Came over today and noticed the front page has really been cleaned up, no more tons of articles scrolling down the page. I wasnt cookied either, so had to log in. Also, the private messages tab at the bottom of the page has dissapeared. I would appreciate having this back, so I can see if I have new PM's or not. The whole site feels a little stripped, but then maybe I just like it cluttered.
Also, regarding the homepage news posts not showing, that was a glitch that has been fixed.
Regarding the PM tab, we're implementing caching and the PM tab isn't compatible with caching (because it would show a person's cached PM tab to the wrong user). We're not disabling features to gain speed, but this is one that needed to change. If we're able to bring it back, we will, but in the meantime, please click on the "user cp" button and/or enable PM email notification.