Hi, I'm just wondering if it's better to use 2 different colors for the link before visited and the visited link? Does it make the visitors browsing more friendly especially on forums or wouldn't it matter that much?
I think thats a matter of opinion. I always use the same color for link and vlink because i always want my site to look the same. A random purple link in the middle of a bunch of white ones just does'nt do it for me. But....how ever you like it and whatever you think is more accessible to visitors.
I think it's good practice from a usability standpoint, specially on forum, you can easily see the threads you have already visited.
I personally don't like the look in most cases. But as monty said it might be useful for a forum. But all in all, most forums use icons to know if it has been visited. At least go with a color that is similar to your site though... purple ones look unprofessional in my opinion.
I just use 1 color. I just find that it looks much more better due to conformity with the rest of the site.
Having separate colors for link states is recommended from a usability standpoint. You don't have to use the defaults of course, but make them stand out (contrast) from each other. This is also a wondeful opportunity to reinforce your site's overall color scheme. Such practices should not be limited to forums, but should be used regardless of what kind of Web site you're running. A case could be made for the main menu, in which case I'd keep the link and visited states the same, but set different colors for the hover/active/focus/ states and also for the current page the user is on.