Sometimes it feels cluttered, or too much. You've got to make it like Google or better yet iGoogle, very simple and customizable. It's these start home pages like iGoogle, Netvibes, etc. that people want to make their home page. You should make it customizable, allow the user to move stuff around if they do not like it. For instance, some users who like Mahalo Answers would rather see that on top, or the Liveblog on the side.
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the first thing that comes to mind is that it is a site for a travel agency, then once you look at the content it seems like it is not really focused on specific function, it is like Jason is trying to capture all information from every corner from every minute; OVERLOAD!! maybe instead of providing all this information on the home page you can increase the content of mahalo daily and maybe instead of it being daily it could be weekly, a week in review. I like mahalo daily, I think it should get more of a presence on the front page. I think it would be great to do a half hour weekly of a round up of news and also you can do a diggnation style review of q&a from mahalo answers. Scale down the real estate of the live blog, stop the auto refresh of the news items that are there and instead of ten featured items that rotate in each category cut it back to three with no auto refresh. that is what comes to mind right now, I think it is great the people of Mahalo are being pro-active and reaching out to the people who use the site for advice. I look forward to the future of mahalo, I would love a one stop shop for all my information needs. I love the idea of the human driven search engine and I like mahalo daily.
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My really really honest opinion and the promise that I won't get banned? It looks like some kid tried to do SEO with random bits of collected info and failed. That news animation that keeps going on and on it's really annoying. It's simply horrible. The front page doesn't make me click on anything. I wouldn't click even on Mahalo Answers if this was the first time visiting the site. Sorry. :(

My suggestions: don't try to cram in all the info on the first page. Highlight only the most important features. Make Mahalo Answers the "main attraction" of the site. Maybe put some screenshots or a screencast of M.A. on the front page, explaining the features. Don't just drop some info on me, explain what this site is all about! Highlight Mahalo Daily on the front page, put that clip right on top. Liveblog's just horrible, with all those colored labels and stuff, I don't really see the value in it.

So, yeah... I wouldn't follow anything on Mahalo except Mahalo Answers and Mahalo Daily.
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Hi Andy,
I am probably representing a small minority with my explanation of why Mahalo is not my default landing page, but you asked what could be done to get it to be...

I avoid news as much as possible. I know there are news junkies out there. I'm not one. I find the news to focus primarily on the horrible parts of this life. I don't care to hear about the murders, robberies, house fires, corruption, etc.

I want to fill my world with things that lift my spirit. I know that there are good things happening in the world every single minute of every single day. Sadly, dirty laundry sells. (Think TMZ and the Drudge Report)

If I had an option to have only news that showed aloha on Mahalo, I'd be more willing to use the site. However, I won't make anything my launch page when the top news is negative.
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A couple of thoughts.

1. Eliminate Mahalo Features that keep rotating, and the categories. It looks like spam.

2. Slow down the Mahalo News section.

3. Put the ask a question box up top, like the pic I will attatch.
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As everybody has already pointed out, the most annoying feature on the Mahalo front-page is the rapidly changing news articles. To overcome this problem you have two or three options : --

1. Make the " Pause " button bigger

http://i40.tinypic.com/mkunw0.png

2. Do not start the " Slideshow Of News " by default, instead you could display the most popular news item in full, while the other news items can have the title along with images displayed beside them.

Other than that the " Categories" section should also be given an overhaul, in the sense that it is all packed together and is difficult to read. Moreover I do not think that the Category Section has any purpose on the front page, you may be able to tell it better by using some free online software like " Crazy-egg " which tells you which part of a certain page gets most clicked.

The " Live Blog " section is the one part I really like the most, so I definitely feel that section should be kept intact.

I would highly recommend a website " in.com" ( an Indian website) from where you might be able to draw some inspiration as I really feel that this website combines packs the maximum info into the front-page, yet does so keeping the front page clean.
link-- 

http://i40.tinypic.com/5an7fc.gif

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