>Well it doesn't sound so bad to me. Is there some way it could be tried on a trial basis to see what people think?
>Alternately, a no auto-expand by forum would do the trick for me.

Well, the coloring syntax works ok as long as I don't click on a message. When I click on it, by default, the visited color will change. Assuming someone wouldn't want the visited color to be different when a message is clicked, that would be ok.

I have enabled it for you. So, you will be able to see. Try Time Warp and go back 12 to 24 hours. You'll get messages from various forums.

If you want the no auto-expand option to be enabled, do you think you would still see a need for the coloring syntax to alternate between forums?