For what it's worth, I still like the purple, but your suggested icons for 'new' seem fine to me. I vote to go with them.

I only hope the little asterisk is sufficiently visible in the forum list to easily pick out a forum with a new topic. Both the old purple and the current red made it (sometimes painfully ) obvious that there was new content.

Jeff Mason
Custom Apps, Inc.
www.custom-apps.com