Since we are aiding the cash flow here by seeing way more ad content, perhaps we could expect to see a few more widgets that help us create better posts and comments?

Such as:
Preview/Edit.
Consistent HTML scheme.
Either post tracking or topic subdivisions.

Aiding the community in general and in continuing conversation would be a list of registered users, not only lists of active posts.

Internal messaging, maybe?

The advertised widget is a cute box that displays compactly the guest-contributor headlines and articles. Subscribing to the reader-blog feed gives the last 15 posts. Neither function is really different than simply being here.

Since this is a work in progress we're willing to wait a while. When Andrew or Josh post updates on the work we find our confidence renewed. A sense of what we're waiting for would be appreciated.

TPN remains unique, I feel, in its tone and structure. Certainly it's where I joined the blogging party, so I'm biased. I have just tonight been looking at recovered posts from two years ago. Topics were as varied as a substantial bookstore's non-fiction shelf. Even if I spent most of my time at the Cafe pages, and looking down-thread where no ads showed, I usually started at the front page. Now that we have ads in every possible page-display arrangement, and highlighted ads in strategic places like between blog post and comments, it's fair to ask for at least some of the former functionality.

And it wouldn't it be gentlemanly to not only display a ad for Arianna's book, but link to HuffPo on the front page?