Over time we should be able to streamline this forum, so it doesn't look so "busy" or take so much time to load for you. In the meantime, there are a couple of things you can do yourself.
I find avatars irritating, and they (especially the animated ones, which should be consigned to the lowest circle of Hell) distract one from the content of the message. It turns out you can modify your profile to not show them. Click the profile button, and select "Look and Layout Preferences"; you will see the checkbox you need to check. You can also turn off signatures if you get tired of them.
The top of the forum page contains a lot of boxes of useless information. These can be removed by clicking the little triangular button over on the left. Somehow though, I have the feeling it will still be sent to you even if you don't want to view it, so it probably won't improve performance.
If you click the "Mark as Read" button near the bottom of the page, you will mark as read every topic (thread) in the forum, so make sure that is what you want to do.
Others may want to add tips as they find them.
