Wassup. If you go to that article there's some links you can look at. The website can get pretty confusing, but you'll get acclimated to it in a little bit. I'm sure someone will post some much more helpful info than me, but if you're still lost send a message to someone from the Welcoming Committee (their group is in the link also). Just kind of click on some links and you'll get it soon enough. Those little icons are just to signify if there are a lot of posts in the thread or not. If it's clear then there aren't any, but if it's colored in then it's a hot topic. I'm pretty sure there's a picture that explains what all of them are, but I don't have it. It's really not that important. A gold shield means an employee has replied to the thread I think.