I think you are underestimating flat-file boards. I know that the YaBB 2 development team spent an incredible amount of time working to speed the thing up, and have done a very good job.

Database systems still have to access the disk at some point. They still store files on the hard drive. There are obvious differences with how they work, but it is not fair to just make a blanket statement that software based on a flat-file system is not scalable. Furthermore, assuming that sophisticated techniques are required to speed things up is preposterous. I don't think I've seen a single YaBB user complain about having too many files in a single directory.

In reply to Re^5: Perl based forum code that has good API by assemble
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.