how is the member list set up on here?. as i realise it's not alphabetical or anything

 

if someone is at the top, does that mean they are active, or something

 

or is their no order at all and the members just displayed randomly

the Members List by default is setup to order by Member Name in ascending order. The filters you see when you open the page are the ones used. The reason it doesn't look alphabetical is the special characters are also taken into account (#,! etc) which take priority in the alphabetical sort order over normal A-Z characters.

If you are referring to the list of members at the bottom of the list of forums, they are listed in order of recent activity.