Suggestions for the database system and message counters.

For example, when I visit an unfamiliar forum for the first time, I see various users with different numbers of posts, and I can only roughly estimate who is most active.

It's hard to spot me here and there because I mostly post in the off-topic section, just like many other off-topic posters. They rarely visit other threads, and it's unlikely that newcomers will write to them for any reason. Therefore, their messages don't play any role, so why even talk about it? Just ignore it.
Over all these years, very few newcomers have written to me in private messages. If they did, it was mostly to suggest playing a game. Maybe only once did someone ask me a question about the game, and I answered. And is it worth introducing changes for such rare occasions, which won't help at all but will only satisfy someone's ego? Lol. Just write to the Creator directly.