Fantastic noppid !
As for the choice, can it be made a vbulletin setting ? ( 'Store images in DB or in File System' for e.g )
But this would probably mean quite a bit of duplicated code in the script, one for DB, the other for file system ?
I am not too concerned about where the images are placed ( as in, if members are able to access them directly ), after all, it is to showcase their images.
I am not familiar with GZcompress, so I do not know what overheads may be present. But as long as it possibly speeds things up, I'm all for it
Keep up the good work mate !