what's "recount all forums totals" and "optimize db"?(was member counter stuck)

[luiscamino]

YaBB SE Version: 1.5.4
PHP Version:
MySQL Version:
Server Platform:
Link to Forum: foro.clubsonyericsson.com

Problem Description:
forum homepage, yabbse stats: "last member" and "total members" are stuck since i created the forum and restored the database. if i go to "more stats" the number of total members and last member is correct, but the other counter is stuck on a member and would not show new members.

perhaps it's a code problem? i'm using the template i used in 1.4.1. is there any problem with that? i've thought that perhaps some 1.5.4 features have dissapeared if i use the old template. for example, is the "solved" button i can see in this forum available for everyone? (i mean, i can't find it in my forum).

[Shadow's Pawn]

Have you clicked "recount all board totals" in the admin center yet?

[luiscamino]

no, what's that for? it's now working apparently. i guess it was some server caching problem.

but now that you mention it, what's the "recount all forums totals" thing for? does it delete anything? is it good for the database integrity or something?

and "optimize database"?

[Shadow's Pawn]

"Recount all board totals" simply recounts your membership, topics, posts, etc etc..  if you are moving topics around a lot, or if you restore your database, you often have to recount, since all that info is stored somewhere rather than being updated on the fly whenever you move something.

Optimize database executes a command which is also accessible from phpmyadmin.. basically it optimizes your database.  I guess you could think of it kind of like defragmenting your hard drive.. if that helps you visualize it at all.

You should optimize probably every day or two, depending on your forum size.

[luiscamino]

understood about the optimize. i guess i should optimize my 18mb database a couple of times a week.

but i think i still don't know what you mean with "recount". recount or re-count? i mean, it SHOWS stuff or it RESETS stuff? well, i mean, i'm not going to lose any messages, members, stats, etc., am i?

[Shadow's Pawn]

No.. it doesn't alter any posts or anything, so you can't lose any posts.  All it does is recount all your posts, topics, etc.
What your board displays as your number of topics, members, and amount of posts is not counted up every time the page is displayed.  Rather, it is reading the totals from somewhere in the database..  so, when you delete something, move something, it doesn't always update the total, so sometimes you must click "recount" so that it will check over how many posts you have, etc etc, and then update the totals to reflect what is actually there.