Bar Color?

Ok...I've been here for about 7 months now, and I think I've got this place pretty well figured out by now. But, one thing I'm still not so sure about is the differnt colors in peoples bars. I know that the more posts you make, the longer the bar gets (as you can see by placing your curser over the bar). And I assume that the brighter the color the better. But, what or who determines the "brightness" level of ones bar?

Orage bars = mods/supermods/admin
The more applauds one gets from staff, the redder one's bar gets.
It's quite simple.

Thank You much! It would seem that judging by my oh-so-grey bar, I am lacking in the department of staff applause

I don't know about that my instead of getting darker pink is getting lighter pink so I guess is working the other way for me.