How difficult would it be .. (First Post on Threadbit)

[merk]

I have made a simple index.php page (vbulletins index.php -> forumhome.php) which achieves basically what you want.

http://www.ozfortress.com/ - pulled from a single forums you specify, it is run through the postbit class, and treated just like a post (which you could then run some kind of string limiting / cutting function over it) and inserts it into a custom postbit template (newsbit iirc).

Are you interested?