Now that this feature has had a bit of time to simmer, I'll say that I like the idea but I think it can be improved. I browse the site by clicking 'Recent Discussion' and opening all of the threads with unread posts in separate tabs. With this feature, the top threads on that page are the stickied ones even if the most recent post is days or weeks old. A decent compromise might be to emulate tftv's 'Upcoming Events' box. The posts there are highlighted by virtue of having their own main-page section, but the threads will only appear at the top of Recent Discussion if there has been a new post. In other words, rename the box something like 'Latest Coverage' and remove the sticky functionality.