The featured thread and forum widgets have been reworked. The select dropdown is populated with information pulled from a model rather than from a direct query to the database. The parsing of the featured thread has also been changed.
Several div tags were added so that the overall look of the widget entry may be changed. Links are dynamically built to the thread, to the author, and via the read more link.
The length of the entry is based on the RSS option in XenForo.
I opted not to show an image, thumbnail or full attachment.