Well, it's neat, but if you keep them, I would 
change the time to much less.  Maybe use a little 
star instead of the word 'new'?  Or you can use a 
little anime icon too!  That would be cool ~_^.  
In 12 hours this place sees an aweful lot of 
action.  Id make it to stay like 4 or 5 hours.  
But, JMHO ^_^  Since the board recieves so many 
new messages already, it tends to get really 
crowded sometimes, like when rants or fights 
happen.  So, if you think about that, youd have 
like a huge thread of messages, all with small 
icons on them.  Would it affect the loading time 
at all?  Im no techie so Im numb about these 
things.  I like it just plain myself tho :)