Logician, this is a great hack. However, i will not use it because i am too picky and html must look readable
i know there are many people that like to view the page source, i myself do.
its just a habit by most coders to look at the page source.
you also have to note that 1byte is extremely small, 1,000 bytes is just about 1KB.
there really isn't much you'll be saving, as even a user on 56k would probably not even noticed a difference in 5,000 bytes.
you might save a dollar or two by doing this, but a lot of page source viewers are gonna be like "what a crappy coder"
lol

seriously though, good thought.
i am trying to focus my time in reducing vbulletin queries. that is what kills me.