*shrugs*
I guess it depends. I hate portals...but at the same time, I do feel like it's nice to have something up there...I just dont think it's professional for your forums to be the one and only "front page". However, most portals are underused it seems. People put them up there just "because"
I don't know what we're going to do with ours here at AF, but we'll be getting rid of our current front page shortly when we release the new skin...we probably won't be going with something as heavy as Drupal, that we are currently using, but will instead go simple. Just put up a simple page that will tell you where to go for what, and possibly have the latest news/articles there.
I dont know - I say that if you are going to do it, make sure you have good reason and keep maintenance in mind. A portal/front page which is not maintained is no good because it's often the first page your visitors get...one of the reasons we're going to get rid of ours, because I'll honestly say that it's not very attractive