Magazine Mode? Posting bug?

Hi, Sorry I’m too much of a newbie, couldn’t figure out how to add a new post to your Feedback thread.
Anyway, I’m really interested in buying Platform Pro after having tested the framework and being pretty happy with my first site ever. I’m still hovering on the decision to buy because once again, WordPress released an update and now my latest post won’t include the thumbnail on the front “Blog” page like all the rest of the posts have. It makes it look really crappy without a thumbnail. And I don’t know why it stopped working so can’t fix it.
My next question is, I notice there is an option for thumbnails in the settings file where post clips will appear with thumbnails. It says Magazine Mode in parentheses and I do have that option checked. What I’m wondering is where to configure the Magazine Mode? I looked in Docs and couldn’t find anything about Magazine Mode anywhere.
What I’d really like to do is have the ability to create a clip grid of thumbnails on my Home page similar to what I’ve seen on other magazine style themes. Overall, Platform has come closest to what I’m looking for in a theme over all the other magazine style themes. The only problem I’m not clear with is if I buy Platform Pro I don’t know whether I’ll have the ability to customize my home page so that my posting clips appear in the way I’d like them to.
I will try out the test version of Pro you recommended to me earlier to see what I can find out. In the meantime, I’m hoping that my problem with the freebie WP version – post clip on first page won’t show thumbnail – can be fixed so that my front page looks OK again.