Kostas is right. The meanings are shown at the bottom of the page when you list one of the boards. Like the emoticons and the BBCode capability, I'm lukewarm about it, but it's a standard part of the phpbb software package; as such, it's much easier to leave in than to take out.
Basically, the translation is as follows:
- - if the symbol is orange, that means that there have been new posts in that topic since your last visit.
- if the symbol is white, that means no new posts.
- the symbol flashes for "popular" topics (more than 5 messages)
- if the symbol looks like a padlock, the topic is locked; it can be read, but no new messages can be posted. This is set to occur automatically for "inactive" topics (no messages are posted for 30 days).
- the "i" symbol identifies an announcement. These can only be generated by an administrator, and always stay at the top of the listing.
- the "!" symbol identifies "sticky" messages, which always stay near the top of the list (just below the announcements). A topic can only be made "sticky" by an administrator.
For the moment, anyway, I'm the only adminstrator . . .
