You may find your answer at how to use the moderation system (available only to Friars or above). To quote vroom from that node:

My general criteria for choosing something to go onto the frontpage.

• Does this impress me?
• Does it display well? Are CODE tags used properly, does it eat up relatively little horizontal and vertical space?
• Overall quality.

I believe the topic "Why to front-page nodes" has be explored at least twice, and many monks have expressed their opinion (use Super Search). Some may do so now.

As for you front-paging too much, I think you do; however, I don't think you're the only one. I've seen a lot of nodes being front-paged lately by newer Monks that I don't think should have been (I don't really want to point any fingers). Now, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I don't think I could have been wrong all the times that I thought, "Why did Monk X front-page this?"

P.S. I think instead of a system where your regular votes are used up to front-page a node, a system where multiple monks have to approve a node for the front-page would be a better quality-control measure. The biggest issue I see is whether we have enough enthusiastic members to support that sort of system, and I'm confident that we do.