Admins,
Quick thought about a way to improve the forums. For frequent users, this won’t matter. But, when posting is slow in a given section, the page slowly shows fewer and fewer posts as the older posts age. If it is possible to get at the query, adjust it to pull a minimum number of posts, e.g. a page or two (20-30). Then, when the page is generated it wouldn’t be empty.
Just a quick thought.