All forum pages are subject to view caching, as well as front-end caching (Varnish). this means that any personalized action element (buttons, "Hello <name>" type of things) must work around the two cache layers. We achieve this using Ajax/Javascript. This allows for having very good load-time performances on the forum pages, and opens for personalized actions.
Hope this helps ! Cheers,
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Nicolas Pastorino
Director Community - eZ
Member of the Community Project Board