Recent Un-Read/New Stuff

Hi almighty drupalians, I have a question for you:

How do you present new/unread posts to the visitors of the site? Do you only use the 'Recent Comments'-block, or have you found a way to have a part of your page where every user can see the stuff he hasn't seen already. I find the tracker to be a bit ugly and nobody on my page uses it, but I also know that showing all unread items in a block/section isn't usefull either.

So, what is *your* way in dealing with this topic?