Q:
forum post ratings
After enough votes (number is not known) a symbol will apear in form of a ‘thumbs up hand’. There are different stages with a star in the hand and it being underlined.
Edit: Current example
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-a-new-player-feels-about-today-s-changes/first#post4387521
To add to Danikat’s answer, you can chose for yourself if others can look at your upvoted posts, somewhere in the settings.
Edit II: Here the official announcement in the news forum section:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Updates-to-the-Forum-1-System/first#post1393636
“Whose Charr is this?”- “Ted’s.”
“Who’s Ted?”- “Ted’s dead, baby. Ted’s dead.”
(edited by Rouven.7409)
I’m not sure what you mean by displayed post ratings but the +1 button is to show you approve of a post.
Posts that a lot of people approve of get a thumbs up icon, which then changes to a thumbs up underlined and then with a star in the middle if a lot of people click it.
It’s a quick way of showing which posts a lot of people agree with without having lots of ‘I agree’ to scroll past.
You can also see which of your posts (or anyone elses) were highly rated by clicking on their name.
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”