thenewgreen suggested this some time ago. I agree it's not a bad idea if we can make it look nice.To add to this, if this solution was implemented, the only metric still next to the username would be the notifications/full-hubwheel count, so I think it'd be cool to integrate that into the Hubski logo that appears to the left of the username. Have the center circle glow orange if you have unread notifications, and have the outside circles light up (either orange or the lighter blue) to indicate how close you are to a full hubwheel. Along with the little "x 2" next to it to indicate how many full hubwheels you currently have.
For the record, my hubwheel is never not orange. I don't know if I'm unusual in this. I don't necessarily consider this a drawback. I dismiss things as I respond to them, not as I read them - so I don't mind that it's always orange, it lets me know I have things to get back to. I was just wondering if anyone else experienced this variant on functionality, I guess. *Also, it's impossible to access notifications on certain early versions of IE. This is probably a factor too. I have managed to access mail through the profile link, but the orange hubwheel link doesn't work.
If you use the "dismiss all notifications" function in the corner of that page it will cease being orange. Once in a while I have to do it because there's no humanly possible way for me to clear them out one by one.