Drupal 7.x

Sorry for this noobish question, I'm starting with Drupal dev...

I've been trying to figure something about the patches in the issue queue (for Drupal 7 Core), specifically this issue:
http://drupal.org/node/561858

This is supposed to fix the problem of ajax-added elements that do not work as intended (ex: fieldsets are not collapsible), which I am having.

I am wanting to create a module that will give a score for a site developer. There is a similar idea called certifiedtorock.com
I want this module to be able to be installed, add a drupal username and then it track the number of modules, number of nodes, posts, comments, users and much more.
The module will use an algorithm to figure a score for the developer of the site and then that score will be translated back to a website which will rank drupal developers.

First of all, I'm new to Drupal and might have problems with my terminology. However I'm accustomed to CMS's and especially Wordpress so I guess I can communicate my problem accurately.

So, I'm going to build a site in which I'm going to use 8 photos which can be voted up or down. I'm already done with my theme's general design but the problem is how to create the actual voting page. It seems to me that it should be done as a node. I'm going to use Vote-module (and Disqus-discussions) for the actual voting and I want to have 3 voting buttons under every picture in my page.

What is the tool to use? Panels? Am I right that I have to design it in Panels or Pages or similar? I have to reuse the template several times in my site with the same 8 pictures and voting (different voting results) system. I have problems Googling as I'm not familiar with the terminology. Is it called Node theming that I'm doing here? Do I need CSS (I've done the actual theming already with CSS so can I reuse it or is the Drupal-way different)?

Anyway, maybe a picture will show you what I want:

(header and alike, already done and I do not need help)

(the actual content)
[pic] | [pic] | [pic] | [pic] Sidebar
vote vote vote vote
[pic] | [pic] | [pic] | [pic]
vote vote vote vote

(end of content and Disqus)

(footer)

In my current setup, I have a node with type title, body and splash image. When I promote this node to the front page, I only have it show the image. The title and body do not get shown. I want to remove the Read More link (which I understand to be the $links variable), and instead have the image itself be the link back to it's node. I can't seem to figure out how to do this programmatically, and while there are probably workarounds, I'd like to use this as an exercise to learn more about Drupal. So, can someone point me in the right direction on how/where I would do this?

I have the PHP Filter enabled but was wondering if php works differently when you put it inside blocks?

I have been using the following code to make a submenu through my site (until now it's been in page.tpl.php), but it doesn't work when inside a block.

I'm trying to retrieve the value of a CCK node's field (type: image) within my custom template php file.

Having researched it i thought the following would work, but it returns nothing.

$items = field_get_items('node', $node, 'field_csimage'); print $items;

Is there anyone wrong with the code or should it be done in an alternative way?

Thanks