I think you can set up a forum so that only new threads are moderated and not new posts without performing any hacks.
Anyway, ENWorld runs an archive of news items by using vbulletin's syndicator - it shows the 20 most recent news items for each topic. To add one to go with this system create a new page, turn all modules off on that page and point it's custom content at a new template (I used adv_portal_headlines)
The content for us is...
HTML Code:
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="tborder">
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr><td class="tcat" align="center">Headline Summary Page</td></tr>
</table></td></tr></table>
<br />
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="33%" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="tborder">
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">Site News</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=162&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">Software</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=179&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">Community</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=178&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
</td></tr></table></td>
<td width="34%" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="tborder">
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">Official WotC</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=164&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">Books & Novels</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=180&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">Other</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=181&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
</td></tr></table></td>
<td width="33%" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="tborder">
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">D20/OGL</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=163&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">PDF/e-publishing</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=111&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1">
<tr><td align="center" class="thead">Sci-Fi/Fantasy</td></tr>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/external.php?forumids=110&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var max = 10;
if(threads.length < max) max = threads.length;
for(i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
if (threads[i].title.length > 45)
{ threads[i].title = threads[i].title.substring(0, 45) + '...'; }
document.writeln("<tr><td class=\"alt2\"><a href=\"http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=" + threads[i].threadid + "\">" + threads[i].title + "</a></td></tr>");
}
//-->
</script>
</table>
</td></tr></table></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br />
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/news.php?page=syndicate">Click here
to syndicate these headlines</a>.</div>
<br />
Note that there's really not that much fancy going on here if you know HTML. The javascript uses the syndicator to fetch the headlines, and I carefully inserted the classes I wanted into each table row and header to get their colors to display right.
For this to work on your page you have to go to vboptions >> syndication and turn it on, choosing XML syndication. At that point a link will appear in each forum "Syndicate this page" Follow this instructions that appear.
If you need any help just yell.
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