What do the squares above my username mean?

[testaverde246]

I have two yellow ones. I've noticed other people have as many as four and they come in different colors too.. 

[Petrucio28]

I was actually wondering that too, to be honest...

[TheBestYoucan]

It's based on your post count.  Not exactly sure when new boxes are added though.... maybe someone else can answer or correct me? 

Let's ask a Moderator...ohhhh wait... ;)

[Petrucio28]

Just out of curiosity, why isn't gold/yellow a higher color than blue. Typically things that are blue aren't as valuable as things that are gold or yellow. Blue is cold and distant. Gold/ Yellow is warm. In my opinion...

[SandShell]

It does not appear to be post count, it sort of seems like a "status" thing. There must be some formula for calculating it, I assume based on number of posts, post quality, participation, if you answer your messages....but that is just my guess!

[Petrucio28]

It's odd because we have two people here who are top-free, but one has two yellow sqaures, while the other has four blue squares.

[Delta]

There are post-based ranks and special ranks. A special rank's stars will always override those of a post-based one. Yellow stars are used for regular groups (which include post-based groups and early-access groups like N Forum Veteran, a group for people established on other well-respected naturist sites or otherwise known to be OK despite a low post count).
Blue stars are used for some special groups like female chat and global moderator. Green is used exclusively for staff positions, five stars are used to highlight a modertor in his area of expertise while four stars are used by a more generic staff rank I am currently modelling. Red stars are special and only used for forum administrators who display that title, which is currently only Lisa and Pisco, the latter being the owner of the site. We have several other users with admin privileges, but the title is not used frequently since unlike in other communities, it does not come with significant extra privileges or a superior hierarchial position.
Regarding the post count boundaries, it is not that hard to figure it out yourself.

Most permissions are automatically granted or taken away by the system, most noticably some features opening up as your post count increases, but we can influence a lot of that stuff manually as well. Oh, and I have heard stories of big blobs of low-valued posts somehow simply not counting, so just posting for permissions is probably a bad idea.

[Petrucio28]

Thank you for explaining how the squares are divided up, Delta. That does make a lot of sense, now I just have to try to remember them so that I have a better idea of who I am talking to, and how to read the squares. :)
Again, thank you.

[Delta]

No need to. You can always see any special ranks above the post-based ones. Unless they are not displayed, but then the stars will not help you either.