Well, your profile says 100+ post when you have over 100 posts. The colored bars have to do with reputation. If you notice, at the bottom left of each post there is a star ( in between the thanks and the report post icon). If you click on the star and leave a comment, you can add to that person's reputation. So for example, if you feel that some posted something particularly helpful, you can click the star icon and say, "This post gave me a lot of good information." And that will increase that person's reputation, adding to their colored bars above their picture. If you look at the forum monitors such as John or Don Lisk, you will see the full spectrum. Hope that helps. I know I was confused about it when I first joined.