As I said, I was under the impression it shows the posts made in the last 24 hours.
"New Posts" shows posts that have been made since YOU last visited, which would -- hopefully -- obviously require a login to know when you last visited.
"Todays Posts" (under Quick Links) shows the posts from the last 24 hours, but unless I can figure out how to make it anonymously accessible, also requires a login.
I know. Coming from an 8 year old Xoops package to a forums package which encourages you to actually login and participate is WEIRD (/me wishes I had the creepy font for WEIRD) but it's one of the many things you just have to get used to.
Wayne