I just thought it might be cool to have the unread posts part (or all of it. I just use the Unread Posts) check x seconds for updates to posts. That way you can just leave the page up and people can come back and see they have new posts without reloading the page. Cyb's Forum Stats shows latest posts with ajax and its pretty cool.
As always, you can always make it optional for those that don't want to see the performance impact. Just a thought