Michael at WebFlyer: what I had in mind was that the hyperlink to read a thread could be generated with some additional "query" fields (which your Web server will ignore anyway, although the additional query fields may appear in the logs). For example, the URL for reading this thread ends in forum/Forum72/HTML/000159.html. If the URL were forum/Forum72/HTML/000159.html?msgs=5 instead, then my browser would display it in the unvisited color (default blue) instead the visited color (default purple). And if as soon as I actually post this reply, the server were to generate the URL with the query "?msgs=6" in the future, then my browser would yet again display it with the unvisited color.

Similarly, if the URL to visit the FlyerTalk Technical Problems forum were to include the number of threads and messages, then my browser would do the right thing. Clearly you already have that information easily accessible somewhere on your Web server, since you display the number of topics and posts in tabular format in the listing of all forums. It appears that you use a CGI script to display a forum anyway, and that CGI script already uses query syntax. You should be able to add the number of messages and the number of threads to the existing query fields without giving your CGI script any problems, I'm sure it will ignore any fields it doesn't already understand.

And while I have your ear, I have a request for enhancement from last year, which is to provide a one-lick search (analogous to search.cgi?action=getdaily) which would return all threads updated since yesterday 12:01am, so that it becomes possible to check FlyerTalk on a once-a-day basis, but with no limitations on when I visit during the day, and not miss any new or updated threads, without having to go visit a gazillion forums individually.