Im not on 3.6 so i cant really speak for it , but i edited the
first_post template in 3.5 to suit my needs and it worked out quite well.
I added things like
Code:
<if condition="$post[postcount] == ''"><br><b>Original Post:</b></if>
and also
Code:
<if condition="$post[postcount] != ''">HERE I PUT IN THE SECTION WITH THE USERNAMES POST COUNTS , ETC ETC </if>
so that the initial post on the top of the page looked a lot different.
I had some changes if it was the initial post , and excluded other sections for the same reason.
The initial post ended up looking like this