You know at 1st I did not like it, as it took up more space down the page so I have to scroll down much more to see all the recent topics(instead of all fitting on the main screen). I'm OK with the category added but what I really like is that now it goes to the last viewed page instead of always going to the 1st page(that was the thing I hated the most).
I still think we could do w/o the author, so it would not take up as much space up and down/scrolling. Personally since once you see it the author never changes, if we had to have something there, I would much rather see the last poster then the author.