Isn't the forum part of this site which is originally where you guys pulled this layout from?
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php
Or once you have the forum you can choose to do your own updates and fixes?
What did the new update include any new features?
It's originally downloaded from that site and it's open source, they don't force you to update they just notify in administration what updates are available and you can decide if/when/what you want to update,
In minor releases they don't break anything or add anything major, usually it would be security patches and bug fixes.
Loads much faster on my slow device, will see if it's the update or by chance could be I have better service.
Lets if the issue with posts being marked as new was resolved,
Thanks
@BAHayman