I think it would be a good idea to put a section on the forums that we can see who is online. I ran forums for another online game for a while and it was nice to be able to see who is online at the moment, where they are looking, and follow where people are responding. The "new post" section is a good idea but it doesn't get rid of the threads after you read them and there are no longer any new posts in them. Hope this helps!