Hi,

One thing I'm not sure if you are doing, but is a good idea - is to change the smilies into [img src=""] tags when they are posted to save resources, so you don't have to use the processor as much every single time the thread is displayed.

I know some people will say "what if we turn smilies off later on..." - but it would improve performance a fair bit, and on busy forums you need all the enhancements you can get.
Cheers,
Michael Bray