[pgb]

The widget my users are used to from vBportal showed a specific number of recent threads. If a thread contained unread posts, the thread title would be bold and there would be a small icon right in front of the title to take you to the first unread post.

This was a convenient way to see if there was new activity on the CMS page without having to click on "what's new". The existing widgets don't provide any indication that there are new posts.

I've got a closed forum supporting an almuni group and our posting level is rather low, so the widget described above worked very well. Obviously, if you had a higher posting rate, this might not work as well since there might be new posts in the threads beyond the number that you are displaying.

That's why I suggested a widget that has content similat to the "what's new" page. It should always show threads with unread posts first (bold with a icon to take you to the first unread post) and if there are no unead posts, it should just display recent threads (not in bold) as backup.