I thought the graphics were fine, but I was confused about the purpose at first. Seed it with a wide range of interesting stuff, I almost found something interesting (not the armpit licking) and the map mashup was good, but wrong city for tonight. I'd work on seeding, filtering and showing connections before I'd worry about the 'sheen'.
Hmm, a points system for new things, how cool/hard/prestigous and and points for doing one. But then be careful to moderate dangerous options. Hmmm, yea, lost an arm, but whoa I got a lot of points... Don't wanna see that comment in your forum, eh?