Suggestions for the database system and message counters.

Yeah, TES, Allods, Mass Effect... I'm saying that our website has long ceased to be solely about Heroes. While we may not be as multi-themed as ag, the laws of this very multi-thematic approach apply to us to some extent. Fact: not all newcomers who visit our website come here because of Heroes. In my opinion, this is enough to not talk about our forum strictly as a Heroes resource.
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By the way, if we summarize the newcomers who don't just come for a day, just to ask one question and then never log in again, the Mafia section easily outperforms many Heroes sections, and that's also an indicator.

Well, yes, it's flooding, but it's about computer games, unlike the Mafia. And if the Hive is moving towards expansion, that's good, but if that was the plan all along, it won't become flooding later...
In my opinion, the ideal solution would be to introduce a separate counter for each section (the section only displays its own counter), but that's complicated, so it's better to enable the counter everywhere. When a forum ceases to be narrowly focused, the counters no longer reflect the real authority of a forum member, but only reflect activity, and not very accurately (when moving from section to section).
Therefore, I see three solutions, which I would rank in order of priority according to my IMHO:
1) Separate counter everywhere (the section only displays its own counter);
2) General counter (enable everywhere);
3) And only then, disable the counter in the Mafia...

However, if there are ranks with names that correspond to the sections, then all of this is unnecessary