[suggestion] links in top menu to view replies since last visit

[shaks]

OK, so let's just settle down for a few minutes and consider this:

When you first log into the forums, what do you usually check for? I'm talking about the majority here, meaning the community members. Not from an admin or moderator point of view. IPB is meant for the community first and foremost, so it should enhance and facilitate the abilities of common members to browse around the forum to find what they are looking for. As a member and admin on several forum software, i have realized since a long time now, that there are 2 basic links that are absolutely required and that have to be right there in the top forum menu for easy access:
1. Unread posts since last visit
2. Unread replies to my posts since last visit

These two options are absolutely fundamental from any user perspective, even for admins or moderators. To be able to easily go to what matters the most to the community. People in the community will not go around asking if the admin has checked the ACP today and how many times he checked into the ACP and what he did in there. What matters to the community is the options to make it easier for them to find what responses they're had from others to their posts/topics. This is what makes a community. You post, and you expect that someone else will respond, and then you reply again and it builds up a relationship between you and all the other members.

So, really, IPS you MUST take a look at adding those two basic and fundamental links to the main forum menu. It makes absolutely no sense to have these options hidden into the "View New Content" window. I have to click on it, and then the new page loads, and then i have to scroll further down the page and click on each of these 2 options from the left column: "Topics i participated in" and "Topics i started".
Instead, you should have those 2 highly useful links available from the forum top menu itself and it should stay there for ease of use so that members can check at any time if they have received any replies to any of the topics they created or participated in.

In my opinion, IPB is underestimating some incredibly essential features to make the life of community members easier. I don't want to go through hoops before i'm allowed to do what matters the most. Not everyone has the time or patience to click around. We just want to know if we received any response to our posts and check our private messages. Many members usually have only a few minutes break when at work, and they wolf down their sandwich and this leaves maybe 5 minutes for checking if they received any replies. These are the most fundamental features that a forum should provide to all members. Please consider this and rework your default theme to incorporate these 2 essential links. Thank you.