Left side icons

[Railroaded]

What do the icons at the left side of the message listings stand for? (one looks like a scrolling letter with a star, one looks like a padlock?)

-B in B

[Lehighton_Man]

The icons you speak of, are just small animations depicting the thread status. Scrolling text means its a "Hot Topic" with more than 20 posts. The star means you have contributed in the thread. The Padlock is a Locked Thread, which means that it is accessible, but posting is not allowed, unless you are a Moderator/Admin.
HTH,
Sean

[Otto Vondrak]

What do the icons at the left side of the message listings stand for? (one looks like a scrolling letter with a star, one looks like a padlock?)

-B in B

The scrolling means an active topic that gets a lot of responses.

The lock means a moderator has locked the thread and that discussion has ended for the time being.

See also: http://railroad.net/forums/faq.php

-otto-