Hi Randy,
I'm not entirely sure what you are referring to. If you are looking at a list of discussion threads (say you're looking at
The Kitchen), there may be icons displayed to the left of every post. These are chosen by the author of the first post in the thread. There are also a few symbols that can be shown to the right of each thread title:

-> tag symbol - indicates the thread has been "tagged". If you hover the mouse pointer over this image, it will list the words that have been "tagged" to the thread.

-> contains deleted posts - I'm not sure if this symbol is shown to everyone or just moderators

- sticky thread - thread is "pinned" to the top of the forum.
If you were referring to something else, let me know.