Richard, Glad you're enjoying the site and happy to see you here!

The "glue" idea is exactly what we're thinking (have you read the road map?)

We have the user profile & recent changes intergrations your mention on our todo list. As for posts by your friends, if you click on "My friends" on the left menu, you'll see posts by your friends in the right column. There's a lot of places where the UI could probably use some work, so please give us your comments!

Thanks again, Maj