the last post info is parsed, so you can add it to the template yourself if you want to
for a shorter description find this:
PHP Code:
if (!$vboptions['showforumdescription'])
{ // blank forum description if set to not show
$forum['description'] = '';
}
and below add:
PHP Code:
$forum['description'] = substr($forum['description'], 0, 50);
to just get the first 50 chars of a description