As mentioned, your "Group" is still "Validating". You need to find the email you should have received when you joined the forum and click the link to validate your membership. It would have come from a gmail.com domain so make sure you can receive emails from that domain. Check your junk mail folders. If you can't find it, you can have it resent here.
ok got new validation email sent and have validated. did it by going to lost password bit.
but my account still says validating. does it take a while to work after you validate it?
It should be immediate. Validation just requires clicking the link near the bottom of the email and then logging in once the new browser opens to the log in page. Not sure about the password thing.