For a brief period during mid-2003, if you were browsing
MetaFilter you might have seen a User Name (the name labeling a post) with a gold star preceding it. The gold star was given out by
MattHaughey at his sole discretion. However,
MattHaughey [changed his mind] about gold stars in June 2003 and removed them from the website.
Gold Stars given out to date
It's probably a good idea to describe a graphic hosted off-site, in case of link rot.