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CPB sez: Basically, I want the Recent Comments to be right near the top and the Recent Posts just a little bit further down without much need for scrolling.
Agreed. My own perfect world would have (1) a very functional comments chat-index and (2) the beginning of the Recent Posts visible above the fold.
As you note, Wolfy accomplished this neatly at detectovision.com. I did love the bang-for-the-buck, the functionality in a tiny space, that Wolfy's little Groks widget delivered.
Still working everything. ... for all that, it is interesting functionality to look at a thread and be able to scan the conversation from the front page. Flame war? Breaking news? Big-name player discussed? You can tell without a click.