Most forums are designed so that you have a graphical indication if there are new messages. This is not something I used for Lotsofkids, but when we went to switch our Bitmap World forum over, I realized it was a big issue. Our readers use that to easily peek in for new messages. This is important since the BMW forum is on the slow side, so quickly seeing if there is something new is important. I was going to have Jim simply hack the template we were using to add that, but then I thought it would be helpful if we did it as a module so others could enjoy that functionality.

This was a module Jim and I really worked on as a team. We hashed out the best way to do it and got into some nitty-gritty discussions. While I’m not a programmer, I do have a good working knowledge of coding which helps a lot when Jim needs to hammer out a problem. We’re both happy with the end product.

You can download the module from the Phorum website HERE.

Below are screenshots of the module. Click for a larger version. Note the icons shown in the screenshots are the custom icons we use on all our sites. The default images are the Silk icons which come with Phorum. We do have some additional icons that are bundled with the module so you can change them.

Classic Emerald:

Scriptmonkeys Template (Camo):