I have thought about that. Do you think it would bother folks that they would have to scroll down to see the active threads?
Well, I haven't been around much, so I don't know what my 2-cents counts for (maybe 2-cents??) but it'd bother me... Well, I don't know that "bother" is right, but I like the threads/forums featured up top., and wouldn't want to scroll... I think people come for the forum participation, and having the forums most prominent is most important. I think that's what TOL's about.
Does the front page news rotate enough that it'd be the top feature? It seems that it's more a steady, hard-hitting message that stays for a while rather than being a news thing to regularly check into. And it's still right there on the front page. It doesn't get lost.
But I generally immediately click on Forums > and navigate to the - "politics, religion, other" - that I feel like browsing. I kind of bypass the front page.
If it were up top, maybe you want to make TOL more a news-ish site on the front page? Voice opinion TOL more. But you might run the risk of TOL coming across as even more one-sided, and maybe dissuade folks from participating? I dunno. I think that the discussion is by far the strongest, most identifying, unique and drawing thing at TOL, and ought to be featured up top. It's the differentiator. There are plenty of places to go for "news" or a more one-sided opinion. And it's not as if the TOL viewpoint gets lost... It's very prominent and I think always will be. I always see the front page news, and I will always notice and have a look if it's changed. But I don't think I would ever "tune in" to TOL for that... To me, it's about the threads/forums. But that's me and I'm sure many people would tune in for that.
Anyway. 2-cents.