http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3r3rrr/

Another angel get it's wings?

LOL @ your link. I think the same thing. And then I look to see who started the thread. -__-

Every time I see a grayed out topic, I click on it.

They stand out.. quite a lot, which is rather counter to what I thought the intention would be.

But yeah, though it is understandable why they chose to make downvoted the same as read, it is rather annoying.

Downvoted topics should be in garish, flashing colours. With annoying embedded midis when you click on them.

I can usually tell if I've already read a topic, but the down voted topics that I'm trying to follow are a bit trickier. I'm not perceptive enough to take note of the last post times.

Yeah, it's not very clear which is which. I suppose the idea might be to discourage people from clicking on it because they'll think they've read it already.

So, there's a logic behind the greyed-out topics. We learn new things everyday.