I agree with you. The client-facing code could be better streamlined to reduce overall bandwidth usage, for example. There should be no tables, and all CSS should be in a stylesheet. Just making those two tweaks could save a good deal of bandwidth. Oh, the HR tags could be done in CSS as well.
I just did a quick view source on this page and there are no tables. Each post is within a classed div. PERL is the problem. Now the posting page is indeed in tables, but it’s minimal HTML and shouldn’t cause performance issues. Porting to PHP or JSP would be a very large effort. I’m not sure what DB is used, but that might also be a performance drag.
Otherwise the presentation layer is good overall and simple. Changing the presentation layer would cause a whole lot of grief for users.
Personally, having been here since almost the beginning, I think JimRob, his son, and the rest of the crew do a damn good job, and the rest of us should shut up until and unless they ask our opinions. It’s not like FR is down all that often.
And yes—if you’re not contributing your money to help out with the expense it takes to keep FR up and running, then I think you should do so in whatever amount you can spare.
There is still NO free lunch (unless you are on welfare) and even at that, somebody is paying for all those “free” lunches.
Rant over....