[nCODE]

OOO... this looks awesome!!

is there by chance make the avatar the status icon? like totally opaque if there's an unread post and make it 50% transparent if there's no unread post and also a nice border will be awesome...

THANKS!!

anyways, here's something from me:
for a nice border, you have to do the following

[NOTE: You can only use this if you have upgraded to the newer version: 1.01]

Go to: AdminCP --> Styles & Templates --> The "<<>>" button of your template
select Additional.css from CSS Templates and add this at the very bottom:

/**
* Avatar border by nCODE
*/
a.aw-avatar 
{ 
    *cursor: pointer; /* IE7 refuses to do this */ 
} 

.aw-avatar img,
.aw-avatar .img,
.aw-avatarCropper
{
    background-color: rgb(252, 252, 255);
padding: 2px;
border: 1px solid #a5cae4;
border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius:  4px; -moz-border-radius:  4px; -khtml-border-radius:  4px;

}


    .aw-avatar .img
    {
        display: block;
        background-repeat: no-repeat;
        background-position: 2px 2px;
        text-indent: 1000px;
        overflow: hidden;
        white-space: nowrap;
        word-wrap: normal;
    }

then you have to edit the threadbit template:
find:

<a href="{vb:link member, {vb:raw thread}, null, 'postuserid',  'postusername'}"><img height="32px" width="32px"  style="float:left;margin-right:4px" src="{vb:raw thread.avatarurl}"  border="0" /></a>

replace with:

<a class="aw-avatar" href="{vb:link member, {vb:raw thread},  null, 'postuserid', 'postusername'}"><img height="32px"  width="32px" style="float:left;margin-right:4px" src="{vb:raw  thread.avatarurl}" border="0" /></a>

find:

<a href="{vb:link member, {vb:raw thread}, null,  'lastposterid', 'lastposter'}"><img height="32px" width="32px"  style="float:left;margin-right:4px" src="{vb:raw  thread.lastposteravatarurl}" border="0" /></a>

replace with:

<a class="aw-avatar" href="{vb:link member, {vb:raw thread},  null, 'lastposterid', 'lastposter'}"><img height="32px"  width="32px" style="float:left;margin-right:4px" src="{vb:raw  thread.lastposteravatarurl}" border="0" /></a>

Edit forumhome_forumbit_level1_post and forumhome_forumbit_level2_post templates as follows.

Find:

<a href="{vb:link member, {vb:raw forum}, null, 'real_lastposterid', 'real_lastposter'}"><img height="48px" width="48px" style="float:left;margin-right:4px" src="{vb:raw forum.avatarurl}" border="0" /></a>

Replace with:

<a class="aw-avatar" href="{vb:link member, {vb:raw forum}, null, 'real_lastposterid', 'real_lastposter'}"><img height="48px" width="48px" style="float:left;margin-right:4px" src="{vb:raw forum.avatarurl}" border="0" /></a></a>

P.S. This same coding can also be found here