The plan is to try out an "On this day in SVR history" link on the main page. However, to avoid either having to wait until I've created a page for every day of the year, or having dead links, I only want it to show the link if the page exists. I think I've got it now. I know there was a problem with the <nowiki>{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} and {{NUMBEROFFILES}}</nowiki> links slowing everything down when I tried them ( {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles and {{NUMBEROFFILES}} photos ,since you ask), but this is only looking for the existence of one page, so hopefully shouldn't make any noticeable difference.
On {{#ifexist:{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}|On [[{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}]]|}} in SVR history.|Nothing happened on {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{#expr: {{CURRENTDAY}} }}}}
{{#ifexist:{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{#expr: {{CURRENTDAY}}-1 }}|On [[{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{#expr: {{CURRENTDAY}}-1 }}]] in SVR history.|Nothing happened on {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{#expr: {{CURRENTDAY}}-1 }}}}