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I've got asterixes showing up next to some of the posts in a seemingly random manner. Did I miss a memo?

This is an intentional change, see lego's post here for more details.

Basically it's to alert people when the OP of a thread has posted (mostly usable in large project threads)

Thanks. knew there was a post somewhere I hadn't read.

I really like the new feature, especially in the modelling forums - while a lot of "Thank you!" or "Great work!" posts certainly are much needed and helpful, OP posting or updating a thread with, e.g., new pictures is quite a bit more helpful for the average user =)