Longer "Active topics" list, Tom, please

I'd like to strongly suggest that the "Active forum topics" list on the sidebar be lengthened. My suggestion would be to lengthen it from the most recent 5 active topics to something like the most recent 20 or 25. As it is now, at best, the most recent 5 only reflect what's been contributed to within the past hours, and very often, it shows only what's been discussed within the past hour or less. I'm in the habit now of looking at that list first when I visit Applefritter to see if there's something here of interest for me today, but I know when I look at it there were probably topics which quickly came and went from that list before they came to my attention, so they are lost to me since I'm not going to bother to take the time to check each forum to see what's been going on. 20 or 25 most recent active forums would probably show what had been discussed within the past day and sometimes during slow periods maybe even longer. Since I'm now in the habit of checking Fritter at least once a day, it'd be nice to see a more complete list. The "New forum topics" list also perhaps could be lengthened, but a longer "Active forum topics" list would probably also include most of the new forum topics, so a longer "New forum topics" list would not really be necessary.
Just my suggestion. I see that with your present design a longer list would push the Google ads lower on the page, so I realize there are other important issues in your design that have to be consider as well, and any tweaking in one place can cause problems elsewhere. But a longer list would, I think, stimulate more participation and more traffic and maybe get those visitor counter digits clicking. What d'ya think?