If anyone knows why the dates turn red they are keeping it a well guarded secret. This question is often asked here. I asked it myself when I was a newbie. Frankly I'm still trying to figure it out. Some theories have been put forth but, so far none knows.

the Holy Grail or the Meaning of Life. We will never find the answer!  

The date of a post seem to turn red after about a day or so.

This feature seems to serve to distinguish newer and older posts on the same thread (especially on the general board where members are submitting newer comments on threads that originated several days prior). That way you can quickly check to see if anyone commented on a comment on someone else's comment on another comment... you just look for the black dates amidst the red!

It's a CIA tracking system. LOL. Actually I have no clue either. It is one of those mysteries of the universe. No one including the moderators knows. If admin knows, they aren't saying. Sexyangelique69'S theory has been suggested before, but proven wrong (as you just did). Many other theories have been proposed but proven wrong. Everytime somebody thinks they figured it out, when you really look at it, whatever they figured out turns out to not be consistant. Maybe some day someone will figure it out, but for now it is a mystery of the board

OK sexyangelique69 is right about the
black dates in bold being new and older
dates in thin black numbers.

But as far as red goes it must be an old
software tool that is no longer available...

My original post in this thread was red, and
I clicked on it and viewed it in a flat listing
rather than the "tree" style.   And there is
a "edit  message" link, I clicked on it and
it wouldn't let me edit my message.  But when
I went back to the board I refreshed my
screen and the red date of my original
turned to black again.