Here's a GIF animation I made which might shed some light on the load times problems. Even if it doesn't, it's evidence that page-load times are all over the place. The cause for the disparate totals don't seem to be predicated by just one or two elements on the page, but there are a couple that seem to show up several times as delaying the full process.
<br />
<br />Each Adobeforums reload was done using the "Command + Shift + R" shortcut, which is supposed to load all content fresh. I'm not sure what the notation about "
<b>(XX KB from Cache)</b>" is referring to. I also don't understand why the number of items (XX Requests) to be loaded changed.
<br />
<br />The screenshots were taken from the
<a href="http://getfirebug.com/" style="color: teal; text-decoration: underline;">Firebug add-on for Firefox</a> while I was parked on this very thread. The thread was displaying the original thread starter post, plus replies 531 through 545.
<br />
<br />The screenshots were taken between about 8:20am & 8:50am EST.
<br />
<br />One thing I forgot until after I started putting the ImageReady animation together is that I use the AdBlock Plus add-on to block the following two files from loading:
<br />
<pre>
<blockquote>http://www.adobeforums.com/Images/m/ssi/css/header_css.js
<br />http://www.adobeforums.com/css/mac_ns.css</blockquote>
</pre>.But, after I realized this, I disabled AdBlock Plus and allowed them to load. I tried several more "Command + Shift + R" reloads, and it didn't seem to make a difference. Full page-load times still ranged from a low of about 2.8 seconds all the way up to 24.0+ seconds.
<br />
<br />Animation can be seen by going to the uploaded file at Pixentral.
<br />It's 1224pxW × 408pxH; 855 KB.; 4 second delay between frame changes:
<br />
<a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=17oaEWWIQTfBvU1HnPRVrD2CNnZ77" /></a>
<img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/17oaEWWIQTfBvU1HnPRVrD2CNnZ77_thumb.gif" border="0" />