Is there really a purpose for all of the stars and names for just making post? What good is this to us?

I worked for a Behavioral Psychology association and (even though I was their financial manager, I picked up on some of their buzz words and key terms) I believe this would be an example of what they call "positive reinforcement". In laymans terms, it gives the member who posts a sense of reward for posting. The more one posts, the greater the number of stars (or as in Will'* case, the golden stars), thus the greater the reward for posting. The stars may not be enough of a reinforcer for some, but for others, they gain copious amounts of satisfaction from the number of stars they 'earn'.

(BTW, I'm not kidding about the 'positive reinforcement'. It really is a term and it really does mean what I said. And yes, I really did work for a psychological organization.)