It’s really good idea – and it can be done, but I’m not sure of the code behind it. If it were me, I’d simply do a template edit to get it right; simply by determining the user’s status, and then using a different post CSS class to make it look different.
Some would suggest a plugin for this however. If I find a way to do it, I will let you know. 
My coding really isn’t that advanced yet, so I appreciate the help.
I have a function for WordPress that outputs some code into the class section of an item:
e.g. <li class="<?php my_custom_class_ouput_function(); ?>"> comment/thread </li>
It outputs the user’s level after a specific string (e.g. user_level_5), the author’s name after a string (e.g. author_username_bob ), is the user an author (e.g. user_is_an_author) and if the user is the author of the original thread/blog post (e.g initial_author).
You can then set up the styles as you want to display them in CSS.
I’ll have a look at porting this to BBpress later on.
I was working on a plugin, which adds a filter to the delete class and then check if the post is by topic author/mod/admin, but then stopped working on it. I’m thinking to complete that plugin soon.
Wow, that’s very encouraging.
@gautam, that would be greatly appreciated!
i had this same issue.
here’s what i did:
in /your-theme-folder/topic.php make these changes
<?php
//get user id
$user_id = get_post_author_id();
//get user role
$role = get_user_type($user_id);
// if user is a key master or Administrator add css class
if ($role == 'Key Master' || $role == 'Administrator') {
$adminclass = "class='adminpost'";
}
//otherwise don't add a class
else {
$adminclass = "";
}
?>
<!--add your css class to the li tag-->
<li id="post-<?php post_id(); ?>" <?php echo $adminclass; ?>>
then style your .adminpost class however you’d like.
hope that helps.
alanna
