I figured this feature would be a bit more system intensive then anything I've done so far. I already do an UPDATE for thread count just for viewing the thread (though all forums do that I can only presume) though you guys have already discussed as I'm writing this there are ways to get around writing this all at once however for now I think the massive reduction in regex in Version 2.8 will compensate for the increase in write based MySQL queries in Version 2.9 of my site with the forums; they're not going to be all that active initially plus I can always add this on to my to-do list...I just gotta get this 16 months in the works version
live. Adding a SELECT and an INSERT or UPDATE for everything thread/user makes me question a lot of things in general but I'm making progress and I know I have a bit of breathing room right now. I think though that by the time the size of the numbers being stored starts being comparative to date/time stamps that 1.) I will be able to hire a super genius to implement something better if I really wanted (or may even become one or enough of one to do it myself haha) and 2.) it's not as if web servers are never upgraded.
Josh...I always put any sort of id's like that. I can write stuff how a company prefers if desired though I find my own way of doing things to make more sense...at least for me. Yeah yeah...I admit it I'm an oddball with a lot of stuff.
I've already implemented the read aspects (and for my own user account related forum_id_count's) and it works nicely. I know it's a bit of a stretch to say that when I implement my own site-direct way off managing forums that it will require an ALTER command for the forum_forums_read table to add a column per forum though since it's so rare I figured until I find a better way...my forums won't be all that active any way and at worst it'll just show all threads in a new forum (which would of course be 0) as already read. I think it'd probably be best to disable the forum while it executes such a feature...that would be a while from now though...plus I will implement a "Mark forum as read" feature any way. I'll figure it out as I go along.
I think I've noticed something with phpBB where it will update the counts if you manually refresh a the thread index though it won't if you click to go to the thread index page (of a forum). Like I said...I'm just trying to get the basic feature working (doing a decent job at it so far) for now. I wrote the blog and forum software last November and December respectively and ended up revising the MySQL queries (the blog originally spawned dozens of queries and now only does one for /blog/ page). I'll go with my current approach for now, because after all I'll need
something to do with the future versions of my site right?

I think the with date/time stamp feature I might miss posts where as with this feature I definitely won't (provided it's not bugged though I test the heck out of my stuff). Once my filters become much stronger and I get some mods it'll be less important to cover every post though I'm still interested in things conceptually speaking. Thanks for all the input!
