Thank you for tagging me in this thread
@Lil, I wasn't previously aware of it.
There's no big deep meaning to the ratings. I've been a forum admin since 1999 and have installed 3 different developer's software platforms for forums. Each platform had built in ratings systems because, frankly, most every social media platform includes some type of ratings. It's just what they build in.
Notable members is also a function built into our current platform, xenforo. It is basically a post count feature, nothing more than that. The database for this community has been around since 1999. That's a long time but the post count on this forum is not accurate, for the following reason.
I remember when I first stumbled upon this community. I was a struggling mom seeking support and advice about parenting my wayward teen daughter. Initially I spent a lot of time here interacting with the members. Then things in my parenting journey calmed down and I didn't come back for a couple of months. When my daughter went off the rails again I returned to read the supportive advice I had been given in response to my posts, but that had all disappeared. I contacted the admin to find out what happened to my posts and was told that she routinely deleted threads, including all of mine. It was never made clear to me what the criteria was to delete threads, but it looks like most of the members on the notable list are old timers who must not of had their posts deleted. The previous admin's decision to regularly delete posts has skewed the current notable members list.
I have rarely ever looked at that list, but I just took a look. Most of the members on that list no longer participate here. Many of them haven't participated for years. One hasn't posted here since 2008. I know three of them passed away a few years ago.
It would be easy to judge this community's notable list to be biased if you didn't know it's simply a post count tally. I guess it basically is biased based upon the previous admin's decision to routinely delete threads for whatever reason. Please accept my apology for the confusion.