i'm always struggling with external pages
 

how hard would it be to query the last 9 active users and display just their avatars on an external page?

i would like to make a module on my main site that has a 3x3 list of avatars under the title 'Recent Members'.

i see the following in one of the templates but i'm not sure where to get started with this hint.

<if condition="$show['avatar']"><td class="alt2"><a href="member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$post[userid]"><img src="$post[avatarurl]" $post[avwidth] $post[avheight] alt="<phrase 1="$post[username]">$vbphrase[xs_avatar]</phrase>" border="0" /></a></td></if>

Check the query used on the page that template is used on. You should be able to see how they are getting the information to spit out the avatar of the user.