Advise on making a forum

[graham23s]

Hi Guys,

 

i already have made a basic forum (nothing as advances as theses ones lol) essentially message boards the mysql schema i used before was:

 

CREATE TABLE `forum_sections` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `subject` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `description` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `last_poster` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=6 ;

CREATE TABLE `forum_topics` (
  `id` int(10) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `topic_id` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `topic_name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `topic_body` text NOT NULL,
  `user_id` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `date_added` datetime NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
  `views` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `replies` int(10) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=42 ;

CREATE TABLE `forum_posts` (
  `id` int(10) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `topic_id` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `topic_post_id` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `user_id` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `date_added` datetime NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
  `post_body` text NOT NULL,
  `edited_by` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `edit_date` datetime NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=33 ;

 

i can't help think it was to clumsy lookin can anyone give me an idea on the best way to do it probably half the things i have here arent even needed.

 

thanks guys

 

Graham