Well, first off, welcome. While you're checking things out, be sure to stop by Turnstep's home node. He's collected a lot of useful information about the site and how to use it.

Let me tackle your third question first, for it may help you understand how the main page works. Nodes get voted on by other members and higher level members can "front page" nodes they really like. These appear on the main page and slowly scroll "down" as newer nodes get "front-paged." I'm pretty sure that's why you're seeing older nodes than those that appear in Newest Nodes. (BTW, don't forget that you can show up to two weeks of postings in Newest Nodes.)

For more information on Voting, check here.

The reason the "headlines" don't show all nodes is because not every node gets "front-paged."

As far as adding sections to the main page, I wouldn't mind seeing Tutorials and Reviews added; that might help people find some of the most helpful ones more quickly.

I'm not certain the other sections should be added, though I could see a case for Q&A and possibly Perl News

I think most experienced monks use Newest Nodes to stay abreast of developments in those areas.

If any new sections are added to the main page, I would expect User Settings to support displaying, hiding, and shifting the order of those sections as well.

--f