header has to be replaced ... too big with "nothing to show"; and, a bad font choice
the news layout is poor ... there is nothing there that "grabs" attention ... what's the little image icon about?
"Module Jump" - do you really think the average surfer knows what this means? Is that a dropdown menu on something that should be clearly visible to the visitor?
The only thing on the portal page that works is the LATEST PICS section. I recommend moving this to the top but remove all the crap below it (eg. name, title, comments, etc). The colors and "action" found in these pics convey excitement. This is exactly the kind of mood that you want to create!
Cheers ... made some changes following your recommendations. I never really concentrated much on the portal as put most of time into the forum, not many more hacks I can really do to it now.