Where is everyone?

This is a simplified, not-very-accurate way of describing why large threads are a problem for the server: Pretend someone picked up a red ball, an orange ball, and a yellow ball, then asked you to recite in what order the balls were picked up. Ok, pretty easy, doesn't take much time or concentration to remember the order and recite it. Now, pretend the same thing happened, but this time instead of 3 balls it was 100 balls. Lots more concentration, lots more time. Whenever someone views this thread we're asking the server to do a 9,000+ ball problem, and when a dozen people are doing it at the same time as hundreds of other members are browsing the forums it really adds up.