As my final comment on this, the link from posts to users would indeed create a slightly more performance inensive query but the use of a primary key in the users table will dramatically reduce this ... The database 'knows' that the items are listed numerically (becuause it is the primary key) and therefore it 'knows' where to find the items.
Your database sounds impressive! The rows must have been contained massive amounts of data![]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/]
Joins generally don't make programming easier ... especially if they are used properly simply because the table design has to be normalized properly and because the queries themselves are more complex to design. Normalization is a major topic on its own and is the most significant cause of people having problems with relational databases.
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