I generally "peek" at discussion threads if they show "NEW" in the first page or so of thread titles. That clears the "RED NEW" away from my quick glance to see 'what's new" in that forum.
I ignore "red threads" below the first page unless the title is interesting.
This is why I have a little bit of a "down" on multiple sticky threads in a forum: they fill the whole first page, and there's never anything new on those threads.
I liked the structure better back when most "websites" were "bulletin boards".
You know I'm old if I remember downloading text from bulletin boards with a 300 baud acoustic modem. Ancient history!
Anything like stickies, FAQs, articles or other attached, static files would be in a separate column off to the right, separate from the live discussion threads.
People knew to look over there with the FAQs if they wanted to "research" something.
"Just the FAQs, Ma'am!"
