question about forum design

[Phaelax]

Most web forums will state next to each board how many threads or posts have been been. Would you calculate that with a query for each board to count the number of "post" entries in the table for that board, or simply increment a number in the board table whenever a new thread or post is made? I see advantages and drawbacks to both.

[davidn]

I would imagine storing it somewhere would be faster since it wouldn't require a whole scan/count.