Yes, I did make some changes a couple of weeks ago, TRex. So glad somebody's noticed!
The changes weren't actually to the forum software, but to the Chi puzzle software, affecting how often it refreshes the Forum Latest panel. Previously the Forum Latest was updated when you open a different puzzle, but only if it was more than 60 minutes since it was last updated. I've reduced that time period to 10 minutes. The other change was to refresh the Forum Latest whenever the puzzle page becomes visible. This is mainly to cover the situation where a player sees the New icon, clicks on the link to look at the new post, then closes the forum tab to go back to the puzzle. Previously the New symbol would still be there, but now it should disappear.
So the New symbol still won't be appearing instantaneously when somebody posts to the forum, but the display will be kept more up to date for those who spend some time continuously playing Chi, switching occasionally from puzzle to puzzle. The reason for keeping some limitations is, of course, to reduce the risk of system overload.
