Question

I was building a forum website but I could not decide how to create Mysql structure of it. Just like in here, a user asks lots of questions and users answer them many times and none of them is overwriten if they answer more. So, would i create a table for questions and answers table for forum websites. Would not they be overwriten if i create just one table for questions and answers table for each user?

Answer 1

User Table:

user_id (int, auto_increment)
username (varchar)
password (varchar, 32 (md5))
email (varchar (to recover password))

Forum Table:

forum_id (int, auto_increment)
forum_title (varchar)
forum_category (int)

Forum Subcategory:

forum_subcat_id (int, auto_increment)
forum_id (int)
forum_subcat_title (varchar)
forum_subcat_description (text)

Forum Threads:

thread_id (int, auto_increment)
thread_title (varchar)
thread_body (text, regular thread format)
forum_subcategory (int, where it belongs)
posted_by (int, the user that posts the thread)
posted_on (int, timestamp of the time the thread was posted)

Comment Table:

comment_id (int, auto_increment)
comment_body (text, comment text)
thread_id (int)
commented_by (int, user_id)
comment_time (int, timestamp of the time the comment was posted)

just giving you a broad idea what it should look like, of course you can add more features like rating system, polls etc.