what does thread rating mean

[irish rebel]

Guys I made another post and now I see 5 red thingy's after it sand it has something about 5 votes and thread rating...Can someone explain?

[mchatel]

People can rate threads in the forums. Maybe someone was reading an especially helpful thread, that got them through some software problem. Or maybe it was just a general discussion thread, that they found really interesting (or not). Either way... they can rate the thread, so that others might have an idea if it was good or bad.

The 5 votes, means that 5 people voted (or rated) that thread, at the time. :)

Hope that answers your question.
FYI. For the future, you will want to use a general discussion forum or something similar, as this really isn't a "Desktop" issue for Ubuntu.