MOD ideas for enhancing the users participation

[outofsync]

In our board, we use to have threads with high participation. As a consecuence, most users forget to look in the Gallery and so they miss new images or new image comments (btw, we've personal albums only).

I was thinking in modifying the main board index, so that it has some label or icon showing that there's a new image and/or a new comment in the Gallery since the last user visit, so that nobody misses new stuff from the personal albums.

Anybody has some suggestion about what would be the most elegant (and simple) way of doing this MOD? I somehow believe that the preferred way would be to use the standard phpBB icons (blue/red), one for images, and another one for comments, but if anybody has a suggestion (or an idea or code snippet for a straightforward way of doing this, please tell!!)

Btw, I tried to use the "Show gallery as album on main index" feature, but the icon is always blue, no matter if a new image is posted in a personal album. Also, new comments don't affect the icon.

Thanks!!