Need i add more? 
It is usually pretty slow, the worst time being mid-day in the Western Hemisphere. I’ve become very good at Freecell.
Jeez, i hear ya. Im a n00b and i have seen this forum die on numerous occassions…makes it pretty tough to become and oldB.
Make that another Free Cell devotee for when things aren’t as fast as they could be.
Delays are in minutes this time of day. Early morning here it’s much quicker.
Is this why they dont allow avitars? 
BTW, im assuming they dont as i havent seen a single avitar yet.
Avitar? I saw something about them but don’t have the vaguest what they even are.
SDMB has disabled many functions of the basic vBulletin options, for various reasons.
I try not to look a gift horse in the face.
Since this is a question about this message board, I’ll move this thread to ATMB.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Move it? Heck, why not close it? 
Don’t feel too bad, homercles. It was about time for someone to ask why the board is slow. Thank goodness you stepped up to the plate!
By the way, we use this question to help tell the new people from the old people.
So, how about at least answering my Q about the avitars?
homercles, questions about the message board always go in the About This Message Board forum, even if they’re General Questions.
An avatar is a picture underneath your username. I’d imagine if everyone had those it’d slow it down quite a bit more.
Ah, yes, the old learned helplessness issue. Sorry, i guess i have been spending too much time on boards that are optimized for usage…
Well, if my post was OT, why didnt the mod at least answer it while simultaneoulsy moving the thread?
A avatar is an icon you can have placed beneath your username. An example of a board with avatars is here. Note it is not a vBulletin board, but a similar one. I don’t know any vB boards with this feature turned on off the top of my head.
Thanks, Q.E.D., for the link and the def/picture. I can see how the hamsters would love to nibble on avatars!
This board is provided free of charge by the Chicago Reader, and it’s costing them a fair chunk of change in bandwidth and whatnot as time goes by. I’m happy to have it at all, even if it’s not “optimized”. And, yes, just about all the special features of the software, including avatars, are turned off to conserve bandwidth or to limit liability.
Gotcha, grazie!
To QED: here’s a free forum that has enabled all opts of vBulletin. ALthough they do limit avatars to 60x60 pixels.
I think the Avatars are partially a bandwidth issue, and partially the “a few people ruin it for the rest of us” with inappropriate avatars, etc. I can’t say I’m sad, I don’t really think they’re that useful anyway.
Well, he would know better than I would, but I can speculate. Since it was an ATMB question, maybe he felt more comfortable letting an administrator answer it.
By the way, avatars can be nifty on small boards; they can be creative descriptions of the member, for example. See The Unaboard.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103503
First post in the thread entitled “FAQ - technical issues - please read this BEFORE posting a question”