but it is possible to run large boards on a flat-file based system without many problems
umm... no. flat file based stuff is not scalable because most (all?) of the software using this kind of db, does not implement a sophisticated filesystem. Also there is a possibility to reach a # of files in a directory limit in shared hostings ith too many members etc. A database removes these kind of problems. Even if you have your own vps/machine and use a flat file system on a very busy site, you'll experience huge slowdowns related to too much disk access. Even DB_File will be better than a hand crafted flat file db.
in many cases database backed systems perform better
I think it's better in every case unless you have only 10 users.

In reply to Re^4: Perl based forum code that has good API by Burak
in thread Perl based forum code that has good API by datamonk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.