When the first post in a topic gets down rated and hidden does that somehow make the topic be marked as read even if I never clicked on it? For, I have seen a few forum topics I don't remember ever clicking on and it being the darker gray text like I read it. When I clicked on on of those topics it turns out the first post was hidden so I'm guessing that when a first post gets a lot of negative ratings that it counts the whole topic as read. I just want to see if that is the case or if it is something else.

Yes, you're exactly right.

Yes.

edit: damn ninja's, they're everywhere i tell you

That is the case. You can see all posts by clicking on "My Settings" and unchecking the box saying "hide posts with a negative rating"

Oh i don't mind having posts been hidden what i wanted to simply know if if a topic gets marked as read if the first post in a topic got a negative rating. Wanted to know cause even if the first post in a topic isn't good, future posts in the topic may still be worth reading..

You mean people actually go to the trouble of clicking the negative icon if it's something they don't like/agree with?? Wow, I've never done that, and likely never will. The only one I ever click on is the positive one to give rep.

That explains why my posts sometimes don't get answered though. :P

Oddly enough, they're usually hidden for poor reason. Our community is failing in its self moderation at the moment, as the downrep buttons have become weapons as opposed to informative feedback. So it's worth nosing in on the topic, just to see what's really going on.

Yes... whenever you see a post that is marked "low rated" at least five (?) people have clicked the red minus button.

Even though other people said yes first this post answered my question most explicitly. The other posts just said "yes" or went into an explanation that wasn't about what I was asking. I knew about how hidden posts worked, I just wasn't sure if it caused the rest of the topic to be dark gray if the first post was hidden.

If it is the topic i'm thinking of then that topic is what made me think about this to begin with cause I was thinking I wouldn't have clicked on a topic like that! lol I checked to see if other topics on gog had the dark gray that I never clicked on and I found one. And then was curious if this was a normal thing on GOG.