I think that's the new feature that tell if a certain post is useful or not...
Ex : You're the guy who ask a question and somebody gives a REALLY useful response... I think you can put stars beside them using a new option they add on April 12th...or so I heard.

>I've been seeing these gold stars beside some of the posts here and was curious what those were for. I just noticed them a few days ago and thought someone else would ask - obviously - everyone else knows what they're for (or they don't care). Please fill me in.
>
>Thanks.