I’m in the process of overhauling some things on the site. Here is a list of things that have been done:
1. Avatars have been removed from the front page. It was just a matter of time before this happend. Our news format doesn’t lend itself well to having them.
2. Comments to news items now show up on that news page instead of having to visit the forum to see them. This way you can read comments about the news right from that page. I am working on a way to add posting from there for registered forum members.