When I first joined Tap, I honestly thought that Popular section were like... licensed comics that they constantly had to advertise cause it was making them money/they owed the artists... along those lines, cause I didn't understand how this community worked and I was brand new like I said. That being said, I thought that because I saw the exact same comics there every day I came to check Tap. Every. Single. Day.
The Daily Snack has to be my biggest suggestion to change though. I think there was a option to turn it off, and I was one of those people who eventually did. And the simple reason why was because it was the same comics set up for my daily snack everyday. I've maybe subscribed to 3 comics that aren't under "Popular" from the Daily Snack before I turned it off.
I don't expect to get much, if anything over a few seconds of exposure from having a "Fresh" section displayed on the front page. But I think it would keep the front page more "fresh" if it had a bar that was 100% guaranteed to change every minute or so. it's definitely my favorite area to look at.... As Riko had suggested, and I bet it's not an easy thing to accomplish overnight... but if customizing your own personal view of the front page was possible, that would be magnificent.
*And I notice as I type this all the new messages popping up are on a totally different topic now.... XD