I like the keep it simple idea.

Here's a vague idea that's maybe not that different to some suggestions already made (& maybe not that different to current home page)

Homepage -
centre is a question mark and/or the question "What is dc?"
think of it then like a circle/oval with different segments linking to different pages

• Forum (maybe with some additional info)
• Coding snacks [looking to get something made?]
• Software
• Reviews and mini-reviews (I dont actually know where the reviews are...)

and maybe more info further down the page.

I notice as a non-member on the forum page, there'S no ability to see the most recent post - no, that's untrue - but maybe it should be moved up to the top of the page ?? or better still, a prominent link towards the top of the page that will display a fuller list of the most recent posts.

Actually that's where the "mini" reviews are.
The larger reviews are here:

centre is a question mark and/or the question "What is dc?"

or possibly "What do you want from DC?"

"Linux" has this problem -- info is scattered all over. So now two sites seek to delimit some of the news throughout the week:

The Linux User & Developer Daily [LUD] (I like this easy-to-follow design)
http://paper.li/LinuxUserMag

Linux for You Magazine (this one is busier, noisier)
http://www.linuxforu.com/

Neither is by no means complete. Mostly highlights and news makers.
______________
*Thanks to Stephen below for the correction!

Personally I think a long list of questions people need to match their needs/interests to is going to turn people off quickly. Likewise any lengthy text explanation of what DC is/does. Like it or not we're still subject to the laws of marketing and attention getting here. So I think we should focus on something that is both eye-catching and informative, something that invites exploration and gives a quick overview, a jumping-off point for more info and exploration.

With that in mind I think something like a "news fader" might be a good approach, obviously customized to DCs needs. Here's a good example:
http://demo.joomlaworks.gr/
With that kind of system, you would come up short titles/text that represent each thing DC does, and eye-catching visuals to represent them (maybe Cody graphics?). Each one links to a section of the site. The currently showing/featured one (they rotate automatically) gives the most info, but you also have the benefit of a quick overview from reading the titles and seeing the image thumbnails on the side. It seems like the best of both worlds to me.

I think a site-wide "news roll" (automatically updated one hopes, maybe with feeds from forums, coding snacks, etc.) would be a good complement to the above for less frequent visitors who have already been here before and know what DC is and just want to keep updated infrequently. All content on this page should have RSS feeds of course.

- Oshyan

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Not saying this should be how DC looks (color scheme and forum scheme seems too radical a jump) but this is how I perceive the generic landing page should be.

Edit: err...by color scheme, I don't mean white but more like DC's look doesn't really match with the flashiness of most sites with cover flow

Yeah, it's a cover flow but it was more like it's the only choice available in the trial of Balsamiq Mock-ups that isn't a static page besides a big huge center video. (that I know at least functions in reality)

I personally wanted to add something I haven't seen before like an interactive Circle Dock but I don't know if that's something that would load and look just as good in a web page.

The list though, I hadn't thought of it functioning like a control for the cover flow. When I made that, I was thinking something more like those mini-rss feeds with sub-headers that show the latest threads in the forum.

^+1

FWIW and related to the discussions/criticisms related to this year's fundraiser as well as this thread, I'd just like to say that one thing I do love about DonationCoder.com as it is today is that it's different from anything else on the net. The forum is friendly and the donation spirit is unique. I certainly wouldn't have donated as much to miscellaneous software authors (and other, non-software related people and organizations) if it weren't for DonationCoder.com. Maybe that makes me a so-called fanboy, but I take that as a compliment. I'm a DonationCoder.com fan, so please don't change too much