Suggestions for front page

I'm considering redoing the index page so that instead of just a list of the forums there is a little more information there.  Originally I was thinking something like WebMasterWorld.com where there is a list of current topics with the boards on the right.  But the more I think of it, the more I think should be done.

So here's a short list of things that I think would be good on the home page, and I'd like to get any and all opinions about them before I actually start coding it. 

1 - Either a "featured image of the week" or a rotation of images from what's been uploaded.  My concern is that someone might not want their image on the home page, but I assume that if you're putting it in a post it's relatively fair game to post elsewhere on the site.  Of course it would include the photographer's name and link to the actual post.

2 - Links to popular posts or those that stand out as great.  Even with the relatively low post count we have on this forum, there is a lot of really good content. The hard part, and this is true of most forums, is for people to find it. 

Since y'all are the ones using the site, I'd like your opinions on the ideas above along with any other suggestions you may have.  After all, it's not much of a community if the community doesn't have a say. 

How about images that are graded above average being the "Front" page? Images that have Ed's stamp of approval.

I like your ideas.

In my knack of underestimating how long a project will take, I decided to go ahead and redo the entire theme instead of just the home page.  I've been wanting to for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it.  The default SMF theme is just too boring.  Once all is said and done it will look much better, but it's going to take me a while. 

In the meantime, I'm open to any other thoughts y'all have on the functioning of this forum.  I can't fix everything, but if there's some little issue that's been bugging you let me know and I'll see what I can do. 

Here's a little teaser.  I'm working on getting the rest of the pages themed to match, so there's still some time before it goes live.

It's on my development server, so it's not as full as it'll be once it's uploaded here.  The 15 threads with most recent activity will be under the Recent Topics header instead of the 5 that are in the screenshot and of course all of the forums will be listed on the right instead of the 4 that are there.