Is there a way to make this mod?  I know there is a popular topic mod that is displayed at the bottom of the page but it only has one topic.  It resets every 24 hours which is cool but what I'm looking for is a hot topics (popular topics) where you can choose how many topics are shown and you can add to your portal to the side rather than the bottom.  Choose time when it's updated and how many replies there must be to trigger a hot topic.

Can this be done?

Sure, I've sent you a PM.