Suggestion: Add some kind of a notification symbol when there's something new in the new buddy. It could be the number of new items, or it could be an exlamation mark. I don't particularly care what exactly it is, as long as it's easy to notice. It shouldn't be there when someone merely replies in a thread, but it should be there in most other cases. The required information already seems to be in the buddy, so this doesn't sound too difficult.