There are also "NEWS IMAGES"
Choosing a News Image will allow this topic to display on the Forum Portal, regardless of it being within a News Forum. This ignores user groups. Anyone will be able to read this post regardless of their group permissions.
Only the first post will be displayed on the Forum Portal. To read its replies or download its attachments, users must belong to a group which allows those permissions for which forum the post is located within.
Control Panel > Images & Icons > News Images
Control Panel > Forum > Forum Permissions | Can Create Portal News
But this is more of a news-centric related option. Check it out. It may actually be something you might find useful.
And example of these in use are the "Coffee Cup" and the "Dev" displayed on the UBBDev.com portal page here -
https://ubbdev.com