I was wondering what a site should have on its frontpage.My site has a forum, articles that i write , user blogs, glossary , and downloads section.
Your front page, or any other page for that matter, should clearly define it's primary goal. What do you want the visitor to do, or what do you expect them to do. Design for that, and help them do that. When looking at a home page, obviously you should have a title/logo, but also include a brief introduction message so visitors immediately understand what your site is about, and then create the content to lead. Here is a old sales technique. You have probably heard of KISS, in keeping it simple, well here is another one. Don't Barf on your customer. Think of it this way, a visitor comes to your site, but can't really figure out what your site is about. They can tell it's tech site, but is it a blog, forum, tip page, what? The can't tell because someone barfed out all of sites content onto the home page, and the new visitor is now stuck looking for the pieces that they want. Who wants to do that? Mop up, put menu's to use, and turn the visitor in the direction you want.