Suggestions for the database system and message counters.

For this, it is necessary to implement a view that shows the number of messages in sections, similar to how it is done in a specific topic. You click, and you immediately see who is the most active.

This is already an alternative. By the way, on the King's Bounty forum, it was done like this: all posts are counted, but the percentage of useful ones is calculated. This way, the counter is large enough to make the user happy, but it also shows who is who.

haha, the same thing every year, it's fun...

Did I miss something? :)

As an alternative, you could organize a poll, and based on the results, someone could send a private message to the Creator.