Danny and the PPRuNettes - I don't call myself an IT professional (I manage projects which are embedded systems running on a much smaller scale and take care of the housekeeping on the office Win2k / Exchange server) but have a reasonable appreciation of the subject.
One thought that always struck me as possibly offering a way of reducing the server / DB / bandwidth loading is to consider modifying the way of browsing the forums. I currently tend to go on to a forum and look at threads that have been updated since my last visit. If I read to the last post in a thread and then wish to go to the next updated thread, I tend to select the right yellow arrow at the bottom (or top) of the page. If this is a multi-page thread, then I have to select the last page of the thread (or find out which is the last post that I've already read), so this means that I have to view possibly 2 or more pages until I find the first new post on the thread. The alternative to this is to go to the forum summary page and then select the blue down arrow on that thread; again, this requires an additional page view before I can get to the post I want. Is it feasible for the right arrow to be modified to select the first updated post of the next thread chronologically (ie) to have the same function as the blue down arrow from the summary page? This way, when browsing through the threads, I would only require one page view to see the latest post. I'm finding it tricky to explain what I mean clearly without using graphics, but hope that you can fill in the gaps.
With any luck, if this were possible, it may reduce bandwidth / server requirements as a result of enabling more efficient browsing of the boards.
I trust that will be viewed as a constructive suggestion rather than just a whinge about an excellent free service!