@box said:
Have a look at this thread, it was the first I noticed it on and it's mostly links to articles rather than image servers.
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=51084
Thank you Box for the link. This page you linked, contains about 5,147 KB data compared to the page where this post is written contains about 818 KB. The other page also initiates 122 http requests to several servers. If any of those servers are overloaded that delays the rendering of the whole page.
Let's make a quick calculation: Let's say we're on an average internet connection with an average download speed of 250 KB/sec. Only for the data content of that page to be downloaded takes 20 seconds at such an average connection. And we haven't yet spoken about the delays what are caused by the http requests and about the slower servers.
Of course there are possible solutions to improve the situation. I'll try to find the most effective one. But IMO the pbhpBB software is not designed to link hundred images per topic page...
One possible solution could be to reduce the number of posts per page in topics wehere the number of image links grow above a limit... Opinion about this?
Now I see your other post and yes, an other possible solution could be to display place-holder images in case of outer links....