Any chance you could add the last poster's username for each thread when you are in a forum? Something along the lines of what you have in the main "lobby" area now. "Thread Title (XOC)" That way when you went into a forum you could glance down the list of threads and see who replied last, saving the trouble of trying to remember how many replies there were before (which I never do, so I often click on a link only to find no additions).

I'm assuming you haven't done this because it would slow the board down, but I thought I'd thow it out there anyway.