Call me stupid but after a year hanging out here I still don't totally get what the colors and bolding are suppose to tell me.

I know that stuff I haven't read is blue and stuff I have read is red. The newest stuff is bold. How does it decide to switch from bold (new) to not bold (not new)?

I don't think it is a today vs. yesterday thing, because currently some of today's new threads are not bolded. And sometimes when I check in multiple times during a day I notice things that I plan to read but haven't yet switch from bold to not bold.

And why are some names in red in a group of names like in a poll?

Sometimes I think it is people that I have exchanged private messages recently, but in this poll example there are people in red that I haven't pm'd for 9 months and other people that I have pm'd more recently that are in blue.

And in advance, just let me say .