Ok, so you’ve got that brand new VB install and you want it to look like the big boys and only show the title in the first (original) post in a thread… Well here’s how you do it.

In postbit_legacy find this…
<if condition="$show['messageicon'] OR $post['title']“>
<!– icon and title –>
<div class=”smallfont”>
<if condition=”$show['messageicon']“><img class=”inlineimg” src=”$post[iconpath]” alt=”$post[icontitle]” border=”0″ /></if>
<if condition=”$post['title']“><strong>$post[title]</strong></if>
</div>
<hr size=”1″ style=”color:$stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]” />
<!– / icon and title –>
</if>

And change it to this…
<if condition="$post['title']“>
<!– icon and title –>
<div class=”smallfont”>
<if condition=”$show['messageicon']“><img class=”inlineimg” src=”$post[iconpath]” alt=”$post[icontitle]” border=”0″ /></if>
<if condition=”$post['title']“><strong>$post[title]</strong></if>
</div>
<hr size=”1″ style=”color:$stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]” />
<!– / icon and title –>
</if>

This along with disabling “Automatically Quote Post / Thread Title” gives me the desired effect.
You can find that option in…
AdminCP > vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Message Posting & Editing Options > Automatically Quote Post / Thread Title