the past 2 days they really helped a lot!! either way with time you will see how to earn more and more. this is a great site and even tho i am not earning a lot at a time i will never leave it!! i enjoy my time here!!

Thank you mylot friend. Is important to clear my doubts when I use mylot and thus I can use it and make more money, thats why I asked so many questions.

Thank you very much you are very kind. Some answerers tell me that it is the ranking number and others say that it is the number of discussions started or comments. So I am confused