How stars work: "Ratings of one's peers" or pissing match results (depending on your view and your chosen role) are AVERAGED. Could happen that "two clowns" might both rate you a two-star type guy but I doubt it. (2+2)/2=2. More likely that, assuming both have an interest in this back-room bashing, each would give you the old 1 or minimum rating in which case (1+1)/2=1. A much more likely genesis of your puny little galaxy is that one of your "peers" who values your contributions but prizes his rep for "stern yet fair" has given you a 4 and each of the clowns a 1. (4+1+1)/3=2.
Avoid friends who think that the stars are cumulative and want to start you on this journey with the smallest of merit badges, knowing that you should, and will, fight yourself to the top one star at a time. First rule of stars: Have a few family members or friends register and each rate you a 5 (assuming you can trust them to do so). After a while you will lose stars but also sink into the undifferentiated middle where a 5 or 1 doesn't do a lot to your little row of merit badges.
I think it's interesting that Steve thinks he's a "Full" based on the "Browning system". The old board, as opposed to the old, old board probably, had a lot of graphic bells & whistles and I think instead of stars you got double muzzles or muzzles of doubles. The ideal is that stars provide a shorthand for peer review and produce a "marked" hierarchy of wisdom and expertise. In some undisputed cases, it has done exactly that; most of the time it's just another way to take the piss out of somebody. We'd get along fine without it.
jack
