I don’t know if you can see this or not but let’s give it a try: https://meta.eveonline.com/badges
That is an overview of the available badges. The getting started badges are really a badge of honour.
The badges that symbolise your access level is the Trust Level badges. If you click on each of those you should see a description that explains what access they get.
If you cannot see those descriptions for some reason poke me and I will get you the information
Are they tied to the forum privileges at all?
I was under the impression that the tutorials got you the badges “Certified” and “Licenced”. I think the forum privileges are tide to activity, as in locked behind a certain amount of posts, replies, likes given and received etc.
EDIT: Mixed up “Basic” and “Certified”.
The fact that we both are not sure about this already goes to show that this is simply confusing for the average user
This overview should actually get displayed in the personal preferences tab under “badges”
So if I got this right… Trust level 2 and 3 are unobtainable (at present) for normal users unless you got it added bacuse you’re a mod or an ISD member etc.?
Member
This badge is granted when you reach trust level 2. Thanks for participating over a period of weeks to truly join our community. You can now send invitations from your user page or individual topics, create group personal messages, and have a few more likes per day.
Regular
This badge is granted when you reach trust level 3. Thanks for being a regular part of our community over a period of months. You’re now one of the most active readers, and a reliable contributor that makes our community great. You can now recategorize and rename topics, take advantage of more powerful spam flags, access a private lounge area, and you’ll also get lots more likes per day.
It doesn’t say clearly what is required but clearly none of us have been a member on here for weeks or months.
So hopefully to clarify the forum privileges. Eve pilots have the basic level unlock:
all essential community abilities, such as personal messaging, flagging, wiki editing, and the ability to post multiple images and links.
You will get this unlock for reading and posting in forum topics. The tutorial badges (as far as I know) are more a show and tell thing.
All other privileged levels are set by CCP.
The tutorial badges give you no additional privileges.
They’re worth going through, so you know how to use the forums, but there’s no requirement to doing so.
You gain the basic privileges by reading a number of topics, and by posting. This is, in part, to reduce spam, by making people work a bit to get the privileges.
(just to confirm what you’re saying 
)
errr where is my forum inbox then?
(yes its a stupid question I know but I’m old and confused)
Press G + M. From there look for the message sent by Discobot. Hope that helps 
Well yes it does BUT why is it not displayed somewhere to click?
How am I supposed to know there is a forum inbox / mail if its not displayed anywhere?
(once again, sorry for being stupid)
When you first signed up you should have received a notification. You can access the notification/s by clicking on the picture of your character and then clicking the notification from the list that interests you. I believe there is also a visual element that points you towards this the very first time you log in.
Failing that, if you are ever unsure of the hotkeys on the forums try pressing ? to see a list of actions, including the G + M .
Thanks