Top Page Redesign

In my eyes, the top page is looking to be a mess. One of the challenges of web design is to cater for first time visitors and regular readers.
Regular readers know what they want and there is probably a load of stuff they dont want to see on the top page.
Stuffing a ton of content down new visitors throats is not a good thing too so I plan to make it so that the first time visitor only sees a certain amount of info. The "member news" and "currently read articles" probably does not make sense to the new reader. I would surface these features to them after they have visited for a while.

This is why I'm going to introduce a personalized top page where you can choose what you want to show up.
At the moment you can choose to hide widgets but they still load with the page - they are only hidden.

Im thinking of having 5 columns that show my news items, member news items, articles, latest comments and puchi blurbs. That way you will be able to see at a glance whats going on throughout the site. You can remove any of the columns etc.

Before I proceed however, I need your feedback as to what you dont use (for example "currently read articles, japan news etc), and what do you read all the time. Would also like to know what gets on your nut about the top page and navigation in general. Please be brutal with your feedback as that will help me build better for you.

Forgot to mention that the new personalized page will show your inbox too - the member to member messaging that Im designing now.