Hi everyone...
A few points..
Avatars? - Absolutely no.. nada.. never! Awful things 
PM? Watch this space.
PM doesn't overload the database. It's a level of functionality that is actually already built in to the forum, we just have it disabled at the moment until we are ready to launch it properly and in a way that works for us.
Quoting works fine as far as we can see. Patrick will have a look at the minor html issue with spacing to see if we can sort that out.
Our forum is big. But not huge. There are plenty bigger as have been pointed out. That's not the point though as we do something with ours (and the rest of the site) that changes things a little and makes direct comparisons with other forums a little more tricky.
We have a membership system - The Premier system. This is not just a simple authentication system where there is effectively a big list on the server that is checked when you login. Our system links your online account to the account we have in our subscriptions database here in the office. That database is itself connected to other databases, like the Spreedly payment system that authenticates card paymens and allows instant access to the Premier functions of the site. There's also our Direct Debit database that as I'm sure you can understand, comes with an enormous raft of legal and technical hoops that have to be jumped through in order for us to be allowed to keep our licence to process - As an example... when we applied for DD BACS status we had to show our office was not in the direct flightpath of an airport and there's even a specification for the types of cupboards we have to use to store DD mandate documents).
Our site is big in terms of other cycling forums - But not huge. It is, however, very complex behind the scenes even though from the front it looks very simple.
Not an excuse though as we are already working on new functions to add to the whole site - like I said, PM is likely to be one of the first you get to play with very soon. The first job that our tech guys have to finish before that happens though is the subscription gift voucher system. This is a system that allows us to issue voucher codes (think iTunes voucher) that can then be redeemed by entering the code into the website. Again, if it weren't for the fact that we also provide a printed magazine this would be a much simpler job to implement - but we have lots of databases talking to each other and it's a bit of a juggle
Hope that gives you a bit more of an insight into how we work on things here
), and I don't really like avatars either - I don't use one (or a sig) on any of the other forums I belong to.
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