I loved the new thread view page and avatars there, however it may be confusing for users. How about to add read-unread icons? Please check example images below;
I don't like this idea... It adds too much extra to the page... A suggestion that is floating around is that the avatar's become faded or even grey scaled when the thread it read... However I am almost sure you would be able to add this to the template system manually.
But it is only an additional indicator, the thread title is bold/un-bold as standard so doesn't really need additional identifiers but the profile pic being faded/greyscaled or anything else would add just that for you...
Preferably, instead of a start I'd rather have a little paper with a shine mark on it or something. Maybe it's just me but seeing a start did not automatically associate it with new posts right away.
Personally I find the vb statusicon system to be a less than useful bit of clutter. Most folks have no clue what they mean, and making site specific icons is a nightmare for graphic designers when there are sooooo many different values .
Almost everyone on the internet is familiar with the darkened/non-bold text indicating something old that they have seen, I tend to think that relying on that existing schema (in the psychology sense of the word schema, rather than the DB sense) is a better bet. It also has the side effect of being cleaner, less cluttered and producing faster loading pages .
Obviously YMMV widely though, so as long as it's easily turned off whatever floats your boat is cool.
Maybe for "you posted" the title could become Italic? Not sure if that was mentioned or a good idea worth a look I suppose. Referring to the thread display area this would be applied to.