You want to move the link to the new posts (View First Unread) to next to the pagination numbers? Just find and move this code in the SHOWTHREAD template to where you want it:
HTML Code:
<div class="smallfont">
<if condition="$show['firstunreadlink']">
<a href="$firstunread"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/firstnew.gif" alt="$vbphrase[view_first_unread]" border="0" /></a>
<a href="$firstunread"><strong>$vbphrase[view_first_unread]</strong></a>
</if>
</div>
If you don't want posts to count for that forum, you would do it in the Forum Manager.