>All that's fine for the few number of users who will click those links in that widget from another site, but when I am already on your site I click a link in that widget and it takes me to another instanance of the Home page in a separate browser window, well, that's just a misleading link on a page, and poor user experience.

I might as well just disable the link on the thread items in the widget. That will resolve it. There is already a link to go to the Universal Thread from the top.