Cassie-b

What are the ***’s for?

Sometimes there are little ***’s by names of people in my Links spot on the right hand side of the screen. 

Excuse my lack of knowledge, but I just don’t know what they mean.  They aren’t always the same, and it’s starting to bug me. 

Anyone willing to educate me on this one? (sorry, I’m still kind of new, well not THAT new, but I still don’t know the answer to this one. )